THE TERRORIST ATTACK ON Introduction

On Wednesday, November 28, 2008, a the group responsible for the carnage Focus small group of heavily armed terrorists had links to Islamic militants fighting This News in Review story focuses on the staged a remarkably well-co-ordinated against Indian control of the disputed terrorist attack on the series of attack on various locations in northern border region of Kashmir. And Indian city of Mumbai Mumbai, India’s largest city and main in every instance, these acts of violence in late November cultural and commercial centre. The had served to inflame the sometimes 2008. We examine this gunmen had carefully selected their tense and hostile relationship between dramatic event in the prime targets: two luxury , the the majority Hindu and minority Muslim context of the strained main train station, a popular downtown population of Mumbai. relations between India and , café, and a local Jewish community Ever since India and its neighbour religious tension centre. They killed as many innocent Pakistan gained independence from the between Indian people as they could with high-powered United Kingdom in 1947 and underwent Hindus and Muslims, AK-47 assault rifles and grenades. a painful process of partition, Kashmir and implications for Many of the victims were foreigners, has been a major bone of contention peace and stability in including two Canadians who were between the two countries. The group a troubled part of the visiting Mumbai (once known as initially held responsible for the most world. Bombay), one of India’s most popular recent Mumbai attack was a previously tourist destinations. After over 60 hours unknown organization called the Deccan Further Research of close-quarter fighting between elite Mujahideen, or holy warriors of the To stay informed Indian Army commando units and the Deccan region of southern India. But it about the views of determined terrorists holed up in soon became apparent that the faction India and Pakistan on rooms and other locations, much of that had masterminded the whole this issue, consider a visit to their official downtown Mumbai resembled a war operation and trained those responsible government Web zone. The century-old Palace for carrying it out was none other than sites at goidirectory. Hotel, one of the city’s most famous Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), an Islamic nic.in (Government landmarks, was badly damaged by fire. fundamentalist guerrilla group dedicated of India directory) At least 173 people were dead, with to ousting Indian forces from Kashmir. and www.pak.gov. hundreds more wounded. All but one of Although officially banned in Pakistan, pk Government of ( the terrorist gunmen had also been killed. where it maintains its base of operations, Pakistan). The surviving member of the group lay LET has been one of the jihadi groups wounded and under heavy guard at a of extremist Muslim holy warriors Mumbai hospital. that various elements in Pakistan’s The sheer scope and violence of this government and military have covertly terrorist attack brought back memories of encouraged in their operations against the September 11, 2001, events in New India in Kashmir since the late 1980s. York City and Washington; many Indians In the immediate aftermath of the referred to the incident as their country’s carnage in Mumbai, many in India called version of 9/11. But this was not the on their government to account for its first time Mumbai had been the scene of failure to respond quickly and effectively terrorist violence. A series of bombings to the attack. The navy had not been able on the city’s subway system in 2006 and to foresee or prevent the terrorists from an even more serious wave of attacks attacking the city from the sea, and the in 1993 had also resulted in the loss of military units called in from New Delhi, hundreds of lives. In the 2006 attack, the country’s capital, had been very slow

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 31 to arrive and take up their positions. For attack, and the mutual finger-pointing Did you know . . . the Indian government of Prime Minister of blame resulting from it, signified just Asif Ali Zardari is the widower of the Mahmohan Singh, dedicated to pursuing the latest in a series of crises that have recently assassinated more peaceful relations with Pakistan, brought the two countries to all-out war Benazir Bhutto. the attack could not have come at a on three occasions since independence. worse time. Singh called on his Pakistani With Pakistan facing serious internal counterpart, Prime Minister Asif Ali problems, and the ongoing war in Zardari, to mount a full investigation Afghanistan becoming a major foreign- to determine who was responsible for policy issue for U.S. President Barack ordering the attack and hand the culprits Obama, the fallout from the Mumbai over to Indian authorities. For his part, bombings could result in a deterioration Zardari claimed that his government was of the already precarious and unstable doing all it could to control groups such situation in this troubled region of the as LET, which were allied to the Taliban world. For Canada, which faces the very insurgents operating in Afghanistan real possibility of U.S. pressure to extend against NATO forces, including its troop mission in Afghanistan, and Canadian troops. as the new homeland of many people Both India and Pakistan are nuclear of South Asian origin, both Indians and powers that, over the past decades, have Pakistanis alike, the Mumbai tragedy and found themselves on the brink of war its possibly dangerous consequences are on numerous occasions. The Mumbai matters of considerable concern.

