Pakistan's reaction

Pakistan condemned the assault as a “barbaric act of terrorism” and denied any involvement by state agencies. It has vowed to cooperate in fighting terrorism but backtracked on a decision to send the chief of its spy agency to India to help with the investigation, in a move likely to revive questions about who runs the shadowy organisation. Pakistan had promised all help to India. “Terrorism is a menace to humanity and it must be eliminated,” the foreign ministry said. Pakistan has also said it would move troops from its western border with Afghanistan to the Indian border if tension escalated. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947 and went to the brink of a fourth after a 2001 militant attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi also blamed on Pakistan. Pakistanis protest against India’s claims that PoK-based militants were responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks, in Lahore on Sunday.

Pakistan’s bloggers are going the extra mile to show solidarity with Mumbaikars even though they have had to face the music from some of their countrymen. “And so, in prayer and in solidarity, I stand today with Mumbaikars everywhere. In shock at what has happened. In fear of what might happen yet. In anger at those who would be so calculated in their inhuman massacre,” wrote Adil Najam, who once visited the Taj and Oberoi hotels in a bid to spot Bollywood bigwigs, who blogs at All Things Pakistan. “In sympathy with those whose pain so hurts my own heart but whose tears I cannot touch, whose wounds I cannot heal, and whose grief I cannot relieve.” Nearly 200 people were killed and hundreds injured in a string of coordinated terrorist attacks in Mumbai. India has linked Pakistan-based elements to the attacks, a charge denied by Islamabad. Another avid blogger wrote an “Ode to Bombay” on the popular e- zine “Pak Tea House”. “Once again they have attacked, at the heart of Bombay. Bombay is everything which they hate. Bombay is Freedom, Bombay is Life, Bombay is Music, Bombay is Light. This is the attack on (the) city of Lights,” Ali Shahryar wrote. “They will fail to destroy India, they will fail to destroy the thousands of years-old tradition of culture of tolerance and wisdom. Bombay lives, united and whole, full of lights and music, it will once again be. Prophets of darkness can never defeat Light. Because Light is eternal,” he wrote. Following Najam’s post, a blogger known as BrassTacks wondered if Najam was an Indian agent. “Why did you never write about the blasts in Islamabad and Lahore? Why only worry about India? I think this is an Indian agent’s website,” BrassTacks comment read.But some bloggers have admitted that Pakistanis were not as “innocent” as they were being made out to be. “I am also a Pakistani but frankly I am not too sure of (the) innocence of our people,” wrote Bunty.