Pak's dubious record casts shadow over deal

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee crossed the Attari border with a phalanx of stars and celebrities on the inaugural Delhi-Lahore bus service.

- Dhrubo Jyoti and Vrinda Tulsian

NEW DELHI: In February 1999, The bus, painted in the colours of both nations, rolled into Lahore where then Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif welcomed the delegation. Against the backdrop of Mughal-era monuments, the two leaders signed a declaration that seemed to transcend the bitter history of Partition.

The bonhomie was short-lived. In the summer of that year, shepherds tipped off Indian forces that Pakistani soldiers had infiltrated into Kargil and occupied strategic mountains, triggering a full-blown conflict a year after both countries acquired nuclear capabilities.

Two years later, rinse and repeat. In July 2001, then Pakistani PM Pervez Musharraf travelled to Agra as part of an internationally hailed peace summit. Though a pact eluded the leaders, peace seemed tantalisingly close. Six months later, terrorists from Pakistan-sponsored outfits attacked the temple of Indian democracy, killing eight people.

These two instances — one of conventional warfare and another of asymmetric, clandestine terror attack — underlined the risks that might have weighed on the Indian government when officials got the call from Pakistan's director general of military operations at 3.35pm on Saturday.

"Terrorism itself is part of Pakistan's foreign policy...Delhi needs to be careful," said retired Air Vice Marshal, Manmohan Bahadur.