Mumbai terror masterminds arrested in Pakistan

Hmm.... I'm not "quite" sure what to make of this. Holbrooke makes his first trip to Pakistan, and lo and behold, the Pakistani government, which till now seemed to have been dragging its feet, all of a sudden has gone and arrested the alleged plotters behind the Mumbai attacks a few months earlier, which claimed some 173 lives.

On the one hand, great. Now I hope they call a couple of hard pipe-hitting ni****s to go to work on these homes here with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch and figure out exactly what happened, and then hopefully actually root out the LeT. The fact is that most mainstream Pakistanis are equally fed up with the crazies as everyone else, and I think we'll all be happier if they're stomped out.

On the other hand, I have to wonder, what arm wringing has been going on in the background, and what has been promised in exchange for this? This is no small deal. A government is actually owning up to the fact that a terrorist organization has fluorished within its borders and has plotted and carried out a terror attack on a neighboring country. This is big. So for Pakistan to own up to this, I wonder what has been promised in return.

My guess is "anti-terror" arms and technology form the US. Now ostensibly, this will be used on the Afghen border to root out those crazies. But this whole thing of arming a weak government in order to quell an uprising has been tried so many times before (to many to link to), and most often, has failed spectacularly. Plus who knows how the equation will change with regards to Kashmir, even though/especially since India has lobbied strongly (and successfully) to ensure that Kashmir will not be on Holbrooke's mandate...

Phew, I don't know what's really happening... and I'd wager a bunch of money that no one does... what do you think is happening?

Terror in Mumbai - settling down and questions

So it does look like things are settling down; the bad guys have either been killed or have gotten away. I hope the cops hunt them down. And there's one guy I hear who was arrested. His ass is toast. As it should be. Indian cops, if you don't know, don't play good cop, bad cop. They play bad cop, sadist cop. (For a revealing look at how the police works in Mumbai, read "Maximum City" by Suketu Mehta)

1. How solid is the evidence that these people indeed came from Pakistan and Banglasdesh?

2. Who are the kingpins and the planners behind this?

3. Where did the money and the logistics come from?

4. Was there inside help? If so, from whom?

And of course, 

5. Where does the government go from here.

We'll see where all this leads...

 

Terror in Mumbai - things are still unresolved

I had written a long post about the latest, but then Com-#$@*ing-cast screwed up and I lost my connection. This is ridiculous.

Anyways, what I was saying is that things are completely vague on location, no one really knows what is happening on the ground, there are people talking their heads off with various theories, and there is a tasteless sensationalizing of an already bad situation in the Indian media. This is awful. You cannot shove a mic in someone's face when they've just lost a relative, or when they've just been rescued from a hostage situation. There was one channel where they actually bookended each segment with a graphic that screamed "TERROR IN MUMBAI!!!" that literally exploded in a fireball. Ugh.

Apparently though, all that intimate coverage (with details about rescue plans and commando positions) were on delayed transmission. Also the electricity at some of the places was cut and phone lines jammed. I'm not so sure about the latter, but apparently this is the case, so the terrorists couldn't find out exactly where these guys were just by flicking on the TV. Still, *way* too much detail, and *way* too little crowd control. 

But the situation still hasn't ended. They keep saying it has, or that its close to winding down, and then it flares up again, so I really don't know. We'll see how this goes down, but at the end, the Indian media needs to look in the mirror and do a critical assessment of how it handles situations like these. 

On the other hand, CNN has a link up called "India 101". You know, for those who want to know a little more about a country that has 17% of the worlds population and is the worlds largest democracy. Apparently its not a country full of Appus, elephants and snake charmers. 

Terror in Mumbai

So I'm sure all of you have heard about the terror attacks in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The media (especially in India) is all over this one, but to be honest, I don't really think ANYONE knows ANYTHING about whats happening. First of all, people who I know in Bombay are fine. Shaken, but OK.

There's a blog up that has pics. I'm not so sure about the captioning. There are people dying and this guy is gushing about the beautiful helmets of the Indian fire department. But still, some of the pics are arresting.

http://arunshanbhag.com/

This is an incredibly sophisticated and well-planned attack. Sure, there have always been terror strikes in India (some 3,600 deaths in the last three years, second only to Iraq). They usually get short shrift from the International media, and sadly, from Indians themselves. We tend to forgive, we tend to forget. And the one basic tenet of Hindu philosophy "Life will go on", which ordinarily helps one immensely with getting over grief, with looking past setbacks, rings terribly hollow right now.

I don't want "life to just go on". I don't want this one to be another one of those terror attacks that flits across the TV screens and fades away from memory as soon as it fades away from the media spotlight. We already had 50+ people die in a blast in Jaipur, another 50+ I think die in another blast in Ahmedabad just in the past few months. Didn't hear about them, did you. Yeah. Thats what happens when "Life goes on".

I want things to change after this one. I'm looking at a few things that were immediately, painfully obvious:

The cops were incredibly out of shape and were equipped with lathis (batons) and .303 rifles. No match against AK-47s that the terrorists had.

Bad communications on ground in the immediate aftermath; confusion, mayhem, even, where there should have been clarity and decisiveness.

Horrible decision making. How on Earth can the Chief of the Anti-terror squad and the top Encounter Specialist of the Mumbai Police be allowed to walk into a hostile situation without adequate protection? Within less than a couple of hours into the ordeal, these two top cops were shot dead. The Chief was shot thrice in the chest. No bullet proof vest???

Why do the police not have someone who can keep the media and the crowds at bay? Some of the media shots of the commandos and their setup was incredibly intimate. Sure, the public needs to know whats happening, but to openly discuss and reveal their locations and tactics on live TV? That just cannot be allowed to happen.

I know, I know; with this level of planning and sophistication, almost any government will have been overwhelmed. It is near impossible to completely prevent this sort of attack. There are long-term strategies aimed at stemming the tide of Islamic fundamentalism (all signs point to this also being behind the current Mumbai attacks), but thats a topic for another day. But for today, we need to think deeply critically of our counter terrorist tactics to keep fatalities and damage as low as possible, in the event of such an attack.

Lets see how things pan out.