Cyriac George

On 26th November India has seen the worst terrorist attacks that ever occurred to her. Media refers to this as the 9/11 incident of India (American imitation even at the time of an attack !!!). Although i need not describe the incident, I will summarize for those who are new to this story.

Terrorists stormed into various places in Mumbai started open fire and blasting grenades. They split into smaller parties and hijacked Taj Mahal, Oberoi Trident and Nariman House. One party went to Mumbai CST Railway station and started an open fire. Many people died. Police stormed into these places and started counter measures. Many high officials including Hemant Karkare was killed, infact they were targetted. The terrorist who hijacked the hotels succeeded in terrorizing the whole nation for couple of days. NSGs (National Security Guard) were called to scene and they started cleaning the mess. I think 200+ black cats were called to the scene to neutralize just 10 terrorists. Any way after days of battle we won, just 1 or 2 of the terrorists were captured alive, the rest was killed. They managed to kill around 200 people which inlcude Indians, foreigners, police, high officials, commandos and even VIPs.

So thats the story, now lets see what happened. This is the most planned terrorist attack India has ever seen. Officials say there was months of planning behind this attack, and these guys came to Taj to study the grounds. They had even studied the roads, without which it wouldnt be easy for them to reach the CST railway station. It is believed that terrorists came to India using its vast sea shore of Maharashtra. They hijacked a fishing boat and killed the entire crew (in a brutal way) and fooled the coast guard, by making them think that they were Indian fishermen.

Whats so special with attack ? Usually terrorists targets crowded or strategically important places and maximum life loss. But in this case there strategy was a lot different. Their main target was foreigners and the Business capital of India, Mumbai. Till now there was no risk for the rich people. But now that situation has changed. Two kind of people used these hotels, foreign tourists and business men. After this, who will dare to come to Mumbai and stay in those posh hotels ? Nariman House is not a posh hotel, but it is the favorite stay for Israelis in Mumbai. So its clear that the terrorists targeted both business and tourism.

Now that its all over, whats even unfortunate is the damn politicians. They are planning how to exploit this incident to use it to their and their parties’ advantage. Its said that India was warned by US about this attack. If the officials had paid attention to this, and tightened the security, this could have been avoided. Any way I really hope they will take measures to avoid these kind of incidents in the future.

The effect of this attack has already started to show. Hotel bookings are canceled and people are afraid to go to common places like theaters to watch a movie. Stock exchanges are not so energetic. Foreign funds have been withdrawn. I have high hopes for out new Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh, who is a veteran in finance field, will save our economy.

There is a movie which comes to my mind, which in my opinion all of you guys should watch; “A Wednesday“. Its a must watch, because it is also based on a terrorist attack. The climax and its message is simply superb.

I would also like to notify my readers about an ATS helpline number -1090. In case you notice some suspicious, terrorist kind of activity, please dial this toll free number to note the proper authorities.

Please feel free to share your views to other readers through comments. As a starter i will comment in behalf of few others (this was a conversation done in my email inbox.). Others please catch up on the conversation.