Statement from Action LA and Peace NO
War Network about Mumbai, India Terrorist Attack
November 30, 2008
ActionLA, Peace NO War Network want to offer our condolence to
those who killed and injured at last week's Mumbai, India terrorist
attack.
We don't support any form of terrorism against innocent civilians
and we encourage the government of India and Pakistan--both who has nuclear
weapons, India's Hindu and Muslim communities will show their maximum restrain
to prevent any further "eye-to-eye" revenge killings and military
conflict.
Terrorist attacks in India is nothing new, every year, thousand or
more people killed in terrorist-related attacks in India--just 2008 alone,
there's been 2,322 people killed in terrorism at India so far (not includes
latest Mumbai's attack), according to a media report. Mumbai itself has
been attacked by terrorists several times in recent years with hundreds killed.
Terrorism in India has its deep complex social, religious, class, political and
economical roots--the conflicts between religions (Hindu, Muslim and Sikh),
social class (high vs. low caste system), ethnic groups, rich vs. poor--a time
bomb that crisis waiting to be happen.
However, Mumbai attack isn't an isolated incident, U.S. and the
western foreign power also had pay their unholy role on tragedies to be
happen--during the cold war U.S. and CIA, along with Pakistan, supported
Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to against Soviet invasion during 1980's, but end up
they turned their gun against U.S. and western countries across the World since
then. Especially after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks, more anti-terrorist campaign had helped created more
Al-Qaeda-type terrorist groups around the World with more deadly attacks. With
President-elect Obama plan to military surge in Afghanistan with additional
20,000 troops, and calling for joint counter-terrorism campaigns at Afghanistan,
India and Pakistan, most observers believes it'll create more problems on
terrorism because it avoid the roots of the problem--the U.S. invasion and
occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We demand NO to further U.S. military surge in the region in the
name of "counter-terrorism", and demand immediately end U.S. occupation in Iraq
and Afghanistan, stop military aids to create another dedicators and covert
operations, and truly begin focus on the root course of the problem: the
globalization that devastated the poorest of poorest on the region; the U.S.
imperialism and CIA covert operations; and the social, religion, ethnic and
economic tensions that fueled the crisis.
Latest News and Analysis from Mumbai
Terrroist Attack
Citizens For Legitimate Government
29 Nov 2008
'Armed police would not fire back. – I wish I'd had a gun, not a
camera.' --Terrifyingly professional gunmen 'wore Western style
clothes' --Jerome Taylor talks to the photographer 29 Nov 2008
Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just
opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran
towards the terminus. "I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the
platform to try and get a shot but couldn't get a good angle, so I moved to the
second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by," he said. "They were
shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time
to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking
photographs but they didn't seem to care." The gunmen were terrifyingly
professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle
while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on
camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station
concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were
armed but did not fire back. "I first saw the gunmen outside the station," Mr
D'Souza said. "With their rucksacks and Western
clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were
very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles.
Taj Mahal hotel owner: We had warning --Tata surprised at
level of planning, familiarity with hotel shown by attackers 29 Nov 2008 The
Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, temporarily increased security after being
warned of a possible terrorist attack, the chairman of the company that owns the
hotel said Saturday. But Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said those measures,
which were eased shortly before this week's terror
attacks, could not have prevented gunmen from entering the hotel...
"It's ironic that we did have such a warning, and we did have some measures,"
Tata said in an interview with CNN, without elaborating on the warning or when
security measures were enacted.
Pointed intelligence warnings preceded attacks --Weaknesses
in police infrastructure facilitated the attack, government sources say 30
Nov 2008 India’s intelligence services had delivered at least three precise
warnings that a major terrorist attack on Mumbai was imminent, highly-placed
government sources have told The Hindu. On November 18, the Research and
Analysis Wing (RAW) intercepted a satellite phone conversation, in which a
so-far unidentified caller notified his handlers that he was heading for Mumbai
along with a certain cargo.
Britons
are among those detained, official claims 29 Nov 2008 Britons were among
the militants arrested for the Bombay attacks, a senior Indian official said
yesterday. Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, in which
Bombay lies, made the claim on an Indian television station. Patrick Mercer, MP,
a former Conservative security spokesman, told The Times that he had been
given information that at least two of the terrorists had credit cards and other
identifying documents that linked them to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Other
reports last night claimed that men from Leeds and Bradford were among the
terrorists.
NYPD Guards Against Mumbai-Like Terror Attacks 29 Nov
2008 (NY) A Brooklyn rabbi and his wife were found among the dead in a series of
terrorist attacks in India that have claimed more than 150 lives. In response to
the attacks, the NYPD beefed up patrols around large hotels and Jewish centers,
including the Lubavitch headquarters, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. The
department already was on alert because of a warning earlier this week of a
possible al-Qaida plot to strike the city's rail systems over the holidays.
Pakistan pledges action on any group involved in Mumbai
attacks 29 Nov 2008 Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi
told a press conference on Saturday that Pakistan will take action against any
group within its borders if it was involved in the Mumbai attacks. "Any entity
or group involved in the ghastly act, the Pakistani government will proceed
against it," he told reporters in a televised press conference.
Pakistan rejects UK proposal on terror war 28 Nov 2008
Pakistan rejects a British proposal for joint military operations against
'al-Qaeda' and Taliban militants on its soil near Afghan border. British Foreign
Secretary David Miliband suggested that Pakistani army must launch a joint drive
with the US and British forces to flush out the militants from its troubled
tribal region bordering Afghanistan, Press TV correspondent reported Friday.
However, Pakistan's military leadership and civilian leaders turned down the
demand and instead urged the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan to
respect Islamabad's sovereignty. |
