India to Mobilize in Aftermath of Mumbai Attacks (Updated)

The commando-style terror attacks that killed around 200 people in Mumbai, India, last week have been compared to the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. seven years ago. "It's war," *The Times of India *proclaimed in an editorial.

*As in the case of the demolition of New York's World Trade Center in 2001, Mumbai's iconic monuments such as the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Trident and Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus have come under attack. *

Like 9/11 did for America, the Mumbai attacks could boost India's involvement in foreign military missions. Particularly, in Afghanistan. To defeat terrorism, "India should seek international help now to upgrade its own security apparatus, but also to stabilize the entire region stretching from Afghanistan to Bangladesh. There is no time to waste."

India long has played an important role in Afghanistan that largely has gone unreported in the Western press. "The Indians early on [were] willing help out in Afghanistan -- their backyard, so to speak," a State Department official told Danger Room.

The Indian role has "steadily grown over the last couple years," the official added.
"They’re not involved militarily, but do a lot in [economic] development and things like English-language promotion."

"The Indians been very constructive in Afghanistan." But New Delhi and Kabul both have been quiet about their relationship "as a way of accommodating Pakistan." Pakistan is India's historical rival, a shaky
U.S. ally, and the major base of operations for insurgents fighting in
Afghanistan.

But now, with India eying a bigger military role in the terror war, New Delhi's relationship with Kabul is going public. Afghan president Hamid Karzai phoned India's prime minister to express his sympathies, and now is calling for a new "regional approach" to combating terrorism.

How this makes Islamabad feel is an open question. Pakistan has offered up one of its top spies as a resource in the Indian investigation of the Mumbai attacks, but has categorically rejected
Indian assertions that the terrorists had strong ties to Pakistan.

UPDATE: Noah here. Speaking of finger-pointing, the Russians are now whispering that America may have been oh-so-indirectly involved. According to the Times of India, a "top Russian counter-terrorism expert" is saying that the Mumbai attackers "were probably trained by the special operations forces set up in Pakistan by the U.S."

"*The handwriting and character of the Mumbai events demonstrates that they were not ordinary terrorists," said
Vladimir Klyukin, an Afghan war veteran.
*

*"Behind this terrorist attack there are 'Green Flag' special operations forces, which were created by the Americans in Pakistan, just an year before the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, and in the initial period were under full U.S. control," stressed Klyukin, a veteran of the special "Vympel" commando group of the former Soviet
KGB. *

Obviously, this guy Klyukin is hardly a disinterested observer.

[Photo: B-R]