Have Mumbai Terrorists Formed An Allegiance With Al Qaeda?

Afghanistan and Kashmir–two of the globe’s most acrimonious struggles–may be fusing into one. Have Mumbai Terrorists Formed An Allegiance With Al-Qaeda?By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 29th, 2008As the full horror of recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai’s tourist venues begins to sink in, a disturbing fact is beginning to emerge: Afghanistan and Kashmir–two of the globe’s most acrimonious struggles–may be fusing into one.The possible association is magnified by the terrorists’ apparent action of seeking out American and British citizens for murder.Indian authorities say they have evidence that the gunmen who killed scores of innocents in the hotels and streets of the Indian financial hub had ties to groups living in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal border regions, where Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda plots its world-wide jihad.Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday pointed to groups currently residing within Pakistan, India’s neighbor and long-time rival for the territory of Kashmir, as being responsible for the Mumbai attacks.”According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks,” Mukherjee said to journalists in the Indian city of Jodhpur.Mukherjee appeared to go out of his way to focus his accusations on Pakistan-based extremist groups, and not on the Pakistani government itself.Jaiprakash Jaiswal, India’s home minister, told reporters that a captured gunmen has been positively determined to be a native Pakistani.The terrorists’ propaganda singled out the dispute between Pakistan and India over the territory of Kashmir as a chief cause for their actions. They also voiced anger over the treatment of Muslims in India by that country’s Hindu majority.Both Pakistan and India have employed factions living in Afghanistan to serve as proxies in the drawn-out battle over Kashmir.Earlier this year, American intelligence officials voiced a belief that some directors of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence organization (ISI)–that country’s equivalent of the CIA–had employed jihadists to perform a terrorist attack on India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.But Pakistani officials counter that they believe India is working to increase its own power in the region by supplying money and weapons to the Taliban, as well as to Pakistani separatists.There perhaps is a brutal irony in all this pain. It was Pakistan’s ISI which initially helped to form the Taliban, as a means of increasing its influence both in Afghanistan and throughout Indian-held Kashmir. Now the entire region has become a powder keg of jihadist militancy, and Pakistan itself is in danger of being swallowed up by the same extremist groups it helped to create.Pakistan’s tribal areas now seethe with the jihadist groups both India and Pakistan reportedly sponsor. Those regions collectively serve as the nerve center for some of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world, including al-Qaeda. And America’s role in creating, training and arming the Afghan mujahidin during the 1980s–a segment of this “mujahidin” later morphed into al-Qaeda–is the stuff of legend.So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if these disparate groups indeed are beginning to act in concert. Terrorists have a nasty habit of turning on those who create them.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now! Wait, why does an independent news source run advertisements? The Spark answers in its advertising policy. * Please check out our ads–they help keep this news site running. Thanks!