(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

A series of coordinated subway train bombings during rush hour have killed at least 130 people in Bombay, India.

::looks at the date, notices it's the 11th::

Why would al Qaida bomb India? I can think of a few reasons:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4766256.stm
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,213670,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India-Pakistan_Wars

Comments

[neitherday.livejournal.com]

Al Qaeda seems to be able to come up with reasons to attack virtually any non-muslim nation and even a number of muslim nations.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

They have specific agendas. They want to destabilize the Saudi regime (their prime enemy) and now they want to separate the United States from its allies. India has in recent years seen a number of anti-muslim attacks and would be an obvious US ally in any ongoing Middle-East military incursions.

I'm not saying it's definitely al Qaida, but i think it would fit their patterns and agendas.

[neitherday.livejournal.com]

India has long been the target of islamic terror groups, due to their ongoing conflicts with Pakistan.

[el-christador.livejournal.com]

My impression was India was so rife with various factions and sectarian tensions that you hardly need to look for explanations for bombs going off. You got your Tamil militants, your Sikh militants, your Muslim militants, Hindu reprisals against the above, etc, etc.

Stories claim Indian papers are speculating this bombings are Kashmiri separatists, which would be militants of the Muslim flavour.

[el-christador.livejournal.com]

Oh right, but the coordinated thing sounds (to me in my total nonexpertise) like an al-Qaeda thing. And the date point you note doesn't hurt either in leaning towards that conclusion. Which I speculate is not necessarily distinct from the Kashmiri separatist hypothesis.

(Noting of course that I really know nothing about any of it...)

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Not that i'm really an expert, either.

Which I speculate is not necessarily distinct from the Kashmiri separatist hypothesis.

Yeah, this occurred to me. If i was al Qaida, and my base of power these days was in Pakistan, what could i do that would most likely destabilize the area to give myself some breathing room -- something that would really irk a large group of enemies as well as sending a clear signal to the US-backed dictator who's trying to hunt me down?

[el-christador.livejournal.com]

Oh, and sources have told me there are Bengali militants too. I don't know what they're on about -- presumably separatism to make Bengal it's own state. I mean, I've certainly never read any news reports about acts due to Bengali militants, but the claim is they exist.

My impression of India is it's generally easier to find a militant than a non-militant.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

Hindus, a large group in India, and Muslims don't get along, to make a sweeping simplistic statemetn about the whole thing.
We maybe should watch "Earth" soon - it is a historical movie set in that conflict between Pakistan and India.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Hindus, a large group in India, and Muslims don't get along,

A good reason to suspect muslim terrorists. There are several various muslim or arab terrorist groups. But i think there are good reasons to suspect al Qaida specifically.

The "Jhavans" (Indian Troops)...

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

...garrisoning occupied Kashmir DO regularly commit atrocities against Muslim civilians there. They are no better than the Sri Lankan army that occupies Tamil territories in the North.