It is often said that you cannot choose your neighbours, and India has lived with this bitter truth for many years. No matter how hard we try as a nation to break away from the shackles of a bloody history and chart a new course in the region, we are always reminded of the problems on our borders. It happened once again this week. Militants struck at the heart of the Indo-Pak peace process on the eve of what was to be the boldest step between the two countries in a long time. The day before the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus route, the fidayeen attack on the tourist reception centre in the Jammu and Kashmir capital sent out a clear message: the obstacles to peace still exist.

PICTURE SPEAK

Our January 2004 cover on Indo-Pak ties

The first bus journey across the Line of Control since Partition was an attempt to build people-to-people contact and bring Kashmiris on both sides closer than they had been in decades. The bus route represented a possibility of hope that the issue of the troubled state could at least be dealt with in a conducive atmosphere without fear and hostility. The attack on the tourist reception centre, where the 24 passengers due to board the bus were sequestered, claimed no victims other than the terrorists. But it did leave us with the persistent feeling that India and Pakistan were back to where they had started.

It also raised questions about the peace process as a whole, about cross-border terrorism and lapses in security. What should have been the most secure location in Srinagar was penetrated with ridiculous ease. In this uncertain time, what has been reassuring is the Indian Government's decision to proceed with the historic journey as scheduled. Any other decision would have meant playing right into the hands of the terrorists and handing them the exact result they had set out to achieve.

The attack in Srinagar took place during a busy week for India, what with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visiting Delhi. We had decided to feature the Sino-Indian partnership on our cover, talking about the new winds blowing across our eastern borders. But it was the old problems on the western front that have taken precedence.

Our cover story talks about the potential and impact of the bus to Muzaffarabad. Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak, one of our most experienced men in the field, and photographer Pankaj Nangia spent six days in Kashmir, which included extensive travel around the Uri region. They bring us an on-the-spot report. Vinayak says, "In today's Kashmir, fear and hope remain constant companions." Any progress in Indo-Pak relations comes with a rider: the road to peace, it seems, will be as bloody as any war.

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