What struck Mumbai on Wednesday night was no conventional terrorists attack. It had an entirely different dimension. As a matter of fact, the terrorists mounting an assault on different targets in Mumbai introduced a new phenomena in terrorists' warfare. Terrorism has produced a new state of the art doctrine in the realm this new warfare. By a well coordinated serial explosion and indiscriminate firing at hotels, hospitals, bus stands cinema halls including the crowded Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) Railway Station through a perfect blitz, the terrorists virtually took hostage certain posh areas of Mumbai, which is India's major port, financial capital and the worlds largest film producing bonanza second only to Hollywood in California. Guests, including foreigners staying in two 5-star and one 7-star hotel were taken hostage many of them could not be rescued in spite of special anti-terror squads that had been flown in from New Delhi. According to latest reports (as I write this scribe), 130 people, including an unspecified number of foreigners were killed and nine hundred received injuries of multiple nature. This type of terrorism and crossfire in urban areas or metropolitan's by terrorists is unheard of. This implies assault by trained group of terrorists fighting to the extent of last man, last round and causing maximum destruction of property and killing of innocent people till the end. This is different from a single suicide bomber blowing himself up and causing death and destruction in the limited area around him. Those fighting the war against terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and the tribal belt of Pakistan, have still not found the answer to deal with this growing menace. This war, with its new dimension, has brought to the forefront, in South Asia, not only the military aspect of countering the threat, but more importantly, the political aspect as to the cause of it. Whereas the issue in Pakistan is, "who's war is it?" How to counter it; is a debate going on both inside and outside the Parliament. On the contrary, the issue and implications with regard to any act of terrorism in India are quite different. It is invariably predetermined in each and every tragedy befalling India that the perpetuator of any such act of violence is bound to be Pakistan related, who is supposed to be always conspiring to destabilise her. The ready-made instrument of such savagery is conveniently believed to be the Inter-Services Intelligence bureau (ISI). The same old and familiar Indian formula has come into play immediately after the Mumbai Mayhem; not surprising for Islamabad but awfully disturbing all the same, in view of the prevailing political and security environment in Pakistan, in our region as well as in India and Occupied Kashmir. It is intriguing that soon after the breaking of the news, the Indian government, including the Indian military as well as the Indian media went into a mad rush of accusing Pakistan for the Mumbai tragedy. The President of Pakistan, the PM, the defence minister and the foreign minister, who happened to be in New Delhi, all felt genuinely grieved and shocked. They immediately sent messages to their respective counter parts in India, condemning the loss of innocent lives at the hands of terrorists and offering assistance in investigations, if so desired by Delhi. The Indian media and those in the government, who dream of Akhand Bharat by undoing Pakistan, are leaving no stone unturned in creating war hysteria over this issue. Realising the fatal consequences of such dangerous conspiracies to derail the ongoing peace process in South Asia, major Western powers like USA, Great Britain and the EU have promptly initiated formal and informal diplomatic steps to defuse the situation. The most extraordinary aspect of the Mumbai tragedy is that the terrorists have continued their hide and seek in some of the buildings they had occupied along with the hostages, till the writing of this column on Saturday morning. The Indian security forces including the commandos are battling to flush out the terrorists and bring the situation under control. In this state of confusion the Indian foreign minister as well as the prime minister has thought fit to point the accusing finger against Pakistan. Dr Manmohan Singh has gone to the extent of requesting Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to dispatch the ISI Chief Lt Gen Pasha to New Delhi for assisting in the ongoing investigations, which are still in the preliminary stage. Presumably, the Indians have some evidence, they want to share with Pakistan. This is understandable and justified. Pakistan had made such an offer to assist in the investigation at the very outset. But there are procedures and protocols to handle such sensitive issues. In case New Delhi felt some urgency in the matter, Pakistan's High Commissioner is available to the Indian Foreign Office. In the present case Pakistan's foreign minister happens to be present in India to respond to any Indian requirement. It is therefore rather odd that the Pakistan PM Gilani immediately acceded to the request of his Indian counterpart without deliberating on a number of critical issues involved requiring consultations with the relevant experts in the foreign office. Such a visit could set a wrong precedence. In the present case, the job could be done by a suitable representative of General Pasha. Accordingly, on reconsideration, the earlier acceptance of dispatching the ISI chief to New Delhi had to be modified, causing the resultant embarrassment to Islamabad, which could have been avoided. The need of the hour is not to politicise Mumbai tragedy and also not to give undue and out of proportion publicity by the media about the episode the DG ISI visit. The basic objective of sharing intelligence is damaged by undue and hasty publicity which proves counterproductive. As a worst case even if the involvement of some terrorist group is proved, this does not prove by any stretch of imagination that the Government of Pakistan has anything to do with such a heinous act of terrorism. Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism as a result there of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated and the former president, former prime minister and other high dignitaries were targeted. Pakistan has strong evidence of Indian involvement in Balochistan and the insurgency in Waziristan and Swat but Islamabad has never requested for the Chief of Indian RAW to visit Pakistan and share our investigation. More importantly Pakistan has never allowed these incidents to interfere in the ongoing process of normalising our mutual relations in Pakistan's quest for peace in the larger interest of 1.5 billion people in the subcontinent. It is therefore to be hoped that New Delhi, at this point of time shall not allow itself to be provoked derail the ongoing composite dialogue with Pakistan and other CBMs in progress because this is exactly what the hardliners and militants in both countries want. The writer is the president of the Pakistan National Forum E-mail: ikramullah@nation.com.pk