To Consider 1. Why was the terrorist attack on Mumbai so terrifying and unexpected?

2. In what ways was this attack similar to the events of September 11, 2001, in the United States?

3. What terrorist group was believed to be responsible for the attack? What is its main objective?

4. How did the Indian and Pakistani governments respond to the attack?

5. What are some of the possible consequences of the Mumbai attack for relations between India and Pakistan, and for the war in Afghanistan?

6. Why did the Mumbai attack resonate so strongly with South Asian Canadians?

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 32 THE TERRORIST ATTACK ON MUMBAI Video Review

Watch the video and answer the following questions. Further Research To learn more about 1. Why is Mumbai such an important and popular city in India? India, visit CBC News In Depth: India at www.cbc.ca/news/ 2. What were the main targets of the terrorist attack on the city on background/india/ November 26, 2008? economic-miracle. html.

3. How were Canadians visiting Mumbai and their friends and relatives in Canada affected by the attack?

4. What was the reaction of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the attack?

5. How many Canadians were in Mumbai at the time of the attack? How many were killed? ______6. How long did it take the Indian army to crush the terrorists responsible for the attack? ______7. What is the name of the group believed to be responsible for the attack? What is its main objective? Where is its base of operations located? With what other terrorist groups does it have connections?

8. What demand has the U.S. government made to Pakistan in order to deal with the group believed responsible for the attack on Mumbai?

9. Why will the investigation into the attack be difficult, given the state of relations between India and Pakistan?

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 33 Assigning Responsibility With your classmates, discuss the following issues arising from the material contained in the video:

• Who was responsible for the Mumbai attack? • What were their motives? • How should the leaders of India and Pakistan respond to and deal with the crisis that these events have caused in relations between the two countries? • How is the attack related to the conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region? • How does the tension arising from this attack impact on the war in Afghanistan and Canada’s role in it?

Notes:

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 34 THE TERRORIST ATTACK ON MUMBAI The Attack

Mumbai, once known as Bombay, is population is around 18 million, making India’s largest city, main commercial it one of the most populous cities in the centre, and home to the world-renowned world. It is a city with glaring income “Bollywood” film industry. It is a disparities between the super-rich Indian cosmopolitan, sophisticated city with upper class that has benefited from the many famous landmarks, including the country’s recent economic boom and the Gate of India and the Taj Mahal Palace millions of impoverished slum residents Hotel. The city attracts visitors from who can barely eke out a living in the all over the world. In addition, many city’s crowded streets and back alleys. Indians from poorer parts of the country The fast pace of life, occasional violence, move to Mumbai to seek a better life. Its and sheer excitement of Mumbai has been the subject of many Bollywood movies, along with international film hits such as Salaam Bombay and Slumdog Millionaire. The terrorist attack that struck Mumbai in late November 2008 was only the most recent in a series of violent events that have occurred in the city over the past few decades. In 1993, a series of bombs were detonated around the city by an extremist Muslim group angry over the destruction of an ancient mosque by Hindu radicals. Similar incidents took place in 2002 and 2003, when tensions between India and Pakistan were at the breaking point over the disputed region of Kashmir. The most serious attack prior to 2008 occurred in July 2006 when 209 people were killed after the city’s suburban railway network was the target of bombs. In every case, Indian police attributed the various attacks to two groups: the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), an Islamic fundamentalist organization, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), a movement based in Pakistan and dedicated to ending Indian control in Kashmir The attack that began on the evening of November 26, 2008, was quite India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed neighbours that have had different from the previous bombing several conflicts in the past. The region of Kashmir is one major source of dispute. Both governments have attempted to reduce incidents that had struck the city in the tension; however, extremist elements, particularly in Pakistan past. This time, the attackers arrived by continue to incite violence. sea from Pakistan. Then they boarded

