Mumbai Massacre

The Nov. 26 terror activity in Mumbai resulted in the gruesome deaths of nearly 200 innocent and unsuspecting people which is lamentable and reprehensible by any account.

For those who live in relative peace and calm, it was a great shock and outrage. However, for most Pakistanis it was just another of those things that happens frequently in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta and almost daily in the tribal areas. In fact, it was a relief that this time it was outside the borders. The Mumbai carnage is different from the Islamabad Marriott terrorism which was the act of a lone truck driver meant to cause wanton death and destruction on the Hotel whose two floors were occupied by an American intelligence agency. In Mumbai there were nearly two dozen John Rambos who struck at 10 different places and majority of them who had return tickets for the ferry by which they came disappeared leaving caches of ammunition and explosives to be discovered later, which can give clues to the investigators.

Ten terrorists took hostages in three buildings, but it is very strange that they also started major fires in the buildings in which they were holding the hostages. They also posed smiling to photographers and did not have any expression of tension or hatred on their faces. It seems that they were just having a bloody picnic. It is even more surprising that they had enough ammunition to hold off the entire Indian security machinery for up to 60 hours. If the terrorists had been surrounded, why wasn’t an attempt made to negotiate the release of the hostages? Much useful information could have been gained in the process and the hostages could have lived a bit longer if nothing else. Equally surprising is the fact that many cameras but no guns were aimed at Ajmal Kassab and he was such a friendly terrorist that he told his whole story to the Mumbai police while the Americans have failed to get any confessions in Guantanamo Bay in years. It is a pity that the Indian media failed to interview the owners and staff of those buildings.

Most intelligence agencies seem to have known in advance that the attack was coming. The reaction of the Indian intelligence in immediately blaming the Pakistani ISI creates the impression that they were expecting a reprisal for some mischief they had made in Pakistan. It is very easy for the Indians to instigate sectarian and ethnic violence in Pakistan as the headquarters of both Barelvi and Deobandi sects are located in India and there is no reason why Indian intelligence agencies would not have infiltrated them and sent misleading messages through American satellites. If a hoax call can be made from the office of the Indian foreign minister to the president of Pakistan, the anything can happen. There is also a strong opinion base in Pakistan that believes that some of the religious fanatics involved in suicide attacks may also be externally motivated. However, there are a number of other possibilities that also need to be eliminated.

The Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, like many other parts of the world is a land of vendettas. In 1971 when Indian troops comprehensively defeated the Pakistan army in what is now Bangladesh, the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi declared that the battle of Panipat had been avenged. Panipat was the venue of a battle in 1526 when the Moghul emperor Babar from Afghanistan laid the foundation of the Moghul empire in India. The lady was gunned down by her own Sikh bodyguards to avenge the desecration of the Golden Temple by Indian troops. Her son Rajiv Gandhi who had succeeded her as prime minister and avenged the death of mother by allowing thousands of Sikhs to be lynched, was killed in the first suicide attack of its kind by Tamil dissidents who were taking revenge of the Aryan invasion and subjugation in which the Tamils, the original inhabitants of the subcontinent were made untouchables. In 1996 when the Bangladeshi cricket team defeated the Pakistani team in a world-cup match, the Bangladeshi prime minister declared that the age old domination of Bengalis by the Pakistanis had been avenged. There must be hundreds of other scores that remain to be settled. Let us not create new avengeable incidents and hope that some day in future all old scores will be settled and lasting peace will prevail. More than a division of Pakistani army backed by artillery and air force is engaged in fierce fighting to eliminate terrorist movement in the Northern Areas which has 10 legislators in the National Assembly. Many people have a misconception that the Northern Areas are a disputed area between India and Pakistan as the map in Encyclopedia Britannica wrongly shows. According to the UN Security Council’s resolutions no. 38, 39, 47, 51, 80 etc., Jammu and the Vale of Kashmir wrongly shown as a part of India in the encyclopedias are the disputed territories where a referendum is to be held under UN supervision to decide whether it should be a part of India or Pakistan. The world community has already rejected India’s claim and given the choice to the Kashmiris. Sanctions were not imposed on India for noncompliance because on each occasion the Soviet Union vetoed the resolutions against India. It is note-worth that almost every coalition government in India includes the Communist Party. However, conspiring to change maps does not change the reality. One can only hope that the US president-elect Barack Obama has taken the trouble to find the facts and has come to the right conclusions before taking an initiative on Kashmir.

The NATO forces in Afghanistan are somehow not satisfied with what the Pakistan military is doing as they are more interested in eliminating people of certain beliefs on a selective basis. The Europeans are still trying to shake off their genocidal streak which raises its head from time to time. The NATO army wants to enter the Northen Areas and carry out aggressive activity. The Mumbai attack did create a situation in which the Indians could attack the eastern borders of Pakistan forcing Pak army to withdraw from the western borders leaving the field open to the NATO forces. NATO leadership has acted swiftly to dispel any suspicions on that account.

The Russian president was about to visit India a few days later to sign deals for building nuclear reactors and supply of military hardware which the Americans were trying their level best to stop at the eleventh hour as they have already invested heavily in their nuclear cooperation agreement with India. The Mumbai attack forced the Americans to support Pakistan against the wild Indian allegations and wash their hands from the nuclear and military equipment deals. State elections are proceeding and general elections are scheduled in India in a few months’ time and in a national emergency with the threat of war, the ruling party usually benefits as people do not want to change the status quo. A party that can not find an elected legislator good enough to be prime minister would inevitably need to play some tricks. However, if the Indian leaders would admit that they make the noises about a foreign hand in their homegrown terrorist activities in order to avert widespread communal violence, one could have pity on them. Most intelligence agencies have their representatives in most terrorist and criminal organizations. Sometimes even intelligence agents who have broken away from the national organizations join the underworld for their own protection and vice versa and occasionally commonly known terrorist in the offing are hijacked by intelligence agencies and exploited. The criminal gangs based in the Arabian Gulf have often ruined the peace of both Karachi and Mumbai, at times due to their own mutual or internal differences. Why don’t the Indians ask the ruler of Emirates to do something about it? However, the quality and credibility of intelligence agencies is not to be trusted in the light of the WMD hoax created by them prior to the Iraq invasion. The problem is that many political leaderships have no intelligence other than that of the agencies.

No one has so far suggested that Mumbai should be placed under the control of UN troops and a thorough investigation should be held under the auspices of the UN Security Council.