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?

In its editorial on December 24, Daily Times observed how undemocratically the war hysteria was being projected in Pakistan, as opposed to India. “Democracy is taking a backseat as aggression looms large. On the Indian side, democracy is still calling the shots.” Deciphering the parlance employed by both countries, the article observed: “It is in the nature of escalation to keep moving up the graph of hostilities. As escalation proceeds, the democratically-elected government in Islamabad will become less relevant. People looking up at the jets were supposed to feel secure, but they did not. Their reaction was panic.” In another realistic assessment, it stated: “Most panic calls came from Karachi, the hub of Pakistan’s troubled economy. The people may be brave, but the economy is a coward.”

In another editorial on December 24, Daily Times admonished conspiracy theorists from blaming Indian elements for the Marriott blasts in Islamabad. Quoting Rehman Malik, Interior Adviser, it stated: “The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had carried out the attack. Those who have roped it in as a convenient excuse to blame India should now give up.”

Dawn reported on December 25: “Pakistan has proposed to Iran to buy India’s share of gas because India appears to have lost interest in the project after signing the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.” The Nation adds: “Iran has offered India and Pakistan the ‘Peace Pipeline’ to defuse tensions triggered after the Mumbai terror incident.”

In its December 25 editorial, Dawn attempted to explain to Pakistan the difference between preventing war and defeating troublemakers. “There is an unfortunate tendency in Pakistan to only look at half the problem. Not allowing the terrorists to win, that is preventing war between the two countries, is not the same as defeating them, which would require meaningful action against Jihadi networks. The Economist puts it best: “If Pakistan’s leaders had ever united against Islamist militancy as they have against India over the past three weeks, their country would not be in the violent mess that it is.”

India’s Kashmir challenge

Viewing the Jammu and Kashmir elections in its editorial on December 26, Dawn said: “The freedom movement in Indian-occupied Kashmir is now more of a peaceful and popular uprising of the Gandhian hue than an armed insurgency. Hundreds of moderates have joined the cause. This clearly does not suit India. Killing highly-trained militants is one thing, state violence against unarmed protesters on the streets of Kashmir quite another. Given India’s clout in this day and age, it will take some doing to dent its image abroad. But pictures of peaceful protesters being mowed down by Indian soldiers may well internationalise the Kashmir issue with greater rapidity.”