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 35 speed boats to enter the harbour in this was the prime target of the group, Did you know . . . , one of Mumbai’s most populated despite the fact that Jews compose a tiny There were about 60 railway police in the districts in the southern part of the city. fraction of Mumbai’s mostly Hindu and Chhatrapati Shiva Local fishermen told police that 10 Urdu- Muslim population. It is believed that the station, but most speaking men landed around 8 p.m., told terrorists wanted to strike at this centre to were equipped with them to “mind their own business,” and show their opposition to Israel’s actions batons or First World then separated into two groups, heading against the Palestinians in the Middle War-era weapons. for various points in the city. East. Before the siege at They were no match Two of the terrorists, including the sole was over, the rabbi and his pregnant for the heavily armed terrorists. surviving member of the group, Ajmal wife were both dead, along with other Amir Kasab, struck the Chhatrapati hostages. Shiva Terminus, once known as Victoria Another pair of terrorists moved Terminus, the city’s main railway station, into the Café Leopold, a bar popular at 9:30 p.m. Armed with AK-47 assault with locals and foreigners alike, and weapons, they entered the main hall began shooting randomly at waiters and and opened fire, throwing grenades. At customers. They killed at least eight least 10 people were killed instantly. people. By the morning of November Meanwhile, two of Mumbai’s most 27, Indian military units and police luxurious hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace had secured most of the locations the and Tower and the Oberoi Trident terrorists had targeted, but fighting was were also struck. Two terrorists seized still raging inside the Taj Mahal Hotel, 15 hostages, including seven foreign where a fire was burning out of control tourists in the Taj Mahal. At the Oberoi, on the first floor. It was not until two 40 people were held as hostages. The days later that the last three terrorists terrorists specifically targeted Americans holed up inside the Taj had been killed and Britons as potential hostages by and the remaining hostages freed. In all, demanding to see their passports. Indian security forces had rescued 250 Meanwhile, people eating dinner at people from the Oberoi, 300 from the the hotels’ upscale restaurants were Taj, and 60 of various nationalities from shot dead, as were others attempting to Nariman House. In total, 173 people flee the scene. Grenade blasts started had been killed in the attack—including a serious fire in both hotels, severely nine of the 10 terrorists—and 308 had damaging the century-old Taj. Indian been wounded. The dead included a Rapid Action Force commandos number of foreign tourists, including totaling 200 in number were dispatched two Canadians. However, the vast from New Delhi to take control of the majority of the victims were Indians, situation and free the hostages. Many many of them poor people who lost their prominent people, including a delegation lives in the indiscriminate shooting at of representatives from the European the railway station and other locations Parliament, were staying at the two in the city. Some of the bodies that hotels when they came under attack. the Indian military retrieved from the Some of them were wounded, but none scene revealed signs of torture and were killed. disfigurement. Another target of the terrorists was the The brazen and brutal strikes on so Nariman House, a Chabad Lubavitch many locations in the busy downtown (www.chabad.org) Orthodox Jewish area of Mumbai showed all the hallmarks community centre not far from the of a well-planned operation. Operating hotels. According to some accounts, openly in crowded locations, the

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 36 terrorists knew the city well enough to appeared to be enjoying the mayhem vanish and then reappear after security and slaughter they were perpetrating. forces had left the scene. It was reported Autopsies on the bodies of the dead that members of the group were terrorists indicated they had consumed receiving live television feeds inside the quantities of LSD and cocaine prior to hotels where they had set up their bases, the attack in order to stay awake and indicating to them what the security maintain their energy for the operation. forces outside were planning to do to Source: “2008 Mumbai attack,” http:// remove them. Eyewitnesses reported en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_attack that the attackers were young men who

Analysis 1. In what ways did the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2009 resemble and differ from previous violent incidents occurring in the city in the past?

