Join the dots below

They say that the charges against this man, the alleged mastermind of 26/11 in Mumbai, are not worth the paper they are written on. His organisation continues to function with impunity. Another horrific bloodbath today in Lahore.
Chickens coming home to roost?

The misnamed spectre

It is ironic that a bunch of violent, bloodthirsty extremists are called the Taliban. The word itself means 'those gaining knowledge' or in short, students. 4 days ago, they inhumanly killed 5 humanitarian workers of the World Food Programme (headquartered in Rome) in Pakistan. Today, they attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul and the toll so far is 12. This is the second attack in a year on the embassy. The earlier one in 2008 claimed as many as 41 lives.

Unfortunately, there is unlikely to be any let up in their campaign of senseless killing.

For more disturbing news about what this means for India, read here and here.

Wherever you are, stay safe.

Blow by blow account

The story behind the Mumbai 26/11 pieced from the Indian government's dossier by Outlook. Also a white paper on fighting the war on terrorism by India Today. The bottomline - beef up India's defence and intelligence, no point waiting for other countries to act in a positive way.
The New York Times analyzes in detail on what could be a huge challenge for President-elect Obama.

The obstinacy of the BBC

Two weeks have passed since the Mumbai attacks, metres of footage have been shown on TV and reams of evidence published, yet for the BBC, the terrorists are still 'suspected militants'! Presumably, when the sole surviving terrorist is tried and sentenced by the law, he will be know as the 'convicted suspected gunman'. But, of course, the 7/7 attacks in London were by bombers and terrorists.

America's most important ally

Christopher Hitchens, famous agnostic, author of a highly critical book on Mother Teresa, comes out in support of Mumbai.

Question time

Hostage crisis over, time for straightforward questions:

1. Is Mumbai so unimportant that a NSG squad cannot be posted there permanently?

2. Is there no repository office where defence forces can get access to maps and layouts of buildings such as the Taj hotel instead of having to go in there and find their way amidst a shower of bullets and grenades?

3. Do situations like these have to wait for state Cabinet meetings to sit in emergency sessions and then call in commandos while people are getting killed all that time?

4. Is there a list of soft targets for each city or do bloggers need to supply that?

5. External forces may have planned this attack but is there recognition that more may be in the offing and measures -laws,arms,intelligence- have to put be put in place now and not after a parliamentary committee submits a report?