Review: Short, Gripping, Informative
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 1, 2011
The Mumbai terrorist attacks that occurred on 26th of November 2008 have often been characterized as India's own version of "9/11" attacks. The brazenness of the attacks, the high level of planning and organization that went into them, and the tragic loss of over 160 lives shocked India and the entire World. From the very outset of the attacks it was clear that they originated in Pakistan. In subsequent years many of the details of the planning phases of the attacks had become clear, but there is still a lot that remains unclear. In particular, the exact nature of involvement (if any) of the Pakistani intelligence services has not been publicly clarified. It is the aim of this brief "Kindle single" to shed some more light on those connection based on the best available evidence.Based on the testimony of one surviving attacker and several other sources it became clear very early on in the investigation that the group responsible for the attacks was Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Pakistani militant Islamist organization. The organization was probably formed or supported by the Pakistani secret service (ISI) as a covert organization that mostly operated inside Kashmir and Afghanistan. The man who was in charge of Lashkar goes by the name Sajid Mir, although it is not certain that is his real name. He masterminded the attacks and through cell phones was in direct control of the events as they enfolded. He had given direct orders for the assassination of several civilians that had been held hostage, and the details of those executions are chilling. Since the attacks Mir has been implicated in several other plots against Western targets, which have thankfully been foiled. Nonetheless, to this day Mir remains at large.This short "single" goes into quite a bit of detail about the attacks and their possible connection to ISI. Although there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that ISI has been at least been supportive of Lashkar in the past, there is no conclusive evidence that it had any part in the Mumbai attacks. Nonetheless, the involvement of some of the highest Pakistani military and security organizations with as radical of an organization as Lashkar is embarrassing to say the least. This is probably the main reason why individuals like Sajid Mir remain at large - their capture and interrogation would probably reveal too many dirty secrets. It is also clear from this single that treating terrorism exclusively within the framework of law enforcement is nave and does not correspond to the facts on the ground.This is a very readable short single, filled with facts and valuable information. It reads like a spy novel, which is a bit unsettling - it would be comforting to think that some of the worst-case scenarios involving dangerous paramilitary organizations would only be confined to fiction. Unfortunately, we live in a dangerous World and this Kindle single serves as a useful reminder of this fact.