2. What evidence is there that the attack was an extremely well-planned, co- ordinated operation?

3. Why were foreigners visiting Mumbai and the Jewish community centre viewed as prime targets?

4. Why did it take so long for Indian security forces to eliminate the terrorists and end the violence?

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 37 THE TERRORIST ATTACK ON MUMBAI Eyewitness Accounts of the Attack

Here is a summary of eyewitness accounts Jehani is determined to reopen the Café Further Research of the attacks from survivors who Leopold as soon as possible. He is proud of The Taj Hotel is part of a luxury chain of witnessed the horrific events at close range his establishment and wants his customers, hotels. To view the and lived to tell about them. Why do you both locals and foreign visitors alike, to Taj Hotel before the think eyewitness reports are considered feel at home there once again, despite the attack, visit www. important in understanding a story? What tragedy that occurred in late November tajhotels.com/cities/ drawbacks do eyewitness comments 2008. However, he will have to reopen Mumbai/ and take present in understanding events? without extra security, since he cannot a virtual tour of this Fahrang Farzad Jehani is the owner of afford it. The way he sees it, “life has to go sumptuous location. the Café Leopold, a popular 130-year- on.” old bar and restaurant that is a Mumbai Shi Xi Lin is a chef in the Golden institution with a large foreign clientele. Dragon Chinese Restaurant, one of the The café employs 60 people and is open eating places located in the Taj Mahal seven days a week, from breakfast time to Palace Hotel in Mumbai. Shi was born in the wee hours of the morning. Like many Beijing, China, and has worked at the hotel Indians, Jehani is an avid cricket fan, and for 11 years. His daughter, Shi Jingwei, on the night of the attack, he was engrossed lives with him in the hotel and attends a in a match he was watching on television local college nearby. in the upstairs bar. Suddenly he heard a Shi and his daughter were in their room loud blast from the street below, which when the shooting started. When the sounded to him like grenades exploding. electricity went off he lit a candle for some Looking down, he saw two young men light. Looking outside into the hallway, outside the café, firing automatic weapons he heard shots ring out and realized that at random. something terrible was taking place. He The firing continued for a few moments, quickly shut the door. Soon after that the while Jehani dove for cover on the floor. At telephone rang. Someone shouted over that time, he thought that a gang war had the phone, telling him and his daughter to broken out. Mumbai has frequently been take cover under the bed. However, the the scene of such eruptions of localized space between the bed and the floor was violence between rival gangs of Hindus too small for them to hide in. Instead, they and Muslims competing for the city’s took refuge in the bathroom, where they lucrative drug trade. He then saw two of clung to each other for an excruciatingly the shooters heading off in the direction of long hour and a half, not knowing what the nearby . By the would happen to them next. After what time the shooting stopped and he thought seemed like an eternity Shi heard someone it was safe he descended to the restaurant knocking on the door, shouting to Shi and level of the café. There he was shocked his daughter to follow him. As they left— to discover the dead bodies of two of his in a hurry—they noticed bullet cartridges employees and six customers, including and shattered glass on the floor. They were three foreigners. When he looked outside taken down to the main lobby of the hotel on to the street, he saw more bodies lying where they were evacuated. there. After about 20 minutes, the police Shi has lived in Mumbai through some arrived and left after briefly surveying the other violent episodes in the city’s recent scene of carnage. In his view, they seemed history, and has seen car bombs explode to be clueless. on the street outside the Taj Mahal Hotel.

