Word: mumbai
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...more than a decade, sending in fighters from Pakistan and sometimes recruiting local Kashmiris. The LeT is one of many militant groups that have agitated here, often violently, against India. Indeed, India and Pakistan have fought two wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir; and just as the Mumbai massacre was at its peak, a threatening Nov. 28 hoax phone call, purportedly from the Indian foreign ministry, to Pakistani President Asif Zardari convinced Islamabad to move several of its troops toward the Indian frontier for fear of an attack from New Delhi. Meanwhile, one of the Mumbai attackers mentioned Kashmir...
That development added to the growing evidence of both infiltration from Pakistan and local Indian collusion in the siege of Mumbai. Early on Saturday, Indian authorities revealed that two men had been arrested for illegally providing SIM cards to the attackers; one of them is believed to be a police officer from the Indian-occupied half of the disputed region of Kashmir, who reportedly had contact with members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group who are under suspicion for orchestrating the Mumbai attacks. It is the first evidence so far that the attackers had help within India...
Despite the news, there seems to be a consensus within Kashmir - among government and intelligence officials, separatist leaders, local civil society groups and experienced observers of the Kashmir conflict - that there is no direct link between militants active in Kashmir and the ones who planned and executed the brutal Mumbai attacks. "It's like al-Qaeda talking about the Palestinian issue," says one longtime analyst of Kashmiri politics. "It's just a cover." And some local activists fear the Mumbai terrorists may have hurt the cause of Kashmiri independence. Says one: "People are not happy about having Kashmir being dragged...
...fearsome technique used in Mumbai - a combination of machine-gun-firing and grenade-throwing - is familiar in Kashmir, and known here as a "fidayeen" attack. But Kashmiri journalists and political activists note that militants here typically target symbols of the Indian state, not public places. The city of Srinagar, a hill station that was once a magnet for tourists escaping India's summer heat, is blotted with blackened government buildings burned out in fidayeen attacks...
While the tactics may have been perfected here, Ashok Bhan, director of police intelligence in Kashmir, says he does not think there were any operational links between Mumbai and Kashmir. "Big operations like this would not be planned in India," he says. That doesn't mean LeT has disappeared from the area. There have been at least 35 suspected terrorists who have crossed the border from Pakistan over the last few months - and about as many who have been killed by Indian troops, Bhan says, but he says he has seen no evidence of any unusual activity. The increase...