Mumbai beats the terrorists
Monday, 1 December 2008
The 60-hour siege of India's financial capital Mumbai is over. The last member of the terror squad that turned the city with a population of about 19 million into a war zone is claimed to have been flushed out of the hotels they held hostage by the Indian National Security Guard (NSG) aided by the army, the naval commandos and the Maharastra police. The death toll from the Mumbai carnage according to the official estimate is 183. Of the 141 civilians, who laid down their lives, 22 were foreigners. The other dead include 20 members of the security personnel who took part in the raid against the terrorists. Nine of the terrorists are reported to have been killed in the encounter with the security men, while one could be caught alive.
It was not just the city of Mumbai, or India that was in a state of siege since the evening of Wednesday (November 26) until it was over on Saturday (November 29) morning. In fact, it was the whole world that was taken hostage by the still unidentified terrorists who landed on the Mumbai coast on board a boat on that fateful November 26 evening. Whoever may have been responsible for the Mumbai carnage, which the Indian media has termed India's nine-eleven, have been proved to be a bunch of terrorists with a purpose. Unlike the earlier acts of terrorism, the Mumbai attackers did not want to remain anonymous. They were selective about the hostages they killed, particularly the Britons, the Americans and the Jews, with their guns. However, when they first stormed the city they were rather indiscriminate in the use of their guns and grenades at the Chhatrapati Shivraj railway station or at Cama Hospital, the charitable women's hospital. They attacked the restaurants and hotels that are frequented by foreign tourists and business people. What further distinguishes the latest Mumbai attackers from the previous ones is that this time they were not in a hit and run mode. They held out until their last man in the face of the Indian security men engaged in what is dubbed 'Operation Tornado', that outnumbered the hardly a dozen-strong terrorists disproportionately. But who they really were and what were their purpose?
A little-known group calling themselves Deccan Mujaheddin has clamed responsibility for the attack. The Indian government, however, has hinted at the foreign link of the terrorists, especially to the neighbouring Pakistan. Finger is pointed at Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, an Islamist terrorist outfit based n Pakistan. The Pakistan government meanwhile denied having any connection with the terror attack saying it itself is a victim of such kind of terrorism. At the same time, it warned India not to engage in a blame-game or playing politics with the tragedy that struck India's commercial capital. The terrorists, who created a reign of terror in Mumbai for 60 hours since November 26, have at least been successful in precipitating a condition that has the potential to destabilise the entire South Asia by provoking the two nuclear-armed neighbours into another slanging match between them.
Some who term the incident India's 9/11 would like India to react in a way America did in response to their own 9/11. It is not hard to imagine what that kind of reaction is meant to imply-the syndrome of the wounded giant that the USA had played out in the wake of 9/11. If anything, it is exactly this kind of outcome that the Mumbai attackers would like most to distract the attention of the investigators to track down the masterminds behind the Mumbai terror.
It is hoped that wisdom and sanity will prevail on both the sides of the Indo-Pak border and that they would rather cooperate with each other in order to track down the brains behind the dastardly attack on Mumbai.
It was not just the city of Mumbai, or India that was in a state of siege since the evening of Wednesday (November 26) until it was over on Saturday (November 29) morning. In fact, it was the whole world that was taken hostage by the still unidentified terrorists who landed on the Mumbai coast on board a boat on that fateful November 26 evening. Whoever may have been responsible for the Mumbai carnage, which the Indian media has termed India's nine-eleven, have been proved to be a bunch of terrorists with a purpose. Unlike the earlier acts of terrorism, the Mumbai attackers did not want to remain anonymous. They were selective about the hostages they killed, particularly the Britons, the Americans and the Jews, with their guns. However, when they first stormed the city they were rather indiscriminate in the use of their guns and grenades at the Chhatrapati Shivraj railway station or at Cama Hospital, the charitable women's hospital. They attacked the restaurants and hotels that are frequented by foreign tourists and business people. What further distinguishes the latest Mumbai attackers from the previous ones is that this time they were not in a hit and run mode. They held out until their last man in the face of the Indian security men engaged in what is dubbed 'Operation Tornado', that outnumbered the hardly a dozen-strong terrorists disproportionately. But who they really were and what were their purpose?
A little-known group calling themselves Deccan Mujaheddin has clamed responsibility for the attack. The Indian government, however, has hinted at the foreign link of the terrorists, especially to the neighbouring Pakistan. Finger is pointed at Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, an Islamist terrorist outfit based n Pakistan. The Pakistan government meanwhile denied having any connection with the terror attack saying it itself is a victim of such kind of terrorism. At the same time, it warned India not to engage in a blame-game or playing politics with the tragedy that struck India's commercial capital. The terrorists, who created a reign of terror in Mumbai for 60 hours since November 26, have at least been successful in precipitating a condition that has the potential to destabilise the entire South Asia by provoking the two nuclear-armed neighbours into another slanging match between them.
Some who term the incident India's 9/11 would like India to react in a way America did in response to their own 9/11. It is not hard to imagine what that kind of reaction is meant to imply-the syndrome of the wounded giant that the USA had played out in the wake of 9/11. If anything, it is exactly this kind of outcome that the Mumbai attackers would like most to distract the attention of the investigators to track down the masterminds behind the Mumbai terror.
It is hoped that wisdom and sanity will prevail on both the sides of the Indo-Pak border and that they would rather cooperate with each other in order to track down the brains behind the dastardly attack on Mumbai.