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 38 But this was the most frightening, up-close The evening of the attacks, Mishra was Did you know . . . experience of terrorism he has yet lived on the upstairs level serving his customers Hundreds of lives were spared by the actions through, one he hopes never to have to face when he noticed two well-dressed young of waiters, chefs, again. men enter the waiting hall in front of the and kitchen staff in Madhu Kapoor was enjoying a quiet restaurant. They placed two knapsacks on the hotels that were dinner with her husband, Ashok, and the floor. One of them took out a gun, and attacked. They risked another couple in the Kandahar Restaurant, the other proceeded to load a magazine their lives to protect which speclializes in Afghan food, in the with bullets. They then started shooting their guests and guide luxurious Oberoi Trident Hotel the night indiscriminately into the crowded area. them to safety. the attacks began. In the middle of their One of the shooters wheeled around meal, they heard shots that they took and began shooting in another direction. for fireworks. In India, many religious Bullets hit the glass windows of Mishra’s holidays, birthdays, and other celebrations restaurant, hitting one of his employees, are marked by the lighting of fireworks, who is now on life-support in a Mumbai so this sound is not unusual in Mumbai. hospital. The restaurant was crowded at the time, Mishra saw one shooter walk up to with over 100 people having dinner. the railway platform, firing all the while. Suddenly the staff asked everyone to leave. People were falling left and right, while As Kapoor was exiting the dining room the shooters calmly picked them off at toward the lobby, she heard a voice call out random. To him, they seemed to have no “wait!” fear of any resistance from the unarmed, Looking back, she saw a young man horrified victims all around them. Hiding with a gun firing at an old man who had in fear with his customers, Mishra realized just left the restaurant. When she saw the he could not turn out the lights or lock the victim fall down, she ran for her life. In glass doors to keep the shooters out. He the ensuing panic, she lost track of her realized that they were “sitting ducks,” husband, who she assumed had been left but somehow they survived. Instead behind. When she reached the hotel lobby of entering the restaurant, the gunmen she found it in flames. She waited for hours continued walking down the platform, after escaping for news of her husband, shooting anyone they spotted. only to find out the next day that he had After about 10 terrifying minutes, the been killed in the attack on the hotel. floor of the waiting hall was strewn with Pappu Mishra owns and operates one of bodies and covered with blood. Mishra and busiest and most popular fast-food eateries others helped carry those who were still in Mumbai’s ornate, Victorian-style train living to ambulances and cars outside so station, built by the British in the 19th that they could be rushed to hospital. After century. Once known as Victoria Terminus, about an hour and a half, the police finally its name was changed by the Hindu arrived on the scene, made perfunctory nationalist city government in the 1990s inquiries, and then left. To Mishra, the to Chhatrapati Shivaji station, in honour police’s tardy response is typical of how of a 17th-century Maratha warlord who violence is dealt with in Mumbai. In his fought against the Islamic Mughal rulers opinion, there is no security or value placed dominating India at that time. Viewers of on human life in his country. the recent film Slumdog Millionaire will Source: “Eyewitness: Mumbai survivors,” recognize the station as one of its most BBC News Online, http://newsvote.bbc. important locations. co.uk/mpapps/pagetools.print/news.bbc. co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/775661

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 39 Inquiry 1. What are the main similarities and differences that you note in these eyewitness accounts of survivors of the Mumbai terrorist attacks?

2. What factors do you think can account for the survival of these people when so many others lost their lives?

3. From reading the accounts, what is your view of the response of Indian police and military security units to the terrorist attack?

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 40 THE TERRORIST ATTACK ON MUMBAI Three Perspectives on the Attack

1. “Celebrity Terrorism” and (Interservice Intelligence), the country’s Quote military intelligence unit notorious for “There were bodies Mumbai everywhere. I felt like Paul Cornish is the Chairman of Chatham its sponsorship of such organizations in I was in a movie.” House’s International Security Program Kashmir and Afghanistan. But he also — Andreina Varagona (www.chathamhouse.org.uk) in London, thinks that the young men who so eagerly at the Oberoi Hotel England, a leading counter-terrorism think made themselves into killers and martyrs (Toronto Star, tank. In his view, the main motive of the before the eyes of the world’s media November 30, 2008) group of young terrorists who staged the may have been motivated by more than daring and bloody attack on Mumbai was religious or political fanaticism. Like lone to achieve an exaggerated reaction to their killers such as the individuals responsible deed from governments, the media, and for mass shootings at Columbine High public opinion. In his view the intensive School in 1999 or Virginia Tech in 2007, world-wide television and online these terrorists likely craved a brief coverage that the Mumbai atrocities moment of fame, which they instantly attracted was exactly what the terrorists achieved in late November 2008. As were looking for, and is in some respects Cornish concludes: “Welcome to the age more significant than the event itself. As of celebrity terrorism. The invitation to he notes, “how the attack is carried out, the world’s D-list of malcontents reads and what is done to whom, matters no as follows: No matter how corrupt your more—and often rather less—than the moral sense, how contorted your view of way the attack is received, and the impact the world, how vapid and inarticulate your accorded to it.” ideas, how talentless you are, and how Cornish states that the group initially exaggerated your grievances, an obsessive held responsible for the carnage in audience will watch your every move and Mumbai—the Deccan Mujahideen—was turn you into what you most want to be, previously unknown even to respected just before your death.” terrorism experts like him. He thinks Source: “The age of celebrity terrorism,” that this may be because it never actually BBC News Online, http://newsvote. existed at all. Responding to those who co.uk/mpapps/pagetools.orint.news.bbc. regarded the attack as a well-planned co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/775568 and thoroughly executed operation, he counters that such an undertaking may 2. Why do they hate Mumbai? not be that difficult to mount, if those Suketu Mehta is a professor of journalism determined to cause so much mayhem at New York University and an award- are prepared to lose their lives while winning author. His book Maximum City: carrying it out. In his words, “small arms Bombay Lost and Found is a fascinating, and grenades are not hard to find, boats in-depth look at the city where he are scarcely specialized equipment, and spent his childhood and later returned Mumbai is a vast, open city with more to live with his family in the 1990s. than enough soft targets.” In his view, Mumbai’s sophisticated, Cornish has few doubts about the cosmopolitan, business-like, and secular fact that the Mumbai terrorists were character is guaranteed to enrage and an extremist Islamic jihadi group frustrate religious and political extremists with probable links to Pakistan’s ISI of all stripes. To Mehta, the average

