A decade after the killing which he had in vilo to the city for 60 hours and killed 166 people, the islamic threat remains

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So was the assault on Bombay: terrorists trained as elite soldiers

The first shot rang at nine in the evening of the 26th of November. The last, at eight in the morning of day 29. Were 60 hours in Bombay, one of the most populated cities in the world, fell silent. The silence of empty streets normally crowded with people, only broke by the sound of the gunfire, the explosions, the movement of the security forces or the whispering of the onlookers. A city on edge, a country with a heavy heart. Sixty hours of a heart attack that killed 166 people and about 300 were injured.

meet 10 years of a killing unusual in the history of India. Neither the first, nor the last, nor the most bloody, but it is one of the more terrifying for how it developed, the massacre in an urban area. The 26/11, is usually written. The 11-S indian, it is sometimes called.

Ten pakistanis, armed with assault rifles and many hand grenades, sailed in a fishing boat from Karachi, to land on the shores of Bombay, and cause terror in the financial capital of India, home of about 20 million inhabitants. The attack occurred late at night on several fronts the south of the city. The south wealthy, tourist, trees, commercial, colonial. The attackers, divided into small groups, perfectly coordinated, attacked CST railway station (formerly Victoria Terminus), hotels Taj Mahal and Oberoi-Trident, the jewish centre Chabad, the hospital Bed, and the cafe Leopold. In each place they began to rain bullets against workers, tourists, guests, policemen, hindus, muslims, christians or jews. The lead made no distinction of class, gender, or religion.

the assaults on The jewish center and two luxury hotels continued the global angst during almost three days, until the troops of elite indian brought down the attackers. The images went around the world: the Taj Mahal engulfed in smoke and flames, the suitcases and puddles of blood of the station, the trickle of hostages freed and Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist who was arrested with life, walking with an AK-47 in hand. In Spain, a large part of the attention the mainstream Esperanza Aguirre, who was with a group of madrid at the entrance to the Oberoi when they began the shooting. At the Taj it was hosting a delegation of meps, including Ignasi Guardans.

“Imagine the headache that it is for the security staff to have kidnapped three days in a city like Mumbai,” says C. Uday Bhaskar, former military man and director of the Society for Political Studies. “The attack showed many weaknesses in the security apparatus of india, especially in maritime issues, and the profound lack of coordination between the Intelligence agencies, something that should still be correct”. That year, in fact, had issued alerts on a possible attack on the port city.

India has been accused on numerous occasions to the intelligence services of Pakistan of being behind the pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that they belonged to the terrorists, something Islamabad denies. Delhi maintains that the neighboring country is demonstrating its support to insurgent groups that attack in indian Kashmir to keep the freedom to Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, two leaders of the LeT, identified by India and the united States as the masterminds of the 26/11.

At this time both islamists have received the imprimatur of the courts of pakistan. However Kasab, the attacker who survived, was arrested, tried, and executed in 2012 in India, one of the countries with the most death sentences dictates, but also one of the least performed. This yes. From the outset, the author of one of the massacres more painful for the asian country had few chances to avoid the gallows.

In the last decade, the survivors and their families have tried to move forward carrying the weight of a few indelible memories. During the months following the attack received financial compensation, housing, and jobs (the same jobs that left the murdered), but are now calling for a care and a justice that, say, does not come.

According to the analyst Ajai Sahni, director of the Institute of Conflict Management, beyond the families affected by the 26/11, is not so present in the minds of the indians, “despite the efforts of newspapers from the press to keep her memory alive by way of alert or call-to-action”. In India, he says, “life has little value and the memory is very short”. The attacks in Mumbai served to review security protocols, to expand the coastal and land surveillance, and amend Defence budgets. Even so, this expert argues that India is still facing a “deficit” of capabilities to address their weaknesses.

India has been many times struck with force by the terrorism. In 1993, in 2006, in 2008, in 2016. The agenda of the country moves around to the national security: it is a daily matter of information, statements by politicians and opinion columns. “The feeling of threat clearly exists, but the government agencies have improved their equipment, the people have gained confidence in the security forces and feels more protected than before,” said Sarral Sharma, a researcher at the Institute of Studies of Peace and Conflict.

Meanwhile, India, which is finding the answers to your questions in hindu nationalism, it maintains its particular enmity with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, with its tensions, pendulous, their dialogues are interrupted and their border clashes. “Another attack like that of 26/11 could lead to India and Pakistan to the brink of an armed conflict,” concludes Sharma.

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