Blame And Retribution

摘要

Days after Indian commandos rescued Mumbai, the country's commercial capital, from a 6o-hour terrorist ordeal, crowds continue to gather around the century-old Taj Mahal hotel, where the last of the ten gunmen were killed. Hawkers offer the consolations of kulfi, a kind of icecream, to families who pose for photographs in front of the charred structure. The destruction would have been greater still had a pair of bombs, placed front and rear, not been disarmed.rnTwo political fuses are still burning. India's government is struggling to contain the damage to its credibility among the citizens it failed to protect. At the same time, American officials, including Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, have rushed to Delhi to defuse a potential confrontation between India and Pakistan, where, it now seems, at least some of the terrorists were recruited and trained.rnIndia is quick-sometimes too quick-to suspect Pakistan's hand behind the terrorist attacks it suffers. But it often struggles to prove the link. The Mumbai outrage provides a rare opportunity for India to copper-bottom its case. It is unusual, for example, to capture a terrorist in the act. But one of the two young men who opened fire in Mumbai's Indo-Gothic train terminal is now in hospital, alive and talking.