India's Greatest Challenge in the Pak-Conflict in the Wake of Terror
Jacob Cherian
December 07, 2008 Mumbai, India (GroundReport) - With the events unfolding since November 26 in Mumbai, India, it come of little surprise that the world's largest democracy is about to wage a war on terror in the wake of terror attacks that seiged the financial capital for nearly 60 hours.
The coordinated attacks on the city of Mumbai were an new episode in terrorism that India has witnessed with major targets being the CST railway station, luxury hotels - the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Trident Hotel - Nariman House, a Jewish study center, a hospital and Leopold Cafe. Clearly, these were soft targets. And the questions remains, what was the point of this conflict? More importantly, where is its origin?
As intelligence officials around the world are scurrying to get their facts right on the so-called improvised group, 'Deccan Mujahadeen,' India has said that it has enough evidence to cite Pakistani elements behind the unrelenting seige that embroiled the city for a little more than three days. Interviews of a captured terrorist indicate links to the Lakshar group in Pakistan. Other intelligence sources say that funding may have come from Saudi Arabia.
This backdrop of terror can only indicate more of the same in the foresseable future. It is common knowledge that Pakistan and India have been keeling with tensions since independence from Great Britain. The great visionary, Mohandas K. Gandhi had protested the separation of Pakistan with Pakistan being a majority Muslim state and India being led by a Hindu majority.
As religious disharmony has reached epic proportions in India, it is now high time for the Indian government - however unsatable - to come up with a policy on equal treatment for the 15% or so Muslim minority living in India. Many reports that surfaced in the aftermath of the Mumbai seige cited the unfair treatment of Muslims in India as politicians in the subcontinent sugar-coated the problem saying, 'Our Muslim community is not radical.'
As Barack Obama takes office in the shadow of an African American visionary, who was also a follower of Gandhi - Martin Luther King Jr., it is fearful to speculate that India will do unto Pakistan what the U.S. has done to Iraq in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Nonetheless, Indian television news reports say that troops have begun their marches, signaling aggression, from both sides of the Indo-Pak border. This is not surprising as the two nations, which faced the might of the British empire as one state, have had little time for much else except conflict, blame, and more blame. Incidentally, India and Pakistan have fought three wars already. And a possibility of another looms.
Although there are no clear cut answers as to how the conflict between the neighboring nations can be resolved, the visit of Condeleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, seems to suggest that the U.S. may be backing India in more ways than the recently passed 'Nuclear Deal.' Reports that the U.S. may declare Pakistan as a terrorist state is evidence of this. In the absence, of General Pervez Musharaaf's regime, the U.S. support for India could help the subcontinent avert another war with Pakistan.
Working with President Elect Obama and his new team who take the helm at the White House, may be one of India's best options. The U.S. has learned its lessons from its war on terror. And President Bush is aware of the cost of that war - on the men in uniform in particular and the innocent civilians who have lost their lives in Iraq. What has been accomplished in Iraq? And now another query looms as India makes an attempt to defend itself from terrorism in the 21st century - What can a war with Pakistan accomplish?
Tags: India
