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Published: November 28th 2008
Around 100 people died and 200 people got injured when Mumbai was attacked by terrorists on the evening of the 26th of November 2008. My thoughts are with the families who lost someone in the attack.
This attack took terrorism to a new level. 12 targets were hit. Amongst those 12, I have visited 2 in the last 5 days. I went to Leopolds on Saturday evening, enjoying the multicultural ambience. Monday evening my boss took me to a wedding in the Royal Taj Mahal Intercontinental. Me being at those two locations at some point already says who the terrorists were targeting. Foreigners, those who are friends with foreigners and the wealthy. Now.. why did it take terrorism to a new level?
It seemed more like Guerilla Warfare than a terrorist attack. The fighters used automatic weapons to threaten their targets, shot all around. Went to a train station, held hostages in hotels, etc. It wasn't a bomb in a car with no one left to fight against. These were real people committed to a cause. Not some random person blowing himself up. If this is the future of terrorism, we're all lost. They were normal people, young men, middle aged men. It kind of seemed like the war for independence in Algeria.
I was in a local bar when it all started. I just decided to leave and called my friend on the way back because I wanted to meet him today, on Thursday. He seemed very shaken and asked me whether I have been to Leopolds tonight (as it is one of my fav bars here). He then moved on to tell me that there was a shoot out in the bar and he told me to go to my apartment and turn on the television. My friend was there. Right in the centre. He heard the shots, saw the people being shot and he thought it was part of a gang war. Mumbai has a great history of Mafia and gang violence, but it had settled down in the 90s when one of the most powerful gangbosses set off a series of explosions and fled to a foreign country. While I was on the phone to my friend, Daya had tried to call me. Daya was at home. Watching the news. He knew that I was supposed to meet friends in Santacruz, Bandra or Vile Parle. There had been explosions in Santacruz and Vile Parle. He was really scared. Luckily I didn't get to meet my friends and stayed in Andheri. I stayed up most of the night watching the pictures of what was happening in the streets that I got to know over the past two months. Horrible, brutal pictures. I am sure most of you educated people will have seen them on television.
When I got up for work this morning, the news were already on. Another guest had come. The fighting was still on, terrorists held hostages in the Taj as well as the Oberoi Hotel and 13 Israeli nationals in a place called Nariman House. This is when I found out that 3 high police officials, including the head of the counter terrorist division, had been shot and killed prior to the attacks. What does this mean? This means that the attack was well planned and extremely efficiently executed. Probably the most sophisticated terrorist attack in our lifetime. Daya, the other guest and me have spent all day in front of the television - switching form CNN, BBC to Star News and local news (both of them translated what the journalists were saying). Due to the long border between Pakistan and India as well as Bangladesh bordering India, this country has had a flood of terrorists entering, helping freedom fighters in Kashmir, planting bombs in Assam and recruiting youth. A former senior official of the CIA said that the Muslims were a minority in India, but that there are still 150 million Muslims here. This makes India the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Recent terrorist attacks have not only been committed by Muslims, but also by Maoists (an assassination which sparked violence (rape, murder) against Christians in Orissa as the public thought that Christians had assassinated the Hindu figure), Hindus as well as Muslims. Looking at the wide range of terrorism in this country, the existence of extremist parties.. this country has a problem. But honestly, I don't think that the 26/11 attacks were caused by these problems.
Today, many of my Indian friends (even people who I only met for 1 night), called me and asked if I was okay, if something had happened to me. Today in Mumbai all schools, colleges and most offices are closed. My boss told me to stay home and not to leave the guest house. Not due to the fear of terrorists attacking me, but because police could pick me up. This is the problem many foreigners have here, we just stick out of the crowd.
