Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Joint mechanism

Pakistan's grandiloquent offer of help to India in its fight against terrorism is bunkum. The Foreign Office spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, has made it abundantly clear that the proposed joint mechanism does not envisage the handing over of the most wanted persons (Sept. 26). Viewed in this perspective, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's posture that India's objective was actually to test Pakistan's bona fides sounds hollow. Islamabad cannot be an ally in our fight against terrorism. As Pakistan accords terrorists a different and respectable status as freedom fighters, the question of handing them over does not arise.

M.S. Ramakrishna,

Secunderabad

Ms. Aslam's statement comes as no surprise. The explanation that some of those wanted in India have a "different status" in Pakistan by virtue of their association with the "freedom struggle" is a cruel joke. Are Dawood Ibrahim, Maulana Masood Azhar, and Tiger Memon freedom fighters?

J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Srirangam, T.N.

When Pakistan classifies those wanted by India as freedom fighters, what can a dialogue between the two countries accomplish? India should fight terrorism on its own.

Koti Sreekrishna,
Mason, Ohio

Wanted criminals of a country seek asylum in another precisely because they enjoy a "different status" there. The very crux of international terrorism is that one country's `terrorist' is another country's `freedom fighter.' What is terrorism for one is a noble, courageous, and passionate pursuit of a just cause for another. International cooperation on terrorism is feasible only if all countries condemn terrorism, irrespective of their subjective assessment of the terrorists' cause.

M. Hanumantha Rao,
Hyderabad

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