India (MNN) ― India and Pakistan held the first joint anti-terrorism meeting this week, in the latest initiative of the South Asian peace process.
Pakistan hoped for more information about the February 19th firebombing of a train linking the two countries that killed 68 people. Few new leads though from India left both sides with little to investigate.
However, the panel formed in November when the two sides resumed peace talks in New Delhi following July 2006 train bombings in Mumbai. Those blasts claimed the lives of 186 people, and left security rattled. India said Pakistani intelligence was involved in the blasts. It became evident a more cooperative effort was needed.
A main sticking issue has been the blame game. India accuses Pakistan-backed Islamic militants of waging an insurgency in its sector of Kashmir and of triggering attacks in other parts of the country. Pakistan denies it arms or trains the militants.
What is evident is that the insurgency does not benefit by peace. The well-orchestrated blasts on the Samjhauta Express, which connects New Delhi to the Pakistani city of Lahore, underlined the threats that the fragile peace faces between the countries.
Gospel For Asia's KP Yohannan says, "The reports are that this whole bombing created by the religious fundamentalists from Pakistan itself to stop these kind of peace negotiations. People are nervous, they're scared. We're deeply concerned about reaching the Muslims with the Gospel, and all these things don't help at all."
Yohanan says the terrorists discount what happens in fear: people respond to the Gospel of peace. "Whenever this kind of terrorist activity takes place, we've learned, quite interestingly, that people are being more despair and feeling hopelessness. This is the kind of opportunity, also, for our people to share the Gospel with them."
In 1990, GFA reports that there were only a few thousand evangelical believers in Jammu and Kashmir, but that number doubled during the '90s. The need for Gospel workers is great, especially in war-torn Kashmir.
Gospel for Asia missionaries regularly face spiritual attacks in the form of discouragement, illness and physical assaults from anti-Christian forces. Several other organizations are also spreading the Gospel in Jammu and Kashmir. Pray for their teams' boldness in sharing the Gospel.