The terrorists reached Mumbai by ferry from Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistan is the country where many people seek refuge from the war the world is waging on Afghanistan. Many people from Afghanistan hide in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Now many would say that there they are getting in the hand of Islamist extremists and are being brainwashed. I don't think so. The Afghan-Russian war is not so long gone, the Afghanis have always fought for the freedom of their country. There is always a foreign power trying to invade them. They get upset and will not cower. They fight. For what? For their freedom. Their freedom to decide. Living here in India for this short time has already opened my eyes, has confirmed what I feared when I lived in Europe. The media is giving us a wrong picture of people in countries we are trying to conquer. The media is acting as a tool of government propaganda, forming us like we were made out of wax. If the people of Afghanistan would prefer a Taleban Government, let them have it (disregarding the fact that it was the west who put the Taleban govt in because they would refuse the legitimate socialist government (yay! all hail democracy!)). This is why they are fighting, this is why young and old Afghans go to Pakistan to receive training. Nowadays (again, thank you media!) Muslims are discriminated everywhere around the world. My sister once read Nazi propaganda leaflets in a Museum, this was shortly after 9/11. She substituted the word 'Jew' for 'Muslim' and what did you get...? Almost the same as what people are saying now on the streets in the west, in newspapers etc. Put yourself in the position of the Muslims in the world. What would you do if you were discriminated based on your faith? Yes, you would fight for the freedom of pursuing the religion you choose to. Now please note here: I am not justifying what terrorists are doing. I am just trying to understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. It is a horrible thing to kill people. Period. If you only say that they are doing bad things and judge them on that, you will not have a right answer - or at least not a complete one. In my opinion, if you get rid of the reason why these people are committing such horrible acts, you get rid of the people committing these disgusting acts. With the invasion (!) of Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and the racism taught to us by our media, we (that is, our governments) have created these people. In the long run, our governments are the ones to blame for all these dead civilians.
The face of terrorism has changed, usually it was politicians or police officials or alike who were targeted by terrorists, but nowadays politicians are too well protected to kill them, so the terrorists choose the one target closest to the politician: the people. I think, that the politicians deciding for these horrible wars (killing thousands of people, causing national wars, bringing poverty to the population of these countries, destroying all the infrastructure there has been (no matter how little there was)) are the ones who should have been targeted by the terrorists.
But we also have some responsibility for this violence. We voted for these politicians. Or at least our countrymen did. There is only one way to stop this wave of cruel and deadly terror... next time we vote, think about the world, not ourselves. Don't vote for big centre parties.. vote for parties who are willing to reform, who are strong enough to say 'no' when the NATO once again decides to bring terror and death to a country far far away. Vote for a system which brings neutrality, where the citizens decide what the government does (i.e. Switzerland). We all have to stand up and end this aggression which is causing terrorism and death to innocent civilians.
I believe that the one thing what makes this world beautiful is diversity. I think that every person should have the right to decide freely how they govern their countries, which god they choose to believe in and be allowed to govern themselves. If they are happy with a monarchy, a democracy, a communist state or another form of government, let them have it, it is none of our business if they keep it to themselves and don't wish to expand it to the rest of the world. Sound familiar? (14:30)
I just went back to the television.. This morning, the other guest said 'The situation will be over in maximum 1 hour, they got in the special forces'. That was at about 8:30. Just now, it had been confirmed that the three hotels are still full of terrorists. They are using the hotel guests as human shields. In the Oberoi hotel, there have just been 5 bomb blasts, shooting at the Taj and the military is preparing to move into Nariman House to fight the terrorists. The army is already inside the other hotels. The Oberoi has 19 floors, the terrorists are on the 19th and the army is on the 18th. The army has taken over the situation, according to them the police and the special forces have failed, so they will try to resolve the situation now. As well as acting in the hotels, the army/navy is following a trawler in the Arabian sea (west of India) which supposedly dropped off the terrorists. Hopefully they'll be caught.
