Passage From India

At least sixty four persons were killed on a train which left Delhi station en route to Pakistan according to Rediff. The train is ironically known as the "Friendship Train".

The two coaches, where all the deaths took place, were completely gutted and only the charred remains were visible. The explosions in the train took place at 11:55 pm on Sunday night. The biweekly train left the Old Delhi railway station at 10:40 pm.

Northern Railway General Manger V N Mathur, who reached the spot from Delhi, said two suitcases were recovered from the spot -- one on the rail track and one from the train. Both the suitcases contained IEDs -- one of them also had incendiary material, either kerosene or petrol, he said. He said he had talked to the gateman near Deewana station who told him that he had heard two distinct explosions. "From this evidence, we deduce that this is a clear case of sabotage," Mathur said.

MSN India reports that the attack is now officially blamed on the use of an "IED". According to MSN India:

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The suspected terrorist bombing - said to be triggered by improvised explosive devices (IED) - was clearly aimed at derailing the peace process between India and Pakistan as Indian and Pakistani nationals, most of them poor people, were targeted in the attack. Foreign ministers' level talks between the two countries are to resume in New Delhi on Tuesday. ...

A devastating fire engulfed two coaches - No 10 and 11 - of the Atari Special 4001 train just after 1 am on Monday. The passengers were on their way from Delhi to Lahore. Most of the passengers were killed due to burns and suffocation inside the two coaches. Scores of other passengers were injured, 20 of them critically, and were rushed to the civil hospital in Panipat for treatment. Several passengers, including women, children and old people, jumped out of the burning train even as it was still moving.

The only -- and trite -- comment I can make is that attacks such as this will continue for the indefinite future. We are in a Long War. A War without Declarations. Perhaps one even without causes. But hopefully one which has an end.

Attacks on innocents have become part and parcel, even a "feature" of extended negotiations between terrorist entities and civil society. For example whenever some kind of peace initiative is attempted between Palestine and Israel, a suicide bombing is inevitably waiting in the wings. Every time the Iraqi government attempts to achieve some reconciliation between factions, a car bomb is readied in some garage to wreak carnage on an unsuspecting marketplace. Killings have become as much a part of the Peace Process as the green baize table. One may speak of the cost of war. But what of the costs of "engagement"? And at what point do they become indistinguishable?

I suppose I should wait for the meaningless expressions of regret from the United Nations and various and sundry humanitarian and European organizations. Followed by the inevitable dark hints that this was caused by the bad international atmospherics created by the United States.