What is the reality regarding Mumbai? Let us look at some disturbing facts that are being deliberately downplayed by India and the US.
First: There is the killing of the ATC Chief, Hemant Karkare, who was responsible for exposing Hindu militants and the Indian Army officers in the Samjhota Express and Malegaon acts of terrorism. His widow has refused to accept the state government’s compensation.
Second: The orange thread wristbands on one of the terrorists — a sign of belonging to the Hindu extremists of the RSS.
Third: No Lashkar-e-Taiba member would ever be clean shaven. Also, they have always admitted to their actions.
Fourth: The Mumbai area has seen acts of terrorism by Hindu extremists before.
Fifth: Was the intelligence and security forces’ failure deliberate, given the growing revelations of Indian Army officers being linked to Hindu extremists? Given that the Mumbai terrorism was extremely well-rehearsed and professional, could renegades from the Indian Army have been involved?
Sixth: The haste — in fact a pre-emptive campaign of smear, begun by the state government officials, even while the action was still ongoing — with which the Indian state and the media are targeting Muslims and Pakistan makes one wonder whether there is something lethal internally within India that needs to be hidden?
Seventh: This is not the first time acts of terror attributed by India to Muslim “extremists” have turned out to have been carried out by either state forces or Hindu extremists. Remember Chattisinghpura, Malegaon and Samjhota Express?
Eight: It was well known from the very beginning of these attacks, that there were limited number of attackers, the maximum number being 24. Which implies that attackers could not possibly control whole of Taj and oberio hotels. Despite that indian forces did not make early efforts to take control of those parts of the hotel which were not in control of terroritst. This implies that no early effort was made to isolate the terrorist to specific floors or areas of the building.If this had been done swiftly, then possibly half of the lives would have been saved and terrorist would not have been able to continue killing people for 3 days. The question is whether this was mere incompetence or deliberate act.
Nine: India has hurled public accusations, it should also provide evidence publicly to the world and even to the United Nations. India has not handed over or published the pictures of the Mombai attackers. Before making any accussations indians must establish identities of attackers.
This is time for Pakistan to adopt a firm, dignified and “enough is enough” approach. We need not extend any pre-emptive cooperation unless the Indians are prepared to accept a joint investigation with us in which we have access to all the information, materials and people (including the dead terrorists for our own examination).
Pakistan is already fighting two kinds of terrorism: extremist militancy by non-state actors (a word President Zardari seems to have just discovered!) and state terrorism from the neighbourhood and beyond. Perhaps the one statement our leaders should learn and repeat over and over again to the Indians is Sonia Gandhi’s declaration: “friendship should not be taken for weakness”. Clearly the Indians are confusing one with the other in the case of Pakistan.
Links:
The article above is modified version of opionion published here:
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=18805
