Adil Najam
I, too, am a Mumbaikar today.
I wish I could reach out and for just one moment hold the hands of the woman in this AP photograph. Maybe shed some tears on her shoulder. But I do not know what I would say to her. I do not think she would want me to say much. The expression on her face matches the feeling I have at the pit of my stomach and in the depth of my heart. I think – I hope – that she would understand how I feel. I can only imagine what she is going through.
And so, in prayer and in solidarity, I stand today with Mumbaikars everywhere. In shock at what has happened. In fear of what might happen yet. In anger at those who would be so calculated in their inhuman massacre. In sympathy with those whose pain so hurts my own heart but whose tears I cannot touch, whose wounds I cannot heal, and whose grief I cannot relieve.
The solidarity I feel with Mumbaikars is deep and personal.
The first time I ever visited the Taj Mahal Hotel was with my wife. We had been married just weeks and were not staying at the Taj but went to the historic “Sea Lounge” at the hotel for tea and snacks during a short visit to Mumbai. We went to the Oberoi Hotel the same visit in the naive and mistaken belief that we would find Bollywood bigwigs hanging out there. In later years I would come back and stay at the old wing of the Taj – down the corridor from where Ruttie Bai Jinnah and stayed – I would even present in the grand ballroom whose pillars, supposedly, had been brought from her father’s estate. Each time I passed through Victoria Terminus I stood in awe of the pace as well as its presence. In awe of the architectural structure, but also of the sea of humanity around me. I cannot hear of terrorists attacking these places without my own muscles twitching in anger.
But my feeling of solidarity with Mumbaikars is much much more personal than these few fleeting visits over many years. Deeply etched into me are the horrific echoes of 9/11 in New York and the string of terrorist attacks on Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and all over Pakistan whose reports have become all too familiar – but never bearable – on this blog. I know what living with terror feels like. I have thought too much and too deeply about what it feels like to be the target of violence propelled by hatred. I know the pain of helplessness one feels as one stands stunned in grief, wanting so desperately to do something – anything – but not knowing what to do. This is why I identify with the expression on the face of the woman in this picture. This is why, like so many others in the world, today I too am a Mumbaikar.
This is why I stand with Mumbaikars everywhere, in prayer and in solidarity. At a loss for words but with an urge to speak out. My words of condemnation will not change the actions of those who have committed such heinous murder and mayhem. Nor will my words of sympathy diminish the agony of the victims. But speak out I must. In condemnation as well as in sympathy. To speak against the inhumanity of hatred and violence. To speak for the humanity in all of us that we all must hold on to; especially in the testing moments of grave stress.
But, today, I have no words of analysis. What words can make sense of the patently senseless? I do not know who did this. Nor can I imagine any cause that would justify this. But this I know: No matter who did this, no matter why, the terror that has been wrought in Mumbai is vile and inhuman and unjustifiable. And, for the sake of our own humanness, we must speak out against it.
And, so, to any Mumbaikar who might be listening, I say: “I stand with you today. In prayer and in solidarity.”
To the universal lady in the photograph:
Your dry tears represent all of us, everywhere. You look into the distant nothing; searching for clues on why this madness? Your silent cry calls the humanity to enough is enough. Your determined composure in an unfolding chaos demand that cool heads prevails. You universally represent a sister, a daughter, a wife and above all, a life-giving mother.
You represent us all, everywhere and anywhere where terror has stricken on ordinary people. Some are unpronounceable and unknown places, others are well known and large cities. The ideology terror is universal. It purposes unchanged: to inflict pain with geometric levels of fear.
These ideologies of hatred which are based on ignorance and stoked with fear and are fueled with militancy. Universally, they must be confronted.
These demagogues demonize the other and peddle falsehoods. Universally, they must be opposed.
These false prophets twist not only their own beliefs but also that of the other. Universally, they must be faced down.
These people do not belong to, nor respect any race, religion, nation or state; they debase them. Universally, they must be taught empathy for humanity.
These believers of inflicting maximum pain with minimum effort. Universally, they need to learn equity and justice.
Is goodness a monopoly of a single nation; or is badness exclusive to another? Can humanity sustain this ideology of ignorance and fear? Madness? Should the 24/7 media give more time to destruction and less time to construction?
