NEWS ANALYSIS: Mumbai reveals need for better approach to terrorism

By Siddhartha Kumar Nov 30, 2008, 8:23 GMT

New Delhi - The audacious attacks in India's Mumbai city that stunned the world could redefine conventional approaches and result in more coordinated international responses to terrorism, security analysts said.

The carnage in Mumbai put the focus on South Asia, a region from where much global terrorism emanates and which has witnessed the deadliest attacks this year including the Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad.

The terrorism in India's financial capital, where suspected Muslim militants from Pakistan paralyzed a city by unleashing a wave of attacks and holding hostages at three locations for almost 60 hours, does not have a comparable incident in recent years.

It was also the first time in India that foreigners, specifically US nationals, Britons and Israelis, were targeted during a terrorist attack. Americans and Britons were sought during attacks on the Taj and Trident-Oberoi hotels and a Jewish centre was occupied, suggesting that the agenda was wider than merely an attack against the Indian state.

Counter-terrorism experts are talking about the need to develop high-quality intelligence about militant groups to adopt a strategy that targets their leaders and disrupts their activities.

'This is urban terrorism at its most intense. It represents the globalization of vulnerability to terrorism. Every establishment is wondering if what happened in Mumbai may well happen on their soil or that their citizens could be targeted elsewhere in the world,' Indian security analyst C Uday Bhaskar said.

'Mumbai should result in a major rethink on fight against terrorism. This will affect approaches at the regional and global level,' he said.

Unprecedented cooperation between investigators and intelligence agencies of India, US, Britain and Israel is underway to unravel the terrorist attacks that some blamed on militants based in Pakistan, news reports said.

A team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that is tasked with tracking international and domestic terrorists has also sent a team to India, other reports said.

The Mumbai siege could also boost regional cooperation in South Asia, where major strikes including the 2001 attacks in the US were planned.

As Indian investigators suspected the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba behind the Mumbai siege, Pakistani authorities offered full support for New Delhi's probe.

Islamabad agreed to send a representative of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), part of the country's powerful army, to help with the investigations.

That decision surprised many, as top Indian officials have blamed the ISI of masterminding militant attacks in India.

Apart from early gestures - and the agreeable notion that more sharing of intelligence between states would be vital - political realities and rivalries may make real cooperation a task far easier said than done.

'There would be some efforts to step up such regional coordination within South Asia but I doubt that would happen because of Pakistan's traditional antipathy towards India,' said retired Major General Ashok Mehta, a strategic affairs expert.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai also called for a comprehensive regional approach to tackle terrorism. But his administration has also accused the ISI of aiding Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents launching cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

At the same time, Washington has been keen to get Pakistan's civilian government to rein in the ISI, as US-led coalition forces have been coping with resurgent Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

On a national level, Indian Premier Manmohan Singh is under domestic pressure to take a tough line on terrorism as the country has faced the most savage attacks in its history this year. Over 400 people were killed in such attacks across seven Indian cities in 2008.

Singh, whose Congress party faces general elections in the next few months, is now desperate to take tangible measures against the scourge.

'Singh is expected to carry out a revamp of policing, coastal security, an overall internal security upgrade,' strategic affairs expert Major General (retired) Ashok Mehta said.

'Mumbai is a wake up call and the last chance for India to save its citizens from such attacks,' he added.