Help - re Mumbai - how are Westerners being specifically targeted

[malaise]

when over 100 people are dead so far and six are Westerners?

[cali]

1. according to reports from Indian media

Westerners are being targeted for kidnapping, and the attacks largely took place in places where Westerners are known to congregate such as the Taj Majal hotel. I don't think the ratio of western deaths to Indian/others deaths is indicative that westerners are not being targeted. After all there are a lot more Indians than westerners- even at the hotels.

[malaise]

3. So Westerners gather at the massive train station in Mumbai?

Looks more like Kashmir again.

[cali]

7. No, but they surely gather at the Oberoi, The Taj and

Leopold's Cafe. And there are many eyewitness accounts that westerners were being singled out for hostage taking.

[NNN0LHI]

2. I wonder if the media would tell us if this had anything to do with India's "Untouchables" ?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html

India's "Untouchables" Face Violence, Discrimination

Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News

June 2, 2003

More than 160 million people in India are considered "Untouchable"—people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human.

Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits".

"Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, and author of Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's "Untouchables." Human Rights Watch is a worldwide activist organization based in New York.

India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense.

[malaise]

5. Earlier this week or last week a Dalit young man was

beaten to death for 'courting' an 'upper-cast' young lady.
India has several severe internal problems.

The good news re Dalits is that several NGOs are involved in projects to assist them getting a decent education these days. The treatment of 'Untouchables' is a severe stain on India and needs urgent policy changes.

[stray cat]

4. Passports were collected from people in the hotel and they made hostages of the westerners

they must have wanted to protect them? :sarcasm: However, clearly they had some targets including the head of the Indian Intelligence - but too a large extent they just wanted to kill people.

[malaise]

6. And that is my point

They wanted to kill people. There have been several previous attacks this year, but because Westerners were not threatened they barely received coverage on US television.