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 41 Mumbaiker, or Mumbai resident, is driven in 1993, burning alive many innocent by dhandha, or the desire to succeed in Muslims. Now the terrorists attacking business transactions. From the wealthy the city kill foreigners for the “crime” of business executive or Bollywood movie visiting the city. Whether it is a wealthy star to the very poor street-vendor, people businessman enjoying dinner with his are drawn to Mumbai in order to get wife at an upscale restaurant in the Taj ahead and make money, in much the same Mahal Palace, or a young backpacker way that Americans feel the attraction of sipping a beer with his friends at the New York City. Mehta once asked a poor Café Leopold, such people are the sworn Muslim man living in a shack without enemies of the terrorists. The message indoor plumbing why he chose to stay they want to send to the world is, “Stay in the city. He answered, “Mumbai is a away from Mumbai if you value your golden songbird.” life.” India leads the world in the production But Mehta hopes that visitors will not of feature films, and “Bollywood” is be frightened away from this beautiful and the nickname for the huge cinematic fascinating, if at times exasperating, city. industry based in Mumbai. Many of the He writes, “If the rest of the world wants most popular films actually use familiar to help, it should fly to Mumbai and spend Mumbai landmarks—such as the opulent money.” As for him, “I’m booking a Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the Gate of flight to Mumbai. I’m going to get a beer India, built on the harbour in Colaba to at the Leopold, stroll over to the Taj for commemorate the visit of King George samosas at the Sea Lounge, and watch a V to India—as background settings. To Bollywood movie at the Metro. Stimulus Mehta, the fact that the terrorists chose doesn’t have to be just economic.” to stage their operation on such well- Source: “What they hate about known sites indicates that they were Mumbai,” New York Times, www. copying the decision of Al Qaeda to drive nytimes.com/2008/opinion/29mehta.html hijacked airplanes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York 3. Mumbai and Kashmir on September 11, 2001. In both cases, William Dalrymple is the Scottish-born the terrorists were deliberately targeting author of many books about Indian symbols of a world they hated and wanted history and culture, the most recent of to destroy. which is The Last Mughal: The Fall of When Mehta was a young boy growing a Dynasty. Now living in New Delhi, he up in Mumbai, or Bombay, as he still is a frequent commentator on Indian and prefers to call it, one’s religious affiliation Pakistani political issues. On a recent visit was not that important. But since the to the disputed border region of Kashmir 1990s, the city has been torn by religious he talked to a young Muslim surgeon who tension between the majority Hindu and told him a horrific story of how Indian minority Muslim population. An extremist army units had stormed the hospital Hindu political party has held power at where he was trying to save the lives of the municipal and state levels and has unarmed protestors who had clashed with occasionally fanned the flames of hatred police earlier that day. Despite the fact against Muslim Mumbaikers. In response, that this doctor had no hatred of Hindus, extremist Islamic groups have set off the experience had embittered him against bombs in the city, killing many innocent India and made him support the cause of people. For example, Hindu mobs Kashmiri independence. rampaged through the streets of Mumbai Dalrymple recalled this conversation

