Reaction to Mumbai Terror Attack

The anger from the recent Mumbai terror attacks still fumes and TV screens are blaring with public opinions from all quarters to conduct strikes at terror camps situated deep inside Pakistani territory.

 Well should India conduct Ariel strikes at LeT camps and wipe them out?. As ex. UN under secretary, Shashi Tharoor rightly said, it is only going to take a few hours for the terrorists to set up base camps with tents and rifle ranges and start the operation under a new name and carry on with their activities.

 But then should we just leave the whole thing aside and let time heal the wounds and let the average Indian get on with their lives. 26/11 will just be another date and year engrained in their memories.

 When India had the chance decades back to pulverize the Pakistanis and when we fought 3 wars and of course the famous Kargil war, we always left our job half done. We continue to do this. Somehow, our Indian leaders have the habit of contemplating action (military or diplomacy) that takes too long a time and gives the enemy enough time to counter India’s claims.

 The terror episode was completed in 60 hours (starting from Nov 26th) and we see sanctions and assets frozen in the second week of December. It is not rocket science to assess that terrorists would have emptied out the coffers with Pakistani govt’s help and then let them the freeze their bank accounts and funds within these two weeks.

 Pakistanis have now put the operations in command “Lakhvi” and other senior leader under house arrest…. (so they say)… In fact I would call it full fledged security protection given to these men by the Pakistani army. Are these the kind of actions we expect? It is clear that these are just “eye-wash” tactics conducted by the Pakistani govt. to appease the international community.

In fact the German interior minister was clear when he stated in an interview that these house arrests is a joke and India should do more than just sit around and see these dramas being played.

We know for a fact that the Pakistani civilian govt. is treading on unsafe grounds. Even before they could start functioning as a democratic entity they have been plagued by bomb blasts in Pakistan and having to deal with Mumbai Terror aftermath. Let us also not forget that every civilian govt has been pulled down by the Pakistan army and run over by Pakistan military.

While it is clear that Pakistan military intelligence and ISI are ‘hand-in-glove’ with these terror organizations, the last thing that the civilian govt. wants is to incur the displeasure of their military and get pulled down by the PAK military. If that happens, Mr. Zardari will be busy seeking asylum in London and Mr. Gilani will be booking his air tickets to Jeddah.

It is also time for India to now speed up the prosecution of captured militant Kasav. While no doubt that he will be hanged for waging war against India, this should be done fast. The longer we wait, the chances of a repeat attack is imminent and this time it would be to secure the release of Kasav (only to save LeT’s face and reputation) similar to the hijacking incident of an Indian Airlines flight to Afghanistan to secure the release of Azahr mehmood.

Let us wait and see …if we are going to see fireworks or lot of talks and debates that will keep going around in circles leading to” No results…”