January 17, 2002	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 2, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Jan 16: India was tying itself up in knots on Wednesday over the arrest by Delhi Police of four members of the Lashkar-i-Taiba militant group, as it began to dawn that far from being sent by Islamabad to plan attacks against New Delhi the suspected terrorists could be seeking to subvert a key US peace mission in the region.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to be in New Delhi on Thursday to help ease New Delhi’s military standoff with Islamabad. India has so far refused to accept the common wisdom flourishing worldwide that terrorist attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere could be launched by groups that want to trigger a war between India and Pakistan.

The Lashkar men’s arrests this week coincided with the controversial killing in Kashmir by Indian paramilitary troopers of two Dutch men, who were identified on Wednesday by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs as being of Moroccan origin, a suggestion that again seems to take the scourge of terrorism away from Pakistan and towards the Middle East.

Little is known, meanwhile, of the fate of two alleged Hamas activists who were officially claimed to have been picked up in the state of Uttar Pradesh earlier this month, significantly when Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was starting his tour of New Delhi.

How the clutch of assorted incidents involving alleged terrorists plays out during the two-day visit to New Delhi by US Secretary of State Colin Powell could be determined as much by the absence of a Pakistani fingerprint on them as the growing suggestion that the imprint was beginning to look more West Asian, not entirely unrelated to Al Qaeda.

“We cannot delink anything,” Indian foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao told reporters in response to a question if the arrested Lashkar men were sent by Pakistan or whether they were not related to India’s troublesome neighbour at all.

Rao may not have anticipated it, but Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani, just back from a good tour of the United States, indicated at a news conference on Wednesday that he was not necessarily looking for a Pakistani hand in every terrorist attack that happens in India.

On the contrary, Advani had words of rare praise, made rarer since they came from one of India’s best known Pakistan-baiters, for President Pervez Musharraf’s widely acclaimed address of Jan 12.

“From Pakistan’s internal perspective the speech is important,” Advani began, but then quickly added, “It is in a way path-breaking (speech). I have not heard any earlier Pakistani leader denouncing theocracy in the manner in which Gen Musshrraf did. The bulk of the speech is dedicated to the problems at home. What India wants to see is that Pakistan ceases to be an exporter of terrorism.”

With key state elections and a potentially embarrassing budget looming, Advani’s words were being seen as brave, even if a sustained American pressure may have nudged them.

While a pre-election survey revealed on Wednesday that 30 per cent of voters in India’s Uttar Pradesh state were not even aware of elections due next month, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s prestige both within his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and with the opposition will be tested by many of the remaining 70 per cent.

And minus a Pakistani bete noire to target the urgency of fighting terrorism as an election issue, a standoff with Pakistan is likely to dissipate very quickly into a non-issue in most states that go to polls next month.

What could work though is a rejuvenated “statesman” that is always lurking deep in the personality of Mr Vajpayee, analysts said. This is what raises the hopes for Powell to succeed in his peace mission even though the problem of terrorism in India looks to be bracing for a life after and beyond Pakistan.