Sandy Hazel recounts last week’s horrific events in India’s commercial capital, while Ireland-based Indians give their own views
Sandy Hazel recounts last week’s horrific events in India’s commercial capital, while Ireland-based Indians give their own views
Last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai – which left over 170 people dead – were the result of a co-ordinated and well planned effort, according to Indian military authorities.
The attackers apparently travelled to the wealthy Indian port city – the commercial and entertainment centre of India – by boat, armed to the teeth and prepared for anything. Targets had been surveyed ahead of time, and the gunmen and bombers brought bags of food with them to keep up their energy during the raids.
The shooting began at about 9.20pm at the Chhatrapati Shivaji train station, one of the world’s busiest rail terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes – at the city’s Jewish centre, a tourist restaurant, one hotel and then another, and two attacks on hospitals. There were 10 targets in all. The men had been ready for a long siege.
After the attacks began a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility in an e-mail sent to news organisations, but little is known of this faction. However, with Pakistan being mentioned indirectly in media reports, not as actual perpetrator but as a harbourer of guerrillas and as an alleged home base for the attackers, the finger pointing began in earnest.
It was reported in India that three of the captured terrorists have confessed to being members of the Pakistani-based Islamist Lashkar-e-Taiba group, but that group has denied any involvement. This attack comes eight weeks after the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, was blown up by a suicide bomber.
Some Indians living in Ireland took the time to share their views with Metro Éireann on the shocking recent events in their home country.
“Of course it is a terrible thing that has happened,” says Sam Paka, “but you know that there are many attacks and terrorist atrocities happening everywhere.
“India is not excluded from terrorism; there is much hostility around the Kashmir area, for example, and attacks there that go unreported. It is only when attacks like this involve foreigners that there is world recognition for what is going on.
“These things happen on a regular basis unfortunately but we get to hear about it in the media only when westerners are killed.”
Amit Batra explains that the blame game should be circumspect. “I know that they think they know who perpetrated this, and of course it was an evil thing to do, but the authorities need to ask why this happens.
“Corruption in India is happening on a major scale at all levels of society, and is growing. On top of this global recession, it makes for desperate situations, and it is not good to start blaming others for bad situations when your own internal affairs are not great.
“I think it is important to remember how we can blame too generally,” she says. “Whenever something bad like this happens in India it is always Pakistan that is blamed. We should know that many Pakistanis condemn this violence too; they also suffer from suicide bombers. We need to be wary of painting all Pakistanis with the same brush when the media use the word Pakistani.
“I know many Pakistanis and they are just not like this picture we are fed at all. They also know that all Indians are not doing the blaming. We should not blame a whole people for the actions of a few; then the terrorists will win. One should clean his own shirt before looking at others’ colours.”
Another Indian living in Ireland, who does not want to be named, says that the attack may have been preventable.
“This is a terrible thing to have happened, another attack on this international city,” he laments. “From what I have heard it was so premeditated and planned that the intelligence services in India should have known about it. I know that it is incredibly difficult to keep tabs on guerrilla units, especially these types, but there is intelligence there and the movements will probably have been known.
“There should be more mechanisms dedicated to ensure attacks cannot happen. But I feel this one could have been avoided. Mumbai has so many different nationalities living there that it is a symbolic choice by the terrorists, but it may also make intelligence gathering that much more difficult.”
Meanwhile, Siraj Zaidi comments that diplomacy will need to kick in to keep things from escalating.
“It has emerged who were the perpetrators. They are an outlawed group who acted on their own initiative or with instruction from misguided leaders. They perceive India as the enemy because of its engagement with the world, and there is a degree of jealousy too as India is doing well. It is a vindictive ideology and their decrees of ‘Kill all Hindus’ and ‘Kill all infidels’ just go against the basic laws of humanity.
“There are over 200 million Muslims in India, and this terrorist group is only a handful. Islamic leaders have come out to condemn these attacks. India has a mature Islamic structure and the councils have been vocal in their censure.
“India, of course, has her problems – unemployment and inequality, lack of parity and regionalism,” adds Zaidi. “But the main thing to remember is that the authorities in India and Pakistan will work together on this investigation. They have asked the international community for help and it is on the way. There are people working behind the scenes to find out if there were any other links into this group and to help prevent further attacks.
“People were killed, but this event, if handled the right way, could prove to have a unifying influence.”
