The Taj Hotel in South Mumbai was the scene of the attack
Another day and another terror attack in another Indian city has left almost 100 people dead and hundreds injured. The scale of the attack — spread across two five-star hotels, a hospital, the Victoria Terminus, and other parts of South Mumbai — is stunning. Quite obviously, this can’t be the work of an impromptu assemblage of disgruntled extremists. The planning, the weaponry used, and the coordinated execution points to a very well planned attack, executed by very well trained, possibly even professionally trained, attackers. A group that I’ve never heard of before, the Deccan Mujaheddin, claimed responsibility for the attack. It would be premature to dismiss this as an attempt to divert attention from the real terrorist group, just because this is a name that we’re not familiar with. This group, if in fact it exists, could be an alliance of sorts between foreign terror groups and intelligence services, such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which provided the ammunition and/or the money, and Indian terror groups and their backers such as the Indian Mujaheddin (IM) and SIMI, which provided the logistics and the plan. That the terrorists were apparently looking for civilians with American or British passports leads me to believe that this couldn’t entirely be the handiwork of Indian terror groups, if at all they were involved at any level. Terrorism in India is very localized and it isn’t the M.O. of local terror groups to target foreigners. The objectives of terror groups in India fall into two broad categories — (a) to seek retribution (against Hindus, law enforcement agencies, the State, etc.) for what they see as injustices, or (b) to inflict damages so unbearable that it would demoralize India into conceding independence to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
While it’s quite clear that these local terror groups wouldn’t’ be fans of the United States or of the United Kingdom, I don’t believe that their objectives would be pan-Islamic. If it does turn out to be true that they were targeting Western interest in the city, then this would be the first such incident, and one that adds a dimension that draws India into the fold of “mainstream” terrorism.
Filed under: 11/25/2008, 2008, 25/11/2008, black cat, commandos, homeland security, India, Indian Army, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Laskhar-e-Toiba, let, Mumbai, Mumbai Terrorist Attack, National Security Guard, november 25, nsg, oberoi, Pakistan, south mumbai, taj, Terrorism, Uncategorized, usa, 11/25/2008, 25/11/2008, commandos, Congress I, homeland security, India, Indian Army, Lashkar-e-Taiba, lashkar-e-toiba, let, Manmohan Singh, Mumbai, Mumbai Terrorist Attack, National Security Guard, november 25 terrorist attack, nsg, oberoi hotel, Pakistan, south mumbai, taj hotel
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