Sunday, November 30, 2008

HEADS ROLL IN INDIA, OVER THE MUMBAI MASSACRE

THERE is no denying it. The Indians totally screwed up when faced with the deadly and well organized attacks by terrorists in Mumbai. Already at least 183 are dead, hundreds wounded and the death toll may climb over the next few days.

Now the second scene, the blame game is on.

Shivaji Patel, the Home Security honcho has reportedly offered his resignation, as any self-respecting bureaucrat would do. MK Narayanan, who once had the gall to dictate that Sri Lanka must not acquire her defensive requirements from anyone other than India, and that India herself would decide what Sri Lanka needs, had followed suite and offered his too. Maybe that was the only way to prevent a summary dismissal, since the Indian PM is said to have accepted Narayanan's resignation without hesitation, while Patel's employment situation is not yet clear. Narayanan's departure is good news for us Sri Lankans, even though we should not be seen jubilant over this outcome.

Interrogation of the captured terrorist in India would be 'direct' as one western security person described it, meaning it would involve physical coercion and torture to obtain information swiftly from the sole surviving terrorist. The Indians should pay particular attention to identifying whether any of the terror group managed to escape and hang around to attack again later. Interestingly, western media are still describing the attckers as 'militants' while only nations which have suffered similar attrocities in the hands of such brutes are calling them what they truly are; terrorists. The average Indians deserve our sympathy and our support in learning to deal effectively with such brutes so that our region can become safer.

Initial reports from India seems to suggest these terrorists are from the Pakistani controlled Kashmiri region and quite possibly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba or LeT, even though a previously unheard of group calling themselves Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility initially. LeT is presumed to be connected to the shadowy Pakistani intelligence outfit, the ISI and this could lead to a potentially souring of relations between the two countries, unless they act like grown ups in the face of the subtle and manipulative intentions behind the overt action, obviously aimed at creating tension between the two nations.

No comments: