Mumbai under siege


We have had several bomb blasts in India, communal riots, floods, drought - each deadly in its own way. But for the first time ever, India faces a form of attack which we've never faced before. It's almost as if we are living in the middle ages when gun-toting men could just barge in, shoot whatever and whoever they like and move away. They've targeted the posh hotels - almost as if to show that no one is immune. Large number of hostages have been taken - the army's trying to fight them, repeated gunfire, constant explosions. It's war - suddenly Mumbai has become a war-zone.

May God protect us all.
Angi

The news reports I've been seeing about this (bad enough to watch, but I'm sure it's much worse than what we get to see) are beyond disturbing! I can't think of anything "right" to say to everyone in India. Just that my prayers/well wishes are with you and your plight.
Seems like chaos let loose. All over the city!

I'm glued to the television - it's so awful but I can't not watch. Like Gatsby722, I don't know what to say but you are all in my prayers.

Such an awful few days there. I've been watching this on TV and pray that all our FT friends are safe.

Shocking stuff. Thanks to cricket I know a few of our Indian contingent through our thread in the sport forum - so Deepak, Srini and Angi - I'm thinking of you these last few days. There was one from Mumbai as well a while ago, Harish, but he hasn't posted for ages.

How hard it must haver been for the Indian officials to try and fight it at so many places.

Australian wise there are two confirmed dead and 37 missing. Hopfully they are sitting somewhere else in India not realising the fuss they're making.

I'm heading to India in about two weeks!

Terrible stuff. Just keep asking the same questions everytime these things happen. Why do they? and How could they?

It was a most terrible event and is being called as India's 9/11. More than 200 innocent people died (including so many visitors). One of the first to die was the chief of the anti-terrorist squad, who failed to estimate the ferocity of the attack. Hopefully security systems will be tightened to prevent such attacks in future.

May the suffering of all beings end.

Namaste, ara

Another fine op-ed piece in the NY Times I read this morning. I (personally) thought it a very heartful and sensible reaction to the mayhem in India these past days. I suspect that there are no "right" or "wrong" reactions to such things, though - it all depends on where it affects a person how, on their own individual bases ~ but I think it makes for a good read, if nothing else. Hope and quiet power and fierce determination are all good things, however. No matter where one lives and no matter how much horror one has experienced.

*What They Hate About Mumbai*

Harish has just emailed me saying he and his relatives and friends are alright.

Gatsby, I just read that NYT report and it has left it with tears in my eyes. That article has so beautifully captured the Mumbaiya spirit - our Mumbai, aamchi Mumbai. And this paragraph just sums it up:

Quote:

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Mumbai is a “soft target,” the terrorism analysts say. Anybody can walk into the hotels, the hospitals, the train stations, and start spraying with a machine gun. Where are the metal detectors, the random bag checks? In Mumbai, it’s impossible to control the crowd. In other cities, if there’s an explosion, people run away from it. In Mumbai, people run toward it — to help. Greater Mumbai takes in a million new residents a year. This is the problem, say the nativists. The city is just too hospitable. You let them in, and they break your heart.

---

Come on attack us, fiends. Go on trying to destroy us. We will not be cowed down. Beat us, try and hammer us into submission - and "like dust, we will still rise"...

Oh Angi, NOW who has tears?!
I am glad Harish is OK. Thanks for that.

I am glad to hear that Harish is fine.

Thanks everybody for your concern. My family and friends are all okay.

Harish

Good to see you guys back, it's been too long and very pleased you're both OK and your families.

It is wonderful to see our Indian friends coming in to reassure us. We know many of you are heavy duty into your exams and studies but it's good to hear that you are ok.

I've checked on my family members over there and they are ok. The place they work/go to school has posted a message.

I haven't met with my Gujarati student this week, but I'm hoping that being from Mumbai, the news won't be bad for her family over there.

And here's the follow-up, as usual the blame-game has started.

Pakistan is thought to be behind the attack. The attacks are supposed to be orchestared by the Laskhar-E-Taiba, a branch of the ISI (correct me, if I'm wrong.). One terrorist was caught alive and he has admitted that they have been trained in Pakistan. In India, there has been an immediate aftermath. The more impulsive ones are crying "Let's attack Pakistan, now and tear them apart." The common people are at the moment, livid with the government for its inept handling of the situation. News reports have suggested that intelligence agencies had informed the Maharasthra govt that they were getting indications of this kind of attack. The common man on the street and I am a part of that, cannot fathom why, even after such a warning, these terrorists were so successful. At the moment, there is tension between India and Pakistan, derailing the manufactured peace of the last five years. India and Pakistan are both nuclear-armed states, a war between them is likely to be destructive on a large scale.

To our US friends, what exactly is the general mood regarding this issue over there? I mean, US has been a supporter of India (the recent US-India Nuke Deal) so it says it will support India regarding the Pakistani problem. But what are the papers over there saying - do they also conform to the belief that there is a Pakistani hand behind this? Also, on an unrelated note, is there a reason why international news agencies (BBC, NYT) are not using the term "terrorist" and instead calling them "militants" or "gunmen”? Because, if these guys are not terrorists, I don't know what are!

Angi.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all and with the families who lost loved ones too. It seems there are very few places safe places left on this earth. How sad.

They're terrorists over here mate.

Our thoughts are with you and all your families.

The BBC have some sort of selective blindness where certain terrorist groups are sympathised with so no longer called what they actually are. Whose hand is guiding this decision remains something of a mystery but does demonstrate a definite collusion somewhere behind the scenes otherwise they would not reduce the seriousness of what is really the most serious of all crimes, murdering innocent people in cold blood.

Here's an article on the BBC's coverage of the Mumbai attacks and it's criticism by some UK Labour party legislators.

The people of India have our sympathy. Sadly, we have a lot of experience with these terrorist attacks, but they are impossible to get used to. Yesterday, there were six funerals in Israel of people murdered in Bombay, including a couple who left a little child with no parents.

Yes, Janetgool I was so upset at the report of that little mite, the son of the Rabbi and his wife , left an orphan. So tragic.

Another example of man's inhumanity to man with innocents as the spoils of the conflict.

What, if any, are the goals of the terrorists? Is it part of the ongoing India/Pakistan hostilities? Were westerners the only targets?

PLEASE tell me it's not a 'my God's better than your God' attack!