The Face of Terror in Mumbai

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The Face of Terror in Mumbai
Rupa Chinai - 3 December 2008
http://www.iofc.org/node/39107

How can those young men with hard eyes be made to understand that such acts of cowardly violence do not help the cause of India's Muslims? We need a more thoughtful response to the crisis our society now faces.

One of the abiding images that will remain with me was the face of terror. Young boys, well dressed, smart, eyes filled with hatred, remorseless, highly trained and motivated. They took on the might of India and what a fight they gave! Yet, one can only feel pity for such bravado that is so mindless and misguided.

An overwhelming question many are asking is 'Why?' What motivated them? Why did they plan and train for so long and then plunge into a suicidal operation that sought no tangible results? What did they possibly hope to achieve? Where did they come from? What was the journey that brought them to this terrible end?

I wonder what went on in the minds of their mothers as they saw the final hours of their son's lives being played out through the television screen.
I began to think of a trip I had made to Islamabad, Pakistan two years ago, when I attended a conference on sanitation. One night we were taken up into the hills surrounding Islamabad, on the road to Peshawar. There, I sat at a tea shop and talked with the villagers. Within that group was a young man who remained silent, in whose eyes I saw that same hardness and hostility that was also reflected in the terrorists who struck Mumbai.
In the few minutes we spent together, the villagers, like most other Pakistanis I met, were full of questions about India and eager to discuss a multitude of issues, including what we felt about Kashmir. I asked the villagers: 'What message can I take back from you for the people of India?' One of them was thoughtful for a while, then quietly said, 'Tell them that the Muslim community who were born in India, will also die there. They are Indians first and last.'

My young colleague from a prominent Hindi newspaper, who was also listening to this conversation, bristled. 'You should not believe everything that the media reports,' he burst out. It was a tense moment. The implied criticism of the Pakistani villager was gentle but obvious. Hindu fundamentalists have missed no opportunity to question the patriotism of India's Muslim community.

For us Indians collectively, this was a moment of truth. As one who covered the riots in Mumbai and then in Ahmedabad, witnessed the impact of communal clashes in Goa, I know for a fact that innocent Muslims were targeted and this cannot be justified on any grounds. That the poison of communalism has infiltrated deep inside our society, and permeates our own family is a fact that many educated and secular thinking Indians now have to contend with. I admitted this, and suddenly the tension eased.

At a seminar on human rights, leaders from Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal province, bordering Afghanistan related how the US and Pakistan government had subjected them to repeated air bombing in order to smoke out Bin Laden and the Taliban. This led to a large number of civilian deaths, particularly women and children and enraged the local population.

The Waziri then spoke of how an entire generation in his province, suffering neglect and illiteracy, have grown up believing that it is good to support the cause of the Taliban - a view that was nurtured by successive Pakistan governments, he said. And now, suddenly after 9/11, the Taliban, they were told, was their enemy. Instead of strafing the civilian population with air bombs, inflicting death on the innocent and alienating the general population, could the government not think of educating his people, he pleaded. This speech clearly indicated the widespread sympathy for the Al-Qaida and the Taliban in his province and the reasons behind it.
As I listened to those speeches, I recognized how similar is the treatment of both the Pakistan and Indian government, who have lost no opportunity to alienate its border populations, be it in Kashmir or the North-East in the case of India, or Baluchistan, Waziristan and other border areas, by Pakistan. We have pushed people there to the wall, denied them any opportunity for dialogue, access to mass media or systems of justice. Then we wonder how terrorists are created!

I wonder today how those young Pakistani men with hard eyes can be made to understand that such acts of cowardly violence do not help the cause of India's Muslims. That they also undermine the efforts of millions of Hindus within secular India who face a tough job overcoming communalism and hatred that also exists within our own families and communities.
We need a more thoughtful response to the crisis our society now faces. Yes, politicians need to be made accountable, military and paramilitary forces need to be strengthened. But there is a fine balance we have to strike. While holding politicians to account, we also have to call for a better class of political leadership because we believe in the institution of democracy. We have to support the role of human rights groups who seek justice for innocent Muslims.


While our security systems must be strengthened, there is no real protection in this age of urban guerilla warfare. The North-East and Kashmir have time and again taught us that the military cannot undertake the real battle which lies in the winning of hearts and minds within the general population that has been alienated.

Having closely followed for more than 20 years, the situation in North-East India I know for a fact, that 18 year olds who pushed a bus load of innocent civilians over a cliff were not born terrorists. I have watched the process that ultimately brought them there. While talking to one such group in Manipur I realized how important it was for the media to reach out to these young people, to listen to them and help create a dialogue of understanding so that there can be change.

The Lashkar-e-Toiba or Al Quida may have manipulated some of these young people, but it is our societies, both in Pakistan and in India, that denied them any other avenue. How do we now work to open up the spaces for dialogue and interaction with our minority and marginalized groups? That is the real challenge we face.

[Rupa Chinai is an independent writer based in Mumbai, writing on health and development issues.]