HitXP » The Terror Motive

After 9/11 there have been no terror attacks in the US.

After Iraq, India has had the largest number of terrorist attacks in the world in 2008! India is literally at war – its civilians being killed at will by terrorist groups based out of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Agartala, Imphal, Assam and now Mumbai.. all in 2008 alone! The Assam attacks of October 2008 were almost as equally tragic as the present Mumbai attacks.

What are the lessons learnt from these attacks?

Well, almost none. Already a lot has been said and written about the Mumbai terror attack in specific and terrorism in general.

The media will again write about a city that has bounced back the very next day, as if the people had any other option to stay back at home and relax without getting back to their routine work to earn their daily bread.

The inefficient administrators continue to be in power. The home minister of the country has no clue about the attacks. The country as a whole has no clue about whom they are really fighting against, nor does it have a proper action plan in place to combat terorrism. Our leaders are only good at strongly condemning terrorism, unable to solve the core issue.

Inspite of the series of terror attacks in the country, the decision to form a central agency to combat terrrorism is yet to be taken. At present, the terror affected states have their own anti-terror agencies, and there is no central agency to coordinate nationally. There is a lack of coordination between states. There is no mechanism to check the actions taken by state police based on the information from the central intelligence agencies.

According to the sources in the home ministry ,

” In the third week of September India had received information from American sources that there could be a large-scale operation within India by the Lashkar e Tayiba. A source in the home ministry also claimed that the Research and Analysis Wing had passed on this information to the Intelligence Bureau and in turn they had sent this information to the Maharashtra police.

Again, some six days later, the information was circulated from New Delhi to Mumbai police that hotels in Mumbai will be targeted by the Lashkar. The police source claims that the name of Taj Mahal Hotel was specifically mentioned.

Accordingly, the hotel’s security had been increased but in two months time that have fallen into a routine, it seems “!

The chief minister of Maharashtra says that they didnt have specific information about the attacks, as if the terrorists will call him up and inform him before carrying out the attacks.

The Deputy chief minister of Maharashtra says that such small incidents keep happening . Well, this proves that “Danger doesn’t come only on boats (in which the terrorists came), it also comes from the ones who give votes”.

The state government lost valuable time even in calling the Marine commandos (MARCOS) who were stationed locally.

The central government had not stationed NSG commandos in the city inspite of knowing very well that the city was prone to terror attacks. 6-8 valuable hours were lost in getting the NSG commandos to ground zero of the attacks. They had to be flown all the way from Delhi after waiting for a plane for two long hours. The government does not understand the simple equation that in terms of terror attacks and natural calamities Time=Life . The more quickly you get into action, the more lives you save.

I mean the list goes on and on… Look at an earlier CNN IBN investigation some time back which exposed the almost non existent coastal security along the Indian territorial waters. The administration took no notice of this report then. Had it taken notice, it would have well prevented the Mumbai terror attacks.

Stop blaming Pakistan after evey such incident. If the government knows that groups from Pakistan were behind the attacks, what has it done about it? What is their action plan? Giving warnings and escalating tensions will serve no purpose.

Even during the serial bomb blasts of Mumbai as long back as 1993 we knew that groups from Pakistan were responsible for the attacks. What actions did the government take to bring those responsible for that attack to the books? The same Daewood Ibrahim who mastered 1993 blasts is said to have been involved in the current Mumbai attacks . How can a civilian government be so irresponsible that it allows terrorist masteminds and sponsors to go scot free inspite of wrecking havoc on its civilians?

Ever since the Operation Topac , Pakistani establishments have been doing what they can to destabilize India and will continue to do that. How many warnings will India keep issuing to Pakistan? How many warnings has it issued from 1993 and before that till to date? What has been the outcome? More attacks.

How much is too much for India to act? When will India do what it should? When will India stop blaming and start acting.

Does this mean that India should carry out a military offensive against Pakistan? Definitely not. Not because a war would be too expensive for economy and the people. But because it would simply serve no purpose. US has been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan at the cost of its economy for almost a decade now, and yet has failed to capture Osama!

The Motive

What could be the real motive behind the present attacks on Mumbai?

It should be ample clear given the quite visible Pakistani connection to the attacks. The US Presidential elect Barack Obama had made it clear during his electoral campaign that if he came to power, he would remove all the US troops from Iraq and move them to Pakistan and Afghanistan to eliminate the terrorist camps in those regions. He had said, “The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan” .

Now this would have caused a severe headache to the terorrist groups led by Al Qaeda and others whose bases lie in the tribal belts of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.

So, an effective way would be to ensure that the tensions between India and Pakistan rise to an extent that Pakistan would be forced to move its military to the Indian borders, leaving little to cooperate with US troops in the Afghan borders. In other words, no Pakistani assistance for US war on terror, and US cannot force Pakistan to cooperate which has its own ongoing tensions with India. This would shift the US focus from combating terrorists in the tribal belt to trying to resolve Indo-Pak tensions.

And this has already started to happen , with Pakistan warning that it will have to relocate about 10000 troops from its Afghan borders to the Indian borders, and this is what the terorrists wanted to happen before Obama takes charge of the US presidential office !

So what are India’s options now? The first option would be to, build a sophisticated internal security system, which is long overdue and is high time that it be established.

And the next parallel measure would be to foil the terrorist motives by offering to send in troops to “assist” Pakistani and US/NATO forces to combat terrorism in the tribal border areas of Pakistan.

If Pakistan refuses the Indian offer, then that would call its bluff of fighting terrorism. And then India should use its better relationships with Afghanistan to encircle Pakistan by sending Indian troops to Afghanistan to help it combat its own problems of terrorism, and there by ensure that Pakistan cannot move its troops away from Afghan borders because the Indian troops are also present on the Afghan borders now!

Thus, no matter who is involved from Pakistan in these attacks (either independent terror groups from Pakistan or the active support of ISI which is more likely), the main purpose of these attacks would be foiled.

Having said all this, if the Indian government continues to ignore the severe internal security lapse, then all we can do is pray and sing “God, please save me from your followers”