PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN Singh must be commended for displaying clear-sightedness and resolve in travelling to Srinagar to flag off the bus service to Muzaffarabad. That the extremist groups have not lost their deadly potency was highlighted by the attack on the Tourist Reception Centre in the capital of Jammu and Kashmir on April 6. The Government could not have been overly faulted had it postponed the inaugural run, citing the safety of passengers. They were apparently the targets of the militants' suicide mission; extremist groups vehemently opposed to the bus service directly contacted several passengers and warned them against making the journey. In the face of this terrorist intimidation, it is heartening that the leaders of both India and Pakistan understood the need to follow through on a promising initiative. Equal credit must go to the passengers. Refusing to be fazed by terrorist threats, they coolly kept their tryst with Muzaffarabad. They were rewarded with a spontaneous, even rapturous, welcome on the other side of the Line of Control. No less commendable was the enthusiastic response of the people of PoK to the new initiative; this was amply demonstrated by the warmth and fervour that marked the send-off they gave to the Srinagar-bound passengers. Only time will tell whether the commencement of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service will be a watershed in bilateral relations, but the strong, quiet support extended on the ground to the process of détente and normalisation by people on both sides of the LoC is reassuring.

Prime Minister Singh wisely refused to accuse Pakistan or its intelligence agencies of any involvement in the terrorist attack of April 6. Aside from the apparent lack of evidence, such an accusation would have undermined a process of reconciliation progressively crafted by New Delhi and Islamabad. The proposal for a bus service across the LoC was a non-starter so long as the two countries could not agree on travel documents that passengers must carry. India and Pakistan had reason to believe that their positions and claims on Jammu and Kashmir territory controlled by the other would be affected if passengers used passports to cross the LoC. In refusing to let bureaucracy and formalism stand in the way, the two countries addressed a pressing humanitarian issue but achieved more than that. General Pervez Musharraf deserves warm appreciation from India for helping to see the project through. While the opportunity provided for meetings between members of divided families is of value in itself, this demonstration of the benefits of India-Pakistan amity at the people-to-people level can have implications over the longer term. It has always been India's case that the dispute with Pakistan will be more easily resolved if the peoples of the two countries develop trust in each other through more frequent and easier interaction. With Pakistan's Foreign Minister Kurshid Mehmood Kasuri expressing his appreciation for the merits of the Indian argument, there is hope that the two countries will intensify the process of positive engagement.

While much has been done to ensure security along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route, there is no guarantee that the bus service will always be safe from attack. The extremists appear determined to disrupt the service because they believe that an enhancement of people-to-people contacts will deflate their "movement for self-determination." That they apparently had inside intelligence on the whereabouts of the passengers, who had been moved to a secure locality in Srinagar, shows that they still retain the capability to derail the process of engagement. However, the extremists might have made a strategic mistake by targeting the bus service, which does not have any demonstrable connection with the major political issue of jurisdiction over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The extremists have placed themselves on the wrong side of the very people they claim to fight for.