What I know about the terrorists: they are all between 20 and 25, speedboats dropped them off at the Mumbai coast, when asked what they were doing they said that they were students, the terrorists are armed with automatic guns, grenades and other explosives and will apparently blow themselves up before the army gets to them. They belong to a group called 'Deccan Mujaheddin'. This is a new group, unknown to the authorities and secret services of the world. This is Al-Qaeda. In my opinion, there is no such organization called Al-Qaeda, it is more of a name for all terrorist groups pursuing the same cause, it is a label. I hope the army can resolve the situation soon, with only few deaths.. those of the terrorists. (15:28)
Daya went to sleep. He is crushed.. For him it is horrible what is happening. Not because his countrymen are dying or because he is scared for his life. For him the most horrible thing is that foreigners are being targeted, people who are visiting India. His country. He thinks it is already difficult for us living in this country and visiting it. He is scared that we wont come back. He is just thinking about how scared they must be.. being in a foreign country, far away from their family, stuck with terrorists. I went into my room and read a bit. He woke up and is now going outside for a bit, probably to get his head free maybe talk to a couple of his friends. I am back at the TV watching what's happening. There have been more explosions. The terrorists are still inside, they have not offered any terms. This is quite worrying... probably means that they don't plan on freeing anyone, just killing. No one knows how many hostages are left with the terrorists, I hope that they will get out well.. The official numbers are now: 101 dead, over 350 wounded.
My friends and family have always said that I will change my view on terrorism once I am caught up in a city struck by terrorists or if someone I care about was affected. Now I am in such a city.. has my point of view changed? I guess its my family and friends who have to answer this..(17:14)
Deccan Mujaheddin are completely unknown. Deccan refers to an area in southern India. Rescued hostages have said that the terrorists were Indian. One of the Mujaheddin said that they wont let any of the hostages go until all Mujaheddin imprisoned in India are set free. What is most worrying though is that a journalist on an Indian channel pointed out that the Pakistani government will have to do a lot to convince the Indian government that they weren't involved. They will have to do a lot of explanation how the Pakistani government and intelligence could not know about these terroristic actions and plans. With the conflict in Kashmir (India and Pakistan have already fought 2 wars about it) and now this new situation, the country could become extremely critical.. let's all hope that the terrorists are from India so war wont brake out. (18:01)
Now it is the second after the initial terrorist attack. It is still going on.. Apparently the Taj is free, but there are still terrorists in Nariman House and the Oberoi. No one knows anything about the terrorists, no one knows how they came to the city or who they're working with. Daya says 'three' words: 'Pakistan...Taleban...Osama Bin Laden'. I think he is right in a way, I don't think that the young men are Taleban, I don't think that they're from Pakistan and I don't think Osama funded this operation, but I am sure that the P/T/ObL issue was playing a big part in the lives of these young murderers.
As I am writing this, the police is assaulting Nariman House.
119 dead, 315 wounded.
They have captured one terrorist alive, apparently the government is now pointing the finger at Pakistan. (07:57) The group which has taken responsibility is apparently from Hyderabad, but experts link them to either 'Indian Mujaheddin' or a group in Pakistan... see, noone knows anyhing. It is quite scary, this must have been planned for many months, probably years. Not one secret service knows anything about the group, they don't know where they got their fake credit cards, their weapons and grenades. They might have arrived on boats or by land. On the second morning of the attack on Mumbai, we are all still in the dark. (08:21)
My colleagues are most pissed off about this situation, they are pissed off at the police, the government and the army. They are saying that all of them are badly trained, corrupt and stupid. Apparently an international secreat service has given the information to the indian secret service, they have told them that there would be an attack in India soon, but nothing was done. Life seems normal here. Yesterday night, life was normal on the streets. India is used to terrorism, let's hope that the people in this country wont have to suffer much more in the future...
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WoW! thanks for sharing this first hand information and your thoughts!! sounds really interesting although its a very sad topic.. mensch aber ich hab mir trotadem scheiss sorgen gemacht... sieh zu dass du von den spacken fernbleibst und in einem stueck wiederkommst!