Saturday, November 29, 2008

Mumbai Questions?

Mumbai Attackers
Mumbai Attacker
Mumbai First Responders
Mumbai First Responders


The photos above, were taken by a photographer who's story below reveals how the shock of such an attack paralyzed the police response.

From the London Independent, Jerome Taylor talks to the photographer whose picture went around the world.


It is the photograph that has dominated the world's front pages, casting an astonishing light on the fresh-faced killers who brought terror to the heart of India's most vibrant city. Now The Independent can reveal how the astonishing picture came to be taken by a newspaper photographer who hid inside a train carriage as gunfire erupted all around him.
.
In defense of the first responders, Webley revolvers and Lee-Enfield rifles against 'AK-47,s are no match in a stand up gunfight. I am also sure that the Mumbai police don't have the budget to allow for practice and qualifying for every officer, as most major cities require. Even the United States is not immune from being able to halt such sprees at their outset, "North Hollywood shootout" and Virginia Tech massacre.

In a related post, Zenpundit writes about Spree Terrorism and elicits several comments that scratch at the surface of the willingness of an organized band to kill indiscriminately.

Mark opens with these comments.

I lack sufficient depth and familiarity with the Indian political context to comment intelligently on the origins and ultimate aims of the shadowy Islamist group that carried out the Mumbai Massacre. I’d love to hear Olivier Roy speculate on the ideological aspect but in terms of organization, I’d bet heavily on a “modular” structure of transnational and indigenous personnel - a strategic alliance between groups or a hybrid operation.

And abu mugqawama set off a firestorm of comments with this short post.


And a look at the Sunday headlines, as the postmortem of the Mumbai Massacre begins.

Mumbai Attacks: 300 Feared Dead as Full Horror of the Terrorist Attacks Emerges - Damien McElroy, Rahul Bedi and Andrew Alderson, Daily Telegraph



The Final Fight at the Taj from the New York Times
.
UPDATES: From Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent comes this description of the relations between Pakistan and India.
Pavocavalry begins:
.
Only fools think that peace can be established in between Pakistan and India.
.
The roots of this conflict are deep.Roots which go back 1300 years in history.Broad stages of this process are as following:--
.

3 comments:

Strategicus said...

this is a complicated business.the indo pak conflict has multiple players , state and non state , interested neighbours , super power players,both countries intelligence agencies are highly dubious,and the loser in the final analysis is the common man ..but who cares

HISTORYGUY99 said...

Agha,

Thanks for the comment.

Actually we who take the time to post here and on your blog, as well as others, do care about the common man.

You and I are past our cavalry days but we are still fighting to keep the world at peace.

regards,
HG

Anonymous said...

Such "interestin' times", no end to it...