On December 22, Daily Times referred to a TV channel and quoted Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi as saying: “Lashkar-e-Tayyaba was operating in the guise of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Pakistan would have been isolated if it had not been banned.” Contradicting himself, he added: “No religious organisation, including the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, was involved in terrorist activities.”

Taking a cue from the BBC, Daily Times highlighted a grave error on the part of the Mumbai police that could have possibly escalated the death toll of the Mumbai carnage. Attributing Dr Prashant Mangeshkar’s — a survivor from the Taj — quote to BBC, Daily Times said: “Some guests were killed after the police said it was safe to leave. I was suspicious that the police were sending these guys down a route where the terrorists were supposed to be.”

In another cogent editorial, Daily Times (December 22) attacked the Pakistani and Indian electronic media for attempting to blow war-clouds over our skies. “It is clear that the Indian media is setting the stage for the UPA to put on the war paint or take a defeat in the coming elections from the more jingoist BJP.” Acknowledging the “sane voices in India”, it referred to Shekhar Gupta’s recent column in The Indian Express: “This hostility must end and the media, on both sides, need to intervene before this great professional bond starts to fray. Journalists can’t be framing state policies, and waging wars.”

Have bomb, want gas?

... contd.