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 42 after the Mumbai attacks, where a real hatred of the United States, Britain, fanatical, extremist Islamic group had also Israel, and India for what is happening in attacked the city’s hospitals in addition Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Kashmir. to the hotels, train station, and Jewish Many South Asian Muslims, whether or centre. In his view, the terrorism that not they support the violent deeds of the struck Mumbai has to be viewed within terrorists, see a direct parallel between the the broader context of the ongoing dispute brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. territory and the mistreatment of Muslims But at an even broader level, Dalrymple by the Indian army in Kashmir. Although feels that what happened in Mumbai is a Kashmir by rights should have been part direct response to what he regards as the of Pakistan at the time of partition in total failure of Western and particularly 1947, given that it had a majority Muslim United States foreign policy in the region population, the pro-Hindu maharajah since September 11, 2001. He believes handed it over to India instead. At first, that the actions of former U.S. president Kashmiri Muslims staged a peaceful George W. Bush after the terrorist attack movement to regain their autonomy, but of that day have driven thousands of this was stymied by the rigged elections disaffected young Muslims into the of 1987. Since then, the anti-Indian waiting arms of terrorist groups eager protests have turned more violent, with to recruit them into the cause of “global radical groups conducting military actions jihad” against the West. against occupying Indian forces, who in Dalrymple points to some alarming turn have responded with heavy-handed developments, such as the resurgence repression. India and Pakistan have fought of the Taliban resistance to occupying three wars over Kashmir and nearly came NATO forces, including Canadians, in to a full-scale nuclear conflict over the Afghanistan, and the collapse of the region in 1999. In the meantime, over Pakistan government’s control over the 70 000 Kashmiris have lost their lives. rebellious Northwest Frontier Province Dalrymple holds the governments of (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan. This both India and Pakistan responsible for lawless and troublesome region is the crisis and the terrorist violence it believed to harbour many of the terrorist has triggered. He believes that Pakistan groups responsible for violence in both must do much more to rein in the jihadis, Afghanistan and Kashmir, and may be but that India must show more restraint where Osama bin Laden, the leader of against Muslims in Kashmir. In the long Al Qaeda, has found sanctuary. What term, he believes that peace between has happened is that these jihadi groups, the two rivals and greater stability in once armed, trained, and encouraged by the whole region of South Asia will not the mysterious Interservice Intelligence come until the issue of Kashmir is finally (ISI)—the Pakistani security service— resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. have taken on a life of their own and can Until then, he fears that there may be even no longer be controlled. more atrocities like the Mumbai attack. The jihadis who staged the attack Source: “Mumbai atrocities highlight on Mumbai were apparently not poor, need for solution in Kashmir,” The uneducated Pakistani youths from , www.guardian.co.uk/ country brainwashed in Islamic schools, commentisfree/2008/nov/30/mumbai- but relatively well-educated, middle-class terror-attack-india1/print adolescents from the cities. They have a

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 43 Activity 1. Read the three passages on the previous pages and for each of them state the main point or thesis that the author is arguing.

2. Form groups with your classmates to discuss one of the passages. Summarize the main points the author is making about the Mumbai terrorist attack and indicate whether or not you agree with his ideas and why. Explain how you believe reading this passage helped you to understand the Mumbai attack more fully. Share your analysis with the other groups in your class.

Notes:

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 44 THE TERRORIST ATTACK ON MUMBAI Activity: The Canadian Response to the Attack

Form groups with your classmates to discuss the Mumbai terrorist attacks and their broader consequences for peace and stability in the region of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Discuss how you think Canada should respond to the attack and the tensions it is likely to provoke in the region. Focus on Canada’s ongoing participation in the NATO-led military operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

When you have finished your discussion, prepare a statement on how you think Canada should respond to this crisis and send it to:

Hon. Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs House of Commons Ottawa ON K1A0A6

E-mail: [email protected] Fax: 613-992-6802

Note that letters sent to Members of Parliament do not require a postage stamp.

Notes:

CBC News in Review • February 2009 • Page 45