World

Indian police launch manhunt over militant attack threat

Indian police launch a manhunt for four LeT men they say have entered Mumbai to carry out an attack.

December 23, 2010

Indian police launched a manhunt on Thursday for four men they said belonged to a Pakistan-based militant group and had entered Mumbai to carry out an attack.

The members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group were planning to strike around the Christmas and New Year festivities, Indian police said. Indian authorities blame the group for a raid by gunmen in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people and raised tensions with nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan.

"It is going to be a violent attack which will cause disruptions," Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of Mumbai Police told a news conference, releasing the sketch of one of the four suspected militants.

"They have recently arrived in Mumbai. We are not in a position to reveal their nationalities now but they are LeT members," he said.

Another attack like the 2008 raid on Mumbai could seriously damage India's economy, which has so far proved resilient to militant strikes, Indian officials have said.

An attack originating from Pakistani soil could force a swift Indian response, destabilising regional security.

The four men were named as Abdul Karim Musa, Noor Abul Elahi, Walid Jinnah and Mehfooz Alam.

Earlier this month, a bomb in a Hindu temple town killed a child and injured several people. In February, a powerful blast ripped through a restaurant in the western city of Pune, killing 17 people, the first major attack since Mumbai.

Such attacks have fed fears India may never be able to completely secure its cities from attacks by extremists from Pakistan as well as radical Hindu groups

COMMENTS (5)

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply @bvindh, Thanks for the correction.

bvindh | 13 years ago | Reply @Anoop, " No other Civilized country in the world sends its citizens to blow themselves up in or kill Citizens of that country." --Please correct the scentence to " No Civilized country in the world sends its citizens to blow themselves up in or kill Citizens of that country." and then, remember that we talking about Pakistan!!

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Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply Another attack on India from Pakistan-based elements(State or non-State) should be treated on par as declaration of low-intensity war from Pakistan. No Indian comes to Pakistan to kill, the same is expected of Pakistan. No other Civilized country in the world sends its citizens to blow themselves up in or kill Citizens of that country.

vasan | 13 years ago | Reply Unless Pakistan changes its mutilated school syllabus which currently spew venom on hindus , encourages violence and distorted history, Pakistanis will always find India their enemy. If they teach correct history in schools, then the next generation of Pakistanis may talk peace.

John | 13 years ago | Reply To all my Pakistani friends please the editorial from Masood Khan in the Arab News. A sincere advice to neighbor While addressing the joint session of the Pakistani Parliament on Dec. 19, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao made a very relevant comment on Pakistan’s relationship. He mentioned of an age-old time-tried Chinese proverb that a nearby neighbor is better than a distant relative. This is what China has adhered to itself and has been signaling Pakistan to follow suit. In the 1950s and 1960s, China used to have border disputes with almost every neighbor. It also went to war due to some of these disputes. But that was the China of the 1950s and 1960s. Today’s China has either resolved the border issues by resorting to a “give and take” strategy, or has put these disputes on the back burner. With this game plan, China has become the world’s economic engine and second largest economy. It has established impressive trade ties with all its neighbors — Pakistan, India, Russia, Taiwan, Vietnam etc. China has made headways in most of Africa and the Middle East, not by force but thanks to trade ties. Therefore, despite the rhetoric of Pakistani politicians to provoke China to speak on the Kashmir issue, Wen chose not to mention this conflict at all during his speech at the Pakistani Parliament. Instead, he tried to convey the message that the Pakistani state shall be mature enough to decide whether to keep its vast population poor, uneducated and without proper health care at the expense of its dispute over Kashmir, or shall it put the Kashmir issue on the back burner and normalize its social, political and trade relationship with India. The Pakistani security establishment has always taken a stand against the normalization of economic ties with India while land disputes remain unresolved. Both Pakistan and India won their independence in 1947. Since then, Pakistan has made Kashmir the single point agenda of its military and foreign policy while India moved on with economical growth. During these 60 years since independence, India has left Pakistan far behind on the economical, education and military fronts. It’s entering into nuclear cooperation with the US. The US president is looking for projects in India to create jobs for Americans, in return the US is promising India its support for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. The Indian space program is planning to land on the moon in coming years. On the other side of the border, Pakistan is in the grip of its military establishment which has the final word on its foreign and security policies. To fulfill the self-imposed security obligations, a large chunk of budget is diverted to the military, leaving not much for education, health care and development. If China can benefit by keeping economic relations separate from border disputes, why can’t Pakistan do the same? But if the Pakistan government decides to go for this strategy, then what to do with the million strong army which has itself become an empire running the country to meet its expenses. What about the right-wing political and religious parties and their mouthpieces in the media, from where they will get the oxygen to live on?

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