Mumbai Terror

My travel jinx is common knowledge to most friends, but I could never have been prepared enough for the horrific episode on Nov27 in Mumbai. I was there to attend a few board meetings, followed by a quiet management day out on 27th. The horror began just about the time we were coming out of a management dinner Wednesday night at the Four Seasons, where I was staying this time thanks to good rates agreed between this newly opened hotel and the Company.

Lynn, our HR Manager for South Asia, was expecting her husband to pick her up, and we were chatting in the lobby while waiting for him. When he hadn't arrived by 11pm, she called him only to find out he