EDITORIAL Mumbai strike: attack on Indian nationhood — Sazzad Hussain
The November terror strike in Mumbai by Pakistan is not an attack on this metropolis or its people along with foreign tourists. It is an attack on India. It is the desperate attempt of those terrorists who have been lured by personal goal of getting a confirmed entry to heaven as preached by some nihilistic Mullahs claiming to be representing the true face of Islam. India is the microcosm of what the world is with its immensely diverse cultural set up and people of numerous faiths and languages. Though Pakistan too falls to this great periphery of India notwithstanding the political boundaries, a wide section of the clergy of that country has been bent on presenting its people and culture to be apart of what India has been over many civilizations and trying to associate itself with what the Saudi Arabian version of Wahabi or Salafi Islam, which is indeed the Islam belonging to the harsh lifestyles of the Bedouins and their typical customs. Indian Islam, which constitutes the second largest concentration of the world has blossomed in the rich cultural tradition of Persia and Central Asian Turkey customs along with the Hindu-Buddhist and other elements has never produced hatred and animosity of this proportion as advocated by the Pakistan based Jehadis though its followers have faced too many upheavals here ever since the Partition. Therefore the Mumbai attacks do not bear the mark of Islam, at least from the Indian Muslim perspective.
The Mumbai strike by Pakistani terrorists is an attack on Indian nationhood because it once again has thrown the Muslim community here to the receiving end. Since the Partition Muslims in India have not been allowed to live in peace by Pakistan’s constant bullish stand and confrontationist agenda against India including its effort to claim guardianship of this presently besieged community. In the 1980s Pakistan got the support of a section of Indian Muslims in cricket and hockey matches, mostly due to the growing emergence of a global Muslim diaspora of South Asia in the Gulf because of the oil boom of the 70s and a very conscious effort by Saudi Arabia with tacit American support to promote Islamic transnationalism. However, that ignorant move by a section of the Indian Muslims which that had greatly tarnished its image was corrected in due course of time and India became the only country of the world with the second highest population of Muslims with no links to AI-Qaeda or international Jehadi terrorism. India’s secular ethos and its firm political stand on Palestinian cause against Israel left no room for such kind of activities for Muslims in India. This very insularity of Indian Muslims to the Islamist’ campaigns outside it borders has been frustrating the Jehadi forces since a long time. Many terror strikes inside India in the last two decades show the attempts by the Jehadi forces to win the support of Indian Muslims. The communal pogrom by the extreme right wing Hindu groups in India has contributed in providing soldiers to the Jehadis sitting on the other side of the border, however which has also not been a staggering phenomenon. Therefore, the Indianness of Indian Muslims and its adherence to the Indian nation state has been the cause of frustration of those Jehadis and the recent Mumbai attack was the manifestation of that continuous effort by them to crush what is being India. However this heinous design has been thwarted by the right thinking Indians who refused to believe that it was the handiwork of one particular faith.
Now coming to the point of security measures and the failure to prevent such a huge terror strike we have to highlight the whole scenario. While everyone is talking about the failure of our intelligence mechanism and other security measures most of us, are still ignorant of the lack of political will to address these concerns and the present capacity of the security measures which falls far beyond the international standards. This constraint of India has been termed as “strategic deafness” by defence expert Praveen Swami. This inactive nature of India’s security apparatus has been plagued by latest technology, infrastructure and machinery as well as personnel and has been painfully slow in implementing the recommendations made by experts after the review of earlier terror strikes- Indian intelligence received reports of marine commando training by the LeT in Mangla Dam Reservoir of Pakistan in 2002 aiming to target cities like Mumbai. In 2006, the Union Home Ministry was reported about one Faisal Haroun, a top LeT operative engaged in India centric activities in Bangladesh. Haroun was briefly detained by the Bangladeshi authorities in September, 2006 before being deported to Pakistan. As reported by Praveen Swami, a western intelligence service obtained the scripts of Haroun’s questioning by the DGFI-Bangladesh. From that report it was revealed that Haroun, using a complex network of merchant ships and fishing trawlers moved explosives to India. Ghulam Yazdani, a Hyderabad resident who was involved in the assassination of former Gujarat Home Minister, Hren Pandya and the bombing of the Delgi-Patna Shramjivi Express in 2005 was one of the receivers of those explosives. It was also found that Haroun had established a base for LeT in an unpopulated island of Maldives with a local supporter Ali Assham. This group was responsible for the Islamist terror activities in that Indian Ocean country in 2007 including the bombing of tourists in Male’s Sultan Park and the setting up of a parallel Sharia-run mini-state in the island of Himandhoo- From Maldives Horoun planned to send explosives to India through the Kerala coast.
After these reports New Delhi moved up to step up coastal counter-infiltration measures and planned to set up 73 coastal police stations equipped with 204 boats, 153 jeeps and 312 motorcycle along with marine police personnel trained in maritime activities in liaison with nine coastal States and UTs. Except setting up over a dozen of coastal police stations by Maharashtra and Gujarat with fewer than dozen speed boats nothing was implemented. There was no marine police force: no sophisticated surveillance equipments and counter infiltration measures taken by these coastal States were rudimentary. Even the famed ATS personnel do not have high quality bullet proof vests and helmets for which we have to lose some finest and bravest officers of the country, Hemant Karkare, Kalskar and Kamte. Even the NSG does not have its own aircraft for which two precious hours were lost in deploying them in the trouble spots of Mumbai from Haryana The corporate world is also to be blamed for its insensitivity for the present global context of terrorism. Neither the Taj Mahal Hotel nor the Oberoi-Trident had access control system or a system to face terror attack.
Now what India would do in response to this terror strike? Though the public sentiment is that India should take punitive measures against these forces and strike the terror camps inside Pakistan, we must see the real constraints associated with such options. Any Indian strike, will be simply deemed to be a war against Pakistan which may lead to a catastrophic consequence. War with Pakistan at this time will also strengthen the Pakistani military establishment which is fast losing its grip in its public-political life after the restoration of democracy and coming of power of an elected civilian government. Though the Pakistani denial of the involvement of its nationals in the Mumbai terror strike is very unfortunate and its refusal to extradite some of the most wanted terrorists to India is the continuation of its words of ambiguity concerning the war on terror, India should mount pressure on Islamabad to go tough on anti-Indian terror activities. A sustained diplomatic pressure and international campaign can force Islamabad to take action against those responsible for terror attacks in India. Pakistan, who itself is victim of its self created terrorism must understand that an unequivocal stand against this menace could bring back its already fragile position in the international front. (The writer teaches English at Lakhimpur Commerce College)
