Battleground Mumbai

There is never a period of extended peace in the country. Just when things seem alright and peaceful, someone comes up and stirs up the hornet's nest. The gruesome acts of terrorism in the financial capital of the country, just shows the guts of these inhumane perpetrators. What did all these people they have killed ever do to them? Now don't bring in the stories of avenging those who died in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia or Kashmir - the videos of which were shown to motivate them. Because these people were just normal people going about their normal lives, and had nothing to do with armed conflict till the day they were killed in cold blood. That too for absolutely no reason at all.

It has been almost twenty four hours, since it all started in Mumbai. Such coordinated attacks show a well researched and planned operation, and was different from the way things used to be carried out by them. Such deviation from their conventional method shows that they were aided by a well informed intelligence setup and expertise. The entry into Mumbai through boats, attacks over a large number of areas, and finally holding up in some of the most famous landmark hotels in Mumbai, seemed part of a well planned and rehearsed plot. Finally the showdown boiled down to three places in the city. Catching the security forces off guard, the terrorists managed to inflict quick and heavy damage. The body count kept rising, as the police and the army began to take control of the situation.

The thing to be noted is the fact that all (or at least those shown on television) the terrorists involved seemed quite young. I don't know what drives then to commit to such horrific acts. Must be some religiously fanatic "preacher" who convinces them to do this and reach God or something. I don't know if that is actually written somewhere or just a clever little manipulation by the wicked minds. For one thing, in no way is killing of innocent people, including women and children going to make any God happy ( if there is any such entity ). No religion warrants such extreme senseless hate on others. I used to think economic conditions force them to do this, but that theory has been quite clearly proved wrong many times in the past. Ultimately, its just a lot of waste that terrorism that leaves behind.

As for things in Mumbai, i don't want to go into the details about what happened where. As i am unsure of the exact facts, just like the media, which is frantically trying to piece together the puzzle with all the bits and pieces of information that they can get their claws on. I always thought of the media to be like hungry vultures, lurking around to get their beaks in on the action. Well, that is their job, to keep us all "well informed" through an over - dramatized depiction of the sequence of events. And some of the questions that they asked to the police, army and rescued hostages were absolutely stupid. Like the question to a freed hostage: "Were you scared?". Duh.. what else do you expect...?

Amidst of all this chaos the one thing that brought hope and courage to millions of Indians, was the presence of soldiers and the police. The Mumbai police in spite of losing some brave top officials continued to assert their presence at the vicinity of all the three "war" zones. The army was soon at the place, along with the NSG and marine commandos, to take on the terrorists with as little collateral damage as possible. I always had great admiration of our armed forces, who are so inspirational at such times of crisis. Almost inspire a sort of patriotic fervor, in times such as these.

As more and more hostages began to be taken out, the news of those who died too kept on rising. Hoping for the best by tomorrow i wish that the losses to life are kept to the minimum. As for India's image is concerned, it has been tarnished a bit. Allowing foreigners to be killed in such manner shows our weakness and incapability to provide internal security. Now those planning to come to India, will think twice after this incident. Already the foreign cricketing teams have decided that India is not "safe". I suppose this is what the terrorists planned to achieve. But for what...? I fail to understand the purpose of violence, that lacks justification. I do hope that soon after peace is restored, all the political parties behave like responsible citizens for a change, and work out a solution from scratch. We have the resources, but its just that they get caught up in too much of politics, to actually bring about anything productive. I hope that this time it will be different, at least for the sake of those have who lost their lives meaninglessly...

Jai Hind