Eleven-year-old Devika has not yet reconciled to what happened to her on Nov 26, 2008. While waiting at a bus stop, she was hit by a bullet and lost her right leg.

That gunman Ajmal Kasab has been found guilty and has been sentenced is a personal issue for her. She does not know the wider perspective.

Her father Natwar Lal felt the ends of justice had been served when the only surviving man out of 10 terrorists, who came from Pakistan to attack Mumbai, was brought to book. His reaction more or less represents Indian opinion although some feel that the media-hyped trial was more a catharsis than the answer to the cry for justice. Many in India have taken the government to task for spending lakhs of rupees to get Kasab convicted. He was seen wielding his gun on television screens. New Delhi, however, did well to conduct the case methodically.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshimade an irresponsible remark that his government would study the judgment and then make up its mind on Kasab’s conviction. Doubting the judiciary will be the beginning of a new chapter of suspicion between the two countries.

After Kasab’s conviction, New Delhi expects Hafiz Saeed, the Jamaatud Dawa chief, who allegedly planned the Mumbai carnage, to be arrested and punished. Pakistan’s efforts are not considered adequate. Islamabad’s plea is that the evidence provided by India is too flimsy to convince the court. Since New Delhi insists it has given sufficient proof, it would be better if the evidence is made public for the people to judge.

Unfortunately, the man who has been arrested for planting the bomb at Times Square in New York is from Pakistan. True, he is a citizen of the US. But people in Pakistan must take the case seriously and come out openly against militant organisations that brainwash the common man in the name of religion.

The public is correct in voicing its criticism against the exoneration of two Indians also involved in the Kasab case. The judge is not to be blamed since he found the only witness “unreliable”. It is the police who failed to collect tangible evidence.

There are sleeper cells in India and the Taliban have their followers in this country. They are active and it is quite possible that the collaborators in the Mumbai attack were from among the Indian Taliban. They have not been yet traced. But they are there.

In fact, India has discovered to its horror that there is a network of Hindu Taliban as well. They are connected to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and said to be responsible for the bomb blasts at Ajmer Dargah (2007), Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad (2007), Malegaon (2008) and Goa (2009).

The connection of a BJP-run state government has also come to light. Rajasthan home minister Shanti Dhariwal has alleged that the state police under former chief minister Vasundhara Raje of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) kept the involvement of Hindutva outfits under wraps.

Authoritative sources at New Delhi suspect that Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP government is in power, has become a safe sanctuary for the Hindu outfits. Top police official Hemant Karkare is alleged to have been eliminated by Hindu extremists when he collected certain leads on the involvement of Hindu organisations in attacks across the country. Even the attack on the Samjotha Express (2007) is considered the handiwork of Hindu terrorists.

That Pakistan is itself in the midst of terrorism, suffering a blast here and an attack there, is worrisome for India, particularly when there is genuine fear that terrorism may pour into the country through the Wagah border. The Taliban have said that India was their real target. Therefore, Islamabad must take into account the point made by New Delhi that terrorists come from Pakistan and do not go from India to Pakistan.

This perception of India was reportedly the main topic of discussion when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani in Bhutan. New Delhi has Islamabad’s assurance that it would not allow Pakistani soil to be used by terrorists to launch attacks against India. The good news is that foreign secretaries of both countries are expected to pick up the thread.

It is heartening to note that the Indian media has not mentioned the forthcoming talks with Pakistan while singling out its establishment for having “planned and executed” the attack on Mumbai. It becomes incumbent on civil society in both countries to put pressure on their governments to resume the talks quickly. Qureshi has rightly said it hardly matters what nomenclature is given to the talks; it is the spirit that is important. One thing the two sides must resolve is that they will not discontinue talks, however deep their differences.

The result will depend on the groundswell of public opinion. People-to-people contact should go beyond the cliché it has become. It should really mean the easing of difficulties that people from both countries encounter when they cross the border. Intelligence agencies will have to be reined in so that they do not question every traveller.

High commissions on both sides should not have bureaucrats with a fixed mindset. New Delhi which considers itself more liberal than Islamabad is insistent that students and faculty coming from Pakistan to the South Asia University should daily report to the police and not travel beyond the three cities mentioned in their visa.

I know that most people in India and Pakistan are prisoners of the past. They have a deep, entrenched mistrust against each other. They tend to see even positive steps in a negative manner. The media makes a mountain out of a molehill. The Bhutan summit asked all the countries in South Asia to come closer. The prime ministers of India and Pakistan have taken the lead by deciding to sit across the table. This demands eschewing mistrust and overcoming past grievances. It may be tough. But let’s begin again.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi.