Time was when one could consider New Delhi-Srinagar, India-Pakistan as one complex of issues. The lens now pans a much wider canvas. Americans are stuck in

Iraq, Afghanistan. Heaven knows what is in store for Iran. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India is

one contiguous belt. Is Indo-Pak peace possible in the midst of such regional volatility?

If this bilateral matter is not extricated from the blazes, then what hope for the great Indian surge? Under this huge canopy of strategic issues is being played out an existential drama in the life of Salma whose husband is buried in her UP village, father in Karachi. Where should she turn for the burial of her sister? And what of those poor constables, escorting the train, who were charred along with the passengers whose security they were supposed to oversee. How could they have escaped when the coaches of the Samjhauta are sealed in Delhi and unsealed in Attari — the quest for security resulting in its exact opposite.

Naqvi is a Delhi- based commentator