Terror strikes Mumbai
At least 180 people were killed and 700 injured in a co-ordinated series of bomb blasts in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay). The attack targeted Mumbai’s railway stations during rush hour.
The attack comes just over one year after a similar atrocity took place on London’s underground train network on 7th July 2006. The attack in Mumbai was even more deadly, being eerily reminiscent of the worst terrorist attack ever to have hit Indian soil, when 13 co-ordinated bomb-blasts killed 257 people in Mumbai on 12th March 1993.
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:29 am
In the context of ongoing terrorism faced by India, I was interested to see Kashmir mentioned in Tony Blair’s recent (somewhat controversial) speech in Los Angeles, the full text of which is available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5236896.stm
This became all the more interesting when Sir Malcolm Rifkind specifically commented on the Kashmir reference in his response to the speech, which is quoted at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5237452.stm
For convenience, the relevant excerpts are included below:
FROM TONY BLAIR’S SPEECH:
“Whatever the outward manifestation at any one time - in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Iraq and add to that in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in a host of other nations including now some in Africa - it is a global fight about global values; it is about modernisation, within Islam and outside of it; it is about whether our value system can be shown to be sufficiently robust, true, principled and appealing that it beats theirs. Islamist extremism’s whole strategy is based on a presumed sense of grievance that can motivate people to divide against each other. Our answer has to be a set of values strong enough to unite people with each other.”
SIR MALCOLM RIFKIND’S RESPONSE:
Former Conservative Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said it was “either naive or over-simplistic” of the prime minister to say conflicts such as those in Chechnya or Kashmir were part of a “world battle against terror” […] “In Kashmir, it’s between India and Pakistan and to try and just draw all these threads in and simplify it in a rather foolish way indicates that the prime minister has become totally bereft of original thinking.”
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:26 pm
In my opinion, Sir Malcolm Rifkind is very wrong. The Chechenya and Kashmir conflicts are very much part of the global struggle against Islamic extremism and terrorism, being two conflicts based on the idea that a Muslim-majority region should be a separate (Muslim) country rather than part of a larger country. Also, the militant networks built up to fight in Kashmir and Chechenya have led to the proliferation of terrorism in other parts of the world.
August 5th, 2006 at 11:40 am
I agree entirely.
August 5th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
It is unfortunate that many voices in Britain and the USA try to label attacks against Western targets in one category (terrorism) but attacks against non-Western countries are somehow not as heinous and are to be understood with greater sympathy. It is a case of blatent double standards.