Pakistan yesterday made clear that it had condemned Monday's suicide bombing of the Kashmiri state legislature, which killed 38 people. However, a Dublin embassy spokesman asserted continued Pakistani support for "the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people".
As part of a war of words with India, which now includes references to Wednesday's hoax hijack, the Pakistan embassy in Dublin referred to remarks by a spokesman for Islamabad's Foreign Ministry condemning the "act of terrorism". The suicide attack appeared "to be aimed at maligning" the "freedom struggle", the spokesman said.
Pakistan is keen to distinguish terrorism from participation in the Kashmiri conflict, following remarks this week by the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell. Referring to Monday's bomb attack, Mr Powell said: "This was clearly an act of terror. We are going after terrorism in a comprehensive way, not just in the present instance of al Quaeda and Osama bin Laden, but terrorism as it affects nations around the world, to include the kinds of terrorism that affects India."
A spokesman from Pakistan's Dublin embassy said that while his country supported the international war against terrorism, "a line has to be drawn" between that and the Kashmiri people's "legitimate freedom struggle". He accused India of "state-sponsored terrorism against the Kashmiri people".
The United Jihad Council, an umbrella title for more than a dozen groups involved in the conflict, has blamed Indian intelligence for the atrocity. The Dublin embassy spokesman said there was "some credibility to that".
Meanwhile, the guerrilla group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, which had been reported earlier as claiming responsibility for the attack, has denied involvement. The group said the attack was a "conspiracy" to defame separatist groups. Islamabad denies the attack was carried out by a Pakistan-based organisation, as charged by India.
Yesterday Pakistan was derisory in its response to Wednesday's hoax hijack. "This was a total farce," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, adding that the initial reporting by the Indian media had sought to link Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists with the incident.
"We have noted and the world must have noted the enthusiasm with which the Indian media tried to exploit this farce to malign Pakistan and the Kashmiri freedom movement," he said.
Rahul Bedi adds from New Delhi: The Indian government has ordered an inquiry into the apparent "hijacking" to New Delhi of a domestic airliner that turned out to be a false alarm.
It is still unclear what happened. Fifty-two passengers and crew had left the Alliance Air Boeing 737 following the "hijacking" at midnight that alarmed India and the world and dragged senior officials, including the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, from their beds for crisis talks.
Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain blamed confusion between the two pilots and air traffic control in the western town of Ahmedabad, which reportedly received a call claiming that flight CD 7444 had been hijacked by two persons. Thereafter, the event unravelled.
The passengers thought the hijackers were in the cockpit, while the pilots, who had locked themselves in, were convinced they had seized control of the cabin and crew.
After nearly three hours of waiting in a "sanitised" bay at New Delhi airport, surrounded by ambulances, fire trucks and fuel tankers, all strategically parked to prevent the aircraft from taking off, the "siege" was lifted around 4 a.m. by National Security Guard commandos.
A tense world breathed a sigh of relief, barely three weeks after the devastating attacks on New York and Washington.
But almost all city newspapers, which were published during the alleged "hijack", detailed the incident in apocalyptic prose.