- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
This is a well thought out response to the attacks in Mumbai and raises the very real possibility that an act like POTA could ensnare hundreds or thousands of innocent Muslims around India. It would be a real tragedy if that was the response that the Indian government adopts. However, I think an even more troubling proposition would be to ignore the mounting evidence against the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in helping plan the attacks.
In the last 6 months there have been ten terrorist attacks across India by various so-called "Muhajadeens". However, unlike terrorist activities in every other part of the world, there seem to be very few radicalized muslims in India and very few rabidly anti-Indian mosques. Instead, in all of those attacks we have seen the fingerprints of a foreign intelligence agency attempting to destabilize India and possibly create massive inter-ethic violence like happened in Gujarat in 2002 or after Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
The assault on lower Mumbai was well coordinated, superbly funded and the attackers trained by battle hardened soldiers. No run of the mill village Jihadi would be able to hold off hundreds of special forces operatives for almost 60 hours. These were trained professionals.
When the Indian embassy in Kabul was bombed a few months ago the CIA blamed the ISI. Why would we not suspect that these attackers were similarly linked?
The question is now not how India should respond to an internal threat, but how it should attempt to convince members of the Pakistani government to denounce rogue elements of ISI who are trying to destabilize the whole region. There should also be an immediate crackdown on Lakshar e Toiba training camps and military in so-called "Azad Kashmir".
If India does not act quickly and decisively to protect its national interests now then it only encourages future attacks.
