A bomb blast tore through the crowds on the Pakistan side of the Indo-Pakistan border crossing at Wagah on Sunday, leaving at least 55 dead and scores injured.



They had come to watch the daily flag-lowering ceremony on both sides of the border, which remains the one clear activity where Indian and Pakistani troops work together.



By aiming at the sole land-link between the two countries, the terrorists demonstrated their contempt for any resumption of talks between New Delhi and Islamabad.



Moreover by attacking the Pakistan side of the frontier, in an area which ought to have had a permanent high state of security, the men of violence were surely trying to humiliate the Pakistani army by showing how ineffective it could be, not least as a partner in any future security pact.



Yet, this horrific crime was also a clear demonstration of major blind spots in the terrorist mentality. The most obvious is that the blasting apart of innocent civilian men, women and children is a truly odious way of trying to make a point.



It may indeed inspire terror but what sort of “righteous cause” is it that can try to “convince” others by making them too fearful to disagree?



There is also another piece of myopia that afflicts these terrorists — an inability to recognize the truth.  In the wake of the border carnage, three separate groups shamelessly claimed responsibility.



The Pakistani Taliban said that they had organized the suicide bombing. But two other terror groups,  Jundullah and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar also said that they had carried out the slaughter.



In other places and other times, it might be that the multiple claims for the attacks would be designed to confuse and throw security forces off the track.



Back in Delhi, advisers to Narendra Modi may be urging that the new prime minister persists in his clear distrust of the Pakistani authorities.



Those in Modi’s BJP party who were appalled at that handshake with Nawaz Sharif at Modi’s inauguration, will be arguing for no melting of the current freeze in Indo-Pak relations, prompted by cross-border firing between the two armies.



Modi should think long and hard before going with this advice. Though he has a massive economic reform agenda before him, he should not reject what is in fact a new opportunity for resumed dialog with Sharif and his government.



Modi must find the time to restart links between the two capitals, at a back room, if not indeed on a public level.



The Wagah bomb was designed the blast away any chance of the developments that all terrorists fear more than anything else —negotiation and compromise.



If the Indian government chooses to take this outrage as a further excuse to shun Sharif, then Modi and his people will have given a victory to the blood-stained bigots, whoever they are.



But if he takes this crime as a challenge to decent opinion on both sides of the border and reinitiates talks, then the terror chiefs will have been defeated and some good will have come out of the destruction of so many innocent lives.