Do we need to explore and move away from the two failed models: the UN (and negotiations) on one hand and terror-militancy on the other? Has either solved the problems, or offered solutions? Do talks about talks and talks for the sake of talks on one hand and death and destruction as a reason for eliminating the other (teaching them a lesson) working models?
We must change our methods of conversation. We must come together with an understanding that if you kill one, you kill the entire humanity. We must find a new model with core beliefs of dignity, empathy, justice and equity for everyone, everywhere. This is the universal truth that needs no language translations or interpretations. We cannot afford another day without it.
Does the wind not mixes India
@Kiran seems like you are saying Pakistanis are more open minded. You know its not realy good to be single tracked , kind of kills new ideas and stuff.
Our heart goes out to all the freinds and relatives of the innocent victims in Mumbai – who went through this ordeal and were killed unjustifiably by the cowards . As any peaceful person, we denounce all such violence with our full might and fully condemn this vile act, which has caused the death of peaceful Indians of all stripes and foreigners in Mumbai. In our view, there is no cause which justify killing of any human being in any city, place or abode.
We mourn with all and would urge to all Indians to not rush into judgements and keep the communal peace in India and promote the peace process alive with the help of the newly elected govt. in Pakistan. Any other actions, such as threats and calls for mutual annihilation won’t help anybody and bring further, least of all those brave souls who gave their lives in this mayhem.
In their memory, let’s resolve that will defeat these terrorists and extreme elements within our socieites.
Zaheer Khan
Convenor, Council of Concerned Pakistanis Abroad
Montreal, Quebec Canada
There’s a few things which have crossed my mind since this incident began and would like to share them with all.Something like this is bound to stoke passions on either side but I hope we can all be civil in our arguments. Here goes:
-The majority of terrorist attacks so far associated with militant organizations i.e. AlQaeda, LeT etc have been suicide bombings. The rest have been the use of timed devices etc, essentially leaving little probability of any of the perpetrators being caught alive.
-The gunmen in Mumbai on the other hand came in wearing no face masks.(As per reports of nearly all major news organizations the attacks seem to have been well planned, the attackers would therefore have known they would be caught on security cameras.)
-The communications equipment they used namely the cellphones and satellite phones were easily found along with incriminating evidence such as the calls allegedly placed to Pakistan.
-While a majority of the gunmen were killed, at least one seems to have been caught alive and is apparently cooperating with the authorities. In the past these guys have preferred being shot up then being caught.
I am no expert on these things, but it seems whichever organization they may have worked for wanted to make sure that Indian authorities could easily connect the dots back to Pakistan. This to me is a deliberate change in tactics to ensure that maximum harm is done to Pak-India relations especially with the current talks that were going on between the two countries.
I am also quite surprised at the way Indian authorities have been releasing updates to the media. Normally any information on evidence found is not disclosed till the investigation is well underway. There have already been images broadcast of the satellite phone used along with the call log. While I am not advocating any media censorship, release of such information right in the midst of a tragedy doesn’t help in calming the masses. If the Indian govt were to find even more damning evidence, wouldn’t it be prudent to just share it with the Pakistani authorities privately and then demand action.
Inflaming the passions of a billion some people doesn’t bode well for peace.
May cooler heads prevail.
Whatever is going on now a days in Karachi is not because of MQM, PPP or any other political issue. This has something to attach with Mumbai terrorist activities.
There are agents in Pakistan who seem to be involved in eruption of recent violence in Karachi. They would have triggered a fire and now it’s spreading all over the city.
Well, they have done their job, but what was so sure that killing at one or places will ablaze the entire city? The answer is unity.
Indeed Pakistanis are not united, they usually see, enjoy and react on a show but don’t care what is a reality behind the show.
Pakistanis are talented nation, but this is not enough if they are not united (anywhere in the world) and always criticize their country i.e. people, things, culture, history, almost everything. They don’t show sympathy towards each other, they are not patriotic in reality. These are enough factors to bring a chaos among them, without seeing a big picture.
This recent show violent activities in Karachi seem to continue, Mumbai has sympathy of the world and will recover soon but Karachi (as part of Pakistan) does not.