It happened without any warning. Yet it must have been months in planning. No one — police, intelligence services, RAW or ATS or CBI — had the slightest inkling of what was afoot. All systems failed. The system itself failed. This is not SIMI, or Huji, LeT or Indian Mujahideen. These are not terrorists. They are guerrilla warriors. They have a global perspective. They are not fighting just India or Indians. They are fighting a global society which is tolerant and free.

This is the first full-scale attack by global Islamism on India. After New York and Washington DC, London, Madrid and Bali, this continues its unrelenting war against the world. It is a war with the West; and like it or not India is a part of the West.

Who says so? Osama Bin Laden.

This is why the guerrillas demanded all those who held British and American passports. And this is why they attacked Nariman House: of all the “others”, none is more “other” than Jews as far as the Islamist is concerned. They came to India and to Mumbai in particular because they knew that in the centre of India’s global heartland they would pick up people from around the world. They knew it would be easy to find vulnerable foreigners in India.

That is not a cause for complacency, for breathing a sigh of relief, for consoling ourselves that it is not a regular communalist attack, not Muslims on Hindus or vice versa. Don’t say, so all is fine, they came for the foreigners, we can get back to normal life now.

... contd.