So, the Mumbai attacks
Several dozen men (who allegedly arrived in the city by boats) attacked seven to ten different sites, including the domestic airport, the city's biggest railway station, a dockyard, two hospitals, the city's Chabad-Lubovitch center, several popular marketplaces, a highway, and two luxury hotels, one of which caught on fire. According to eyewitness accounts, the ones in the hotels were specifically targeting Brits and Americans (but not Westerners in general). The men attacked with AK-47s, grenades, and small bombs. The gunmen took hostages - at one point, over 100 hostages were reportedly being held in one of the hotels, including 40 British citizens. The attacks began around 9:30pm Indian Standard Time. The situation is still ongoing now, over 12 hours later (it's currently about 10am in India).
In the past, terrorist attacks in India have been limited to anonymously-planted bombs.
What everyone wants to know, of course, is who-dun-it. And the answer is, no one knows (yet). The presumption is Muslims - but, in India, they ALWAYS assume violence is perpetrated by Muslims until proven otherwise. Yay prejudice. If it is Muslims, the next question is, do they have Pakistani ties? Much - but by no means all - of the Muslim terrorism in India in the past has been carried out by a group called Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is supported by elements of the Pakistani establishment (particularly the ISI). The Indian government's default reaction in this sort of circumstance is always "blame the Pakistanis!" which is practically synonymous in India with "blame the Muslims!"
If this does turn out to have Pakistani connections, then that says a whole host of things. The Pakistani president, Zardari, who is a twit whose actual authority is highly limited, recently (as in, the past couple of days) made the most conciliatory statements towards India that any Pakistani leader has ever made. He also announced that the ISI was stepping out of politics. So if this WAS in fact carried out by a Pakistani group, then this is clearly the ISI saying "Hah, I don't think so."
But for the moment, it remains highly unclear who the real culprits are. Lashkar-e-Toiba is certainly a very real possibility, but it's also very possible that they had nothing to do with this. It could be days or it could be months before we have any real answer.
What remains to be watched for right now is rioting. In the past, major incidents of violence commonly believed to have been perpetrated by Muslims have touched off massive Hindu-Muslim rioting. Sometimes it's bad enough that it spreads from the city of the initial violence to places all over the country. There's reason to hope that that won't happen this time, though, as the past several terrorist attacks in India (Jaipur, Delhi, Malegaon, Surat, were all this summer, Hyderabad a year ago, and several other places) have (quite surprisingly) NOT inspired any major rioting. It's too early to tell yet whether massive rioting will be avoided.
In the past, terrorist attacks in India have been limited to anonymously-planted bombs.
What everyone wants to know, of course, is who-dun-it. And the answer is, no one knows (yet). The presumption is Muslims - but, in India, they ALWAYS assume violence is perpetrated by Muslims until proven otherwise. Yay prejudice. If it is Muslims, the next question is, do they have Pakistani ties? Much - but by no means all - of the Muslim terrorism in India in the past has been carried out by a group called Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is supported by elements of the Pakistani establishment (particularly the ISI). The Indian government's default reaction in this sort of circumstance is always "blame the Pakistanis!" which is practically synonymous in India with "blame the Muslims!"
If this does turn out to have Pakistani connections, then that says a whole host of things. The Pakistani president, Zardari, who is a twit whose actual authority is highly limited, recently (as in, the past couple of days) made the most conciliatory statements towards India that any Pakistani leader has ever made. He also announced that the ISI was stepping out of politics. So if this WAS in fact carried out by a Pakistani group, then this is clearly the ISI saying "Hah, I don't think so."
But for the moment, it remains highly unclear who the real culprits are. Lashkar-e-Toiba is certainly a very real possibility, but it's also very possible that they had nothing to do with this. It could be days or it could be months before we have any real answer.
What remains to be watched for right now is rioting. In the past, major incidents of violence commonly believed to have been perpetrated by Muslims have touched off massive Hindu-Muslim rioting. Sometimes it's bad enough that it spreads from the city of the initial violence to places all over the country. There's reason to hope that that won't happen this time, though, as the past several terrorist attacks in India (Jaipur, Delhi, Malegaon, Surat, were all this summer, Hyderabad a year ago, and several other places) have (quite surprisingly) NOT inspired any major rioting. It's too early to tell yet whether massive rioting will be avoided.