(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In recent years, terror has become part of life in India. Explosives are hidden at crowded railway stations, bombs go off in markets, grenades are thrown at Hindu and Muslim shrines. No part of this vast country has been spared.
Terrorist attacks have taken place in the underground, in small towns and in places as far apart as the Bangalore IT hub in the south to Delhi and Jaipur in the north, from Gauthati and Agratala in the east to Ahmedabad in the west.
In December 2001, even the Indian Parliament in New Delhi was attacked. But never before has the country witnessed anything similar to the terrorist attacks in India's trading capital Mumbai from 26. November.
Not that Mumbai is unfamiliar with terror. But this time it was different because the attack was so daring. And it went live on TV. No Indian reality show could compare to what the nation witnessed during the three days when the country could see raving terrorists firing uninhibitedly at commuters at the downtown railway station before disappearing up the stairs and chasing down three of the city's most senior policemen.
A stunned nation saw Mumbai's heirs, the hotels of Taj Mahal and Oberoi, being taken over by terrorists while the guests and staff were trapped in the restaurants and bars. The trapped relatives and friends followed the action live with a mixture of fear and hope. For the first time, the attack was also directed at the Jewish community, which has lived in India for centuries without a single person being dealt with.
My colleague Sabina from The Times of India was in Mumbai to attend a wedding. She was trapped in the old part of the Taj. She reported via text about the gunfire, the grenades that shook the walls of the 100-year-old hotel, and the fire that surrounded her part of the building.
A final desperate text message was sent from under the bed, where she hid when she heard the bathroom window shatter. Then a brief message: "They're in the bathroom." After that, silence.
Her husband had flown in from Delhi and saw the dome go up in flames. Although he knew her chances were minimal, he eventually ventured. When the hotel was finally secured, he went in and found Sabina dead.
She was just one of the 160 people who were brutally cut off, for reasons her 10-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter are unable to understand.
By the end of the siege, all but one of the terrorists were dead, and India responded. The fear and vulnerability turned to anger when people understood how easy it was for the terrorists to walk in without encountering obstacles.
Indian investigators have now blamed Lashkar-i-Taiba, a terrorist group operating from Pakistan with the solid support of Pakistan's powerful intelligence services, Inter Serviced Intelligence (ISI). Perhaps the hardest hit party is Pakistan's civilian government. The army, which has been on its heels since General Pervez Musharraf was forced to step down, is slowly returning to the surface.
The Indian state has handled the external dimension maturely and placed the responsibility on "elements" in Pakistan. The private television channels, on the other hand, went off the rails in line with popular sentiment. The Indian mind against Pakistan was a perfect fuel for Pakistan's army, which quickly claimed that New Delhi was mobilizing along the borders to attack Pakistan.
Had the attack taken place a few months later, and the civilian government had managed to consolidate, President Zardari would have stood far stronger against the army. Now his government is under cross-pressure from militant groups in Pakistan, from India, from the United States and around the world demanding that he crack down on the terrorist groups. And under pressure from the army, who say he must stop being dictated to by New Delhi. South Asia has once again become what Bill Clinton once called the world's most dangerous place. Both countries have nuclear weapons.
But in the midst of this madness, there is some hope in the statement of Shantanu, Sabina's husband:
"I do not want my children to grow up with hatred. I have explained to them that terrorists do not belong to a particular country or religion. Do not blame Pakistan. Do not hate Muslims. Their mother was not the target. She was just in the wrong place. "
Translated from English by Tonje Merete Viken.
Seema Guha is a political commentator for the Mumbai-based newspaper Daily News & Analysis (DNA).
