Human Rights Law

After Mumbai, Neighbors With Nukes

By Alexa

This week's terror attacks in Mumbai have been characterized as India's 9/11. With the siege over, the death toll at 200 and counting, all eyes on Pakistan and the near-certainty of Indian retribution:

Terrible things, we think, always happen to other people. That's why victims of terror - the working-class blokes blown to pieces on a ramshackle city bus; the middle-class folks reduced to pulp on a suburban train; and the ragpicker killed by a bomb ticking inside the dustbin in a crowded market - remain just another statistic. The list is long - thousands have fallen to killer devices planted by faceless terrorists who vanish into thin air after the carnage. And then we see the aftermath of the bloodbath on television.

But things changed this week. There was a flurry of shots ringing inside the ballrooms of luxury hotels; people sipping beer at a bar were sprayed with bullets; and high-profile businessmen were shot pointblank in their plush suites by merciless terrorists. Almost all of it was live on 24x7 television. The message was clear - now, we are the other people. (The Times Of India)

Pakistan's reversal of a decision to send the head of its intelligence service to India is a political own goal, following the offer made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. In sending a lower level ISI official instead, the decision damages Pakistan's case that all of the military organisations of the state are now under democratic control. But who are these shadow groups being looked askance and why is Pakistan presumed guilty?
The Pakistani Version

Mayhem and devastation once again prevails in India and fingers are being pointed out towards Pakistan. The awful reality is that we as a nation are accused of exporting terrorism around the world. The crucial question that needs an honest answer is: Could we justify our position before the international community or not? The blame game is not new; India has a long history of such allegations against Pakistan.

The truth is that India is at war with Pakistan and has been since 1947. War never ended and it continued in the form of covert actions, proxy or any other means.

After the Kargil war, a renowned Indian defense journal suggested to start covert operations in Pakistan: "The key to the solution lies in transfer of war where it hurts the enemy. (India should) task covert operations into POK, Karachi and other places in Pakistan, which are already torn with societal strife. Isolate the Punjabi musalman who is at the core of mischief against India, fund the Northern Alliance and tie-up with Iran to roll back the Taliban. Fourth, isolate Pakistan in the international arena."

In the past the ISI has had strong links with Islamist militant groups, going back to its (then US-funded) sponsorship of the Mujahideen against Russian control of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and backing for the Taleban in the 1990s.

In the early 1990s, a campaign to end Indian control of Kashmir became far more violent, and Lashkar-e-Toiba was among groups which benefited from Pakistani state support to train militants for that cause. The Lashkar-e-Toiba was banned by the military-led government of Pakistan in 2002 at US insistence.

Despite the Pakistani government's promise to end the activity of this group, several years later it continued Despite the Pakistani government's promise to end the activity of this group, several years later it continued "largely unabated", according to an investigation by the think tank International Crisis Group.

By 2007, when the military government did appear to be trying to crack down, it found itself victim to what analysts call "Islamic blowback" - attacks on itself by groups once favored and now out of control.

In a series of interviews published in the New York Times, Carlotta Gall reported former ISI operatives admitting that parts of the agency were trying to stop attacks by militants that others in the same organisation were still financing.

An Indian Journalist's Case for Caution

The attack was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, but Indian officials pointed the finger at neighboring Pakistan.

India's foreign minister said the blame appeared to point to Pakistan. "According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks," Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

"Will we go to war with Pakistan?" Aditya Sinha, Editor-in-Chief of The New Indian Express wrote:

All leaders are undoubtedly aware of the fact that Indians, despite being jaded by decades of terrorism, have been deeply angered, saddened, frustrated, depressed and embittered by the terror attack. They are also aware that general elections are around the corner. The government also knows that there has been massive intelligence failure, a fact which is obvious to even otherwise disinterested citizens.

To blame Pakistan is to absolve oneself from any responsibility for this failure. But the blame is a double-edged sword, for it makes the government vulnerable to public pressure that will build in the coming days.

Talking heads and newspaper columnists will feed upon this anger and fuel it further, adding to the pressure. There will be a common thread: our politicians are self-serving, the state is soft, and there has got to be payback.

Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek:

This is not just India's problem. The terrorists seem to have had foreign connections. This might have included Qaeda support, though more likely inspiration. They almost certainly got both support and training from groups in Pakistan. Let us assume that the Pakistani government was in no way involved.

There remains the basic and enduring problem: the Pakistan government has created, supported and trained Islamic jihadists for decades. The Pakistani military needs to genuinely embrace the idea of zero tolerance for jihadists, not distinguish between good ones (those that keep Afghanistan and India on edge) and bad ones (those that set off bombs within Pakistan). These groups blur into one another and cannot easily be segregated. And they are all enemies of modernity and democracy.

After the dastardly attack on the Taj, how will one now remember the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai - as a heritage building or as one that was assaulted by grenades and bullets by intruders from across the sea? (Financial Times, India)

When the dead have been mourned, when the rage and shock trauma have lessened, my hope is that India won't make the mistakes the US made after 9/11; the rush to judgment, the immediate need for retribution, the world of goodwill so callously refused.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on November 29, 2008 (boomark / email).