Journeys to democracy

Photo: courtesy Soumik Kar

On the third anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks of Nov 26, 2008, a NATO air strike in Pakistan killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. NATO says its helicopters were providing air cover to troops on the ground chasing insurgents; Pakistan says that the strike was a deliberate violation of its sovereignty (the question is, why?). The loss of human lives in any circumstances is tragic; sincere condolences to the families of the soldiers killed. Coming on the heels of ‘memogate’, this is not going to help US-Pakistan relations. Let’s hope that the political leadership is not swayed by the hysteria deliberately being whipped up by certain sections (as usual).

The Mumbai attacks lasted nearly three traumatic days and claimed over 160 precious lives, injured hundreds of others and emotionally scarred countless others. At that time, I wrote a couple of reports for IPS, Empathy, Grief in Pakistan at Mumbai Mayhem and Pleas For Sanity as Sabres Rattle Over Mumbai Mayhem.

As I wrote earlier, the pleas for sanity continue, with Indian and Pakistani students joining hands for Umeed-e-Milaap (significantly, an initiative that stemmed from Mumbai). Last week there was a meeting of journalists from the Mumbai and Karachi Press Clubs – the Mumbai journalits visited Karachi and Hyderabad, and look forward to a reciprocal visit of Pakistani journalists to Mumbai soon; they also signed a joint declaration for cooperation and mutual exchange. There was a recent Indo-Pak youth exchange in Mumbai (that I was supposed to address but got the visa too late to travel – the delay thanks in part to David Headley because of whom visas now take longer to process).

Here is the link to a recent article by Ibrahim Sajid Malik, which echoes my own feelings to an extent: Revisiting “Terror in Mumbai”.

And this must-watch documentary: A Perfect Terrorist broadcast on PBS Frontline about David Headley who did the ‘recce’ for the Mumbai attacks. How Dawood Gilani, a Pakistani-American with one blue and one brown eye, went from a disturbed childhood, to being a drug smuggler, to a DEA agent whom the US intelligence agenies after 9/11 used as a counter-terrorist operative – except that in the process of gathering intelligence on the banned organisations, he went over to their side. A double, perhaps even a triple agent?

Filed under: 'War on terror', Pakistan-India | Tagged: 26/11, David Headley, India, mumbai, nato air strike, Pakistan, pbs frontline documentary |