The Pakistan Connection

[tekisui]

(snip)

Even as Indian commandos worked to free hostages holed up in the hotels and elsewhere, attention quickly turned to who might have planned and staged the brazen attacks. Beyond those killed and wounded, one victim certainly looks to be the gradually improving peace process between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed rivals who have fought three major wars between them. While no conclusive links between the Mumbai terrorists and Pakistan have yet been proved, initial reports are pointing to some level of Pakistani involvement. Police have arrested nine suspects, including one from the Oberoi hotel. They claim that preliminary interrogation reports reveal that some of gunmen were of Pakistani origin, and were well-trained in handling guns and explosives. They also carried photo credit cards.

A previously unknown jihadi group called the Deccan Mujahedeen quickly claimed responsibility. (Deccan refers to the great plains of central and southern India.) But security experts think the militants simply floated this name in order to confuse investigators. One of the alleged gunmen spoke to an Indian TV reporter by cell phone; the man did not have a south Indian accent, and in fact spoke Urdu with a Punjabi inflection. The caller told the TV station that he didn't even know what the group's demands were. During the conversation, he asked the TV anchor to wait and then could be heard asking a companion in the background: "Tell me, what are our demands?" Finally the man answered that they demanded that all "mujahedeen" in Indian jails should be freed and that "persecution" of Muslims should stop. The caller disconnected the phone when pressed for further information about their numbers and goals.

Despite the rather flimsy evidence pointing to Pakistan's involvement, Islamabad is expected to come under extremely heavy Indian and international pressure once again to get tough with the extremist organizations that still operate rather openly inside the country. After past terrorist attacks Indian authorities have been quick to blame Pakistan and its shadowy Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI). This time, too, while the hotels still smoldered, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced in a nationally televised address that the assailants had "external linkages," clearly a reference to neighboring Pakistan. He added that he would tell India's "neighbors" that the use of their territory to attack India would not be tolerated. Many Indians were pointing a finger at the Pakistani jihadi group Lashkar-I-Taiba, which was formed in the early 1980s with the assistance of the ISI to promote an anti-Indian revolt in Muslim-majority, Indian-administered Kashmir.

New Delhi has long accused Lashkar, and by extension Pakistan, of being behind the long-simmering unrest in Indian Kashmir, as well as being instigators of terror attacks inside India. Indian officials, however, conveniently ignore the serious economic, religious, political and social causes of Muslim discontent in Kashmir as well as in much of India, which is home to more than 150 million Muslims, roughly equivalent to the population of Pakistan. There have been five similar attacks, albeit on a smaller scale with fewer casualties, across India in the last eight months. Security agency sources say that the government's response to the attacks has been routine, if not incompetent, and that inter-agency rivalries and non-coordination often result in terrorists having a free hand. In addition, the police are notorious for using crude methods such as rounding up largely innocent Muslim youth and torturing them to extract information, tactics that alienate even moderate Muslim voices.

more... http://www.newsweek.com/id/171056

[jaysunb]

1. This report doesn't square with others.

This is typical of what Americans are fed while the following is first person and more importantly " local " information and background . Check it out.

The people behind:

1.Atleast 30-40 terrorist from Karachi Pakistan have reached India and Mumbai through boats they have been intouch with their base in lahore for the entire of attacks.

2.I am not pointing the Govt of Pakistan behind the attack.Infact the Primeminister of pakistan had denounced nuclear strike and terrorism and wanted peace when he spoke last week.

3.The victims include Hindu,Muslim,Christian and jews not particular community or religion.

The attacks are possibly carried out by and from support of Alqeda and brain washed youngsters (most of the present photographs and images of terrorist point to 20 something modern looking youngsters!!!!)

direct contradiction to Newsweek's Pakistan accusation. :evilfrown:

the rest here : http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/27/1515/8180/217/666945

[Truth2Tell]

2. Reminds me of the "terrorist demands"

from Die Hard.

It seems like maybe the demands weren't all that important - just a cover?

Edit to add: regardless of who carried out the attacks, India will use this as an opportunity to escalate confrontation with Pakistan.

The big questions are: What does the US want? Does the Bush administration favor a Pakistani escalation or not? How about the British? And are we actually on the same page?

[tekisui]

3. Demands and responsibility claim seem to be a cover.