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11:34 PM
The carefully planned and coordinated attacks in India's financial capital of Mumbai by terrorists armed with automatic weapons and grenades Wednesday killed at least 86 people and wounded 250 more.
The critical now question is: Will this inflame religious tensions between Muslims and Hindus in India and prove to be a setback for building better relations between Muslim Pakistan and predominantly Hindu India?
Witnesses said the gunmen, thought to number about 20, specifically targeted Britons and Americans.
Several dozen of the foreigners were being held hostage by terrorists barricaded in two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal on Mumbai's waterfront, and the Oberoi.
Indian authorities rushed commandos to the scene to support Mumbai's police, many of whom were killed and injured during the early hours of the assault.
Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, but the motives were unclear.
There has been a wave of bombings in Indian cities in recent months that has left scores of people dead.
Many of the people arrested for these bombings have been Muslims, and it has been assumed the aim was to stir up resentment and perhaps violence between Muslims and the majority Hindu population.
The attacks have come at a time when relations between India and its Muslim neighbour, Pakistan, have been improving. This threatens terrorist and guerrilla groups hoping to separate predominantly Muslim Kashmir from Indian rule and terrorists and insurgents using Pakistan's lawless western border region for attacks into Indian-allied Afghanistan.
But Mumbai has frequently been the target of terror attacks with either regional or purely domestic motives.
A series of bomb attacks in Mumbai and on commuter trains in 2006 killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 700.
The 2006 attacks have been blamed on Lashkar-e-Toiba, a militant group based in Pakistan dedicated to ending Indian rule in Kashmir. But Indian authorities have also claimed the Lashkar-e-Toiba was aided in the attacks by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate (ISI).
In 2003, more than 50 people were killed in Mumbai in a series of bombings blamed on Muslim militants.
In 1993, 13 bomb explosions in Mumbai killed 250 people and injured 700 more.
Those attacks are believed to have been coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, don of Mumbai's organized crime syndicate named D-Company.
Indian authorities say those attacks were carried out in retaliation for the massacre of Muslims in Mumbai during December and January that year, and also for the demolition of the Babri Mosque by Hindu militants. But Indian authorities also say that Ibrahim, thought to be hiding out in Pakistan, was pressed into making the attacks by ISI.
It is highly unlikely that ISI was involved in the attacks in Mumbai, but the assault came the day after the Islamabad government announced it is disbanding the political wing of ISI, which was responsible for maintaining links with and supporting regional terrorist and insurgent groups.
It seems likely that the terrorists arrived in Mumbai by train because the first attacks, which killed about 10 people, were in the city's massive main railway terminus, the Chhatrapati Shivaji station.
Some gunmen moved towards the nearby dock area where several people were killed.
Other terrorists moved on the two hotels, where they separated Americans and Britons from other guests and took them away.
At press time, there were reports of a fire at the hotel and of gunmen on the roof lobbing grenades down into the street.
Gunmen also attacked Leopold's restaurant, a Mumbai landmark frequented by foreign visitors, in the premier business district of Colaba at Nariman Point.
Source: canada.com
The critical now question is: Will this inflame religious tensions between Muslims and Hindus in India and prove to be a setback for building better relations between Muslim Pakistan and predominantly Hindu India?
Witnesses said the gunmen, thought to number about 20, specifically targeted Britons and Americans.
Several dozen of the foreigners were being held hostage by terrorists barricaded in two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal on Mumbai's waterfront, and the Oberoi.
Indian authorities rushed commandos to the scene to support Mumbai's police, many of whom were killed and injured during the early hours of the assault.
Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, but the motives were unclear.
There has been a wave of bombings in Indian cities in recent months that has left scores of people dead.
Many of the people arrested for these bombings have been Muslims, and it has been assumed the aim was to stir up resentment and perhaps violence between Muslims and the majority Hindu population.
The attacks have come at a time when relations between India and its Muslim neighbour, Pakistan, have been improving. This threatens terrorist and guerrilla groups hoping to separate predominantly Muslim Kashmir from Indian rule and terrorists and insurgents using Pakistan's lawless western border region for attacks into Indian-allied Afghanistan.
But Mumbai has frequently been the target of terror attacks with either regional or purely domestic motives.
A series of bomb attacks in Mumbai and on commuter trains in 2006 killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 700.
The 2006 attacks have been blamed on Lashkar-e-Toiba, a militant group based in Pakistan dedicated to ending Indian rule in Kashmir. But Indian authorities have also claimed the Lashkar-e-Toiba was aided in the attacks by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate (ISI).
In 2003, more than 50 people were killed in Mumbai in a series of bombings blamed on Muslim militants.
In 1993, 13 bomb explosions in Mumbai killed 250 people and injured 700 more.
Those attacks are believed to have been coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, don of Mumbai's organized crime syndicate named D-Company.
Indian authorities say those attacks were carried out in retaliation for the massacre of Muslims in Mumbai during December and January that year, and also for the demolition of the Babri Mosque by Hindu militants. But Indian authorities also say that Ibrahim, thought to be hiding out in Pakistan, was pressed into making the attacks by ISI.
It is highly unlikely that ISI was involved in the attacks in Mumbai, but the assault came the day after the Islamabad government announced it is disbanding the political wing of ISI, which was responsible for maintaining links with and supporting regional terrorist and insurgent groups.
It seems likely that the terrorists arrived in Mumbai by train because the first attacks, which killed about 10 people, were in the city's massive main railway terminus, the Chhatrapati Shivaji station.
Some gunmen moved towards the nearby dock area where several people were killed.
Other terrorists moved on the two hotels, where they separated Americans and Britons from other guests and took them away.
At press time, there were reports of a fire at the hotel and of gunmen on the roof lobbing grenades down into the street.
Gunmen also attacked Leopold's restaurant, a Mumbai landmark frequented by foreign visitors, in the premier business district of Colaba at Nariman Point.
Source: canada.com
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