The Mumbai Terrorist Attack

As gunfights rage on around the Jewish Outreach Centre in Mumbai and the Taj Hotel has only recently been declared to be under army control, I thought that I might offer my thoughts on the terror that was unleashed on Mumbai two nights ago.

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai yesterday night bear little resemblance to the other major international terror attacks since 9/11. In part this comes down to the method of violence used. It is perhaps a sad reflection on the state of the world that I have become de-sensitized to the horrors of suicide bombers. But something about this attack felt much more brutal. The attackers apparently arrived in speedboats close to the Gateway of India (where Mumbai’s tourist district is centered). Some of the men carried AK-47s, while others were armed with explosive devices for strategic locations and others carried grenades to fight the authorities.

The Daily Telegraph described the tactic as trying to imitate ghazwa, a tactic used by the Prophet Mohammed to destabilize political authority in Mecca. “The tactic consists of surprise no-holds-barred attacks simultaneously launched against a caravan or settlement with the aim of demoralising the enemy and hastening his capitulation”. The attacks on Mumbai recalled the devastation of the tragic massacres at Virginia Tech or Colombine more than the bomb attacks on London, Madrid, or even the commuter train attacks that previously hit Mumbai in 2006.

It is the level of organization of this imitation-ghazwa that is most disconcerting. Indians I have spoken to all seem much more concerned with the attack in Mumbai than they did with the bombings in Delhi, Jaipur, or Bangalore earlier this year. The consensus appears to be that the level of organization was too great to have been justifiably missed by Indian anti-terrorism officials. In a country with over a billion people it will always be difficult to isolate and monitor the miniscule minority who are prone to violence. Stopping one person from blowing up themselves and several dozen innocent bystanders is nearly impossible. But the scale of this attack was so large that there is little excuse for the Indian Intelligence agencies being caught unaware.

The planning that must have gone into this attack is astounding. Weapons would have had to have been purchased and deployed while manpower was recruited. The route of attack would have had to be studied and then related to the hundreds of men involved in carrying it out. For India’s government and anti-terrorism team to have been completely ignorant to this attack’s development represents, as MJ Akbar wrote today in The Guardian, “a collapse of governance”.

It seems to be the government and police’s failure that most frightens the Indians I have spoken with. Terrorism and violence are not new occurrences in India. Since achieving independence in 1947 the country has dealt with violent uprisings and terrorists from across the country. Throughout the recent wave of terrorism however the government’s response has seemed particularly inept. After every attack, top politicians promise that the perpetrators of the violence will be sought out and punished. Two months later however, there is inevitably another attack. If the goal of terrorism is political and is meant to destabilize authority, the lack of confidence in the government that appears to be growing among Indians may very much prove that the terrorist’s tactics are succeeding. It is this growing concern that seems to scare my Indian colleagues most of all.

I will end this post for today on that sobering thought. Fortunately, in tomorrow’s follow-up post I will explore the reaction to the Mumbai terrorist attacks Mumbai in 2006 and how India’s resilience throughout history suggests that the picture may not in fact be so grim.

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