Warning against the blame-game amid the terror attacks in Mumbai, the Pakistani media on Friday said Islamabad should not be held responsible for the carnage in India’s financial hub and the peace process should not be allowed to derail.

In editorials that condemned the attacks, the country’s leading dailies cautioned that any indulgence in the blame-game would hamper the ongoing efforts to normalise relations between the two countries.

“India gives Pakistan a dirty look,” said a headline in the Daily News, while another paper said Indian intelligence was under fire and seeking to lay the blame elsewhere. However, the tenor of the Daily Times was moderate as it said that both India and Pakistan faced the same threat of terrorism and needed to work out a “cooperative strategy”.

Unfortunately, it said, this is made nearly impossible by domestic political compulsions and a desire for point scoring among political parties.

“Ongoing investigations into some terrorist attacks that were alternatively blamed on Indian Muslims and Pakistan have shown they were actually carried out by Hindu terrorist networks,” the paper said.

The Dawn counselled that the two countries “without apportioning blame on each other should cooperate in the investigation to make them productive”. “Although one can understand the anger and concern which is widely felt, one would still advice the exercise of restraint in this hour of crisis,” the paper said.

“The loss of more than a hundred lives and injuries to many more is as despicable an act as is humanly conceivable in any circumstances. The daredevil approach and the literal capture of city landmarks also indicate how well entrenched the militants have got over the years,” the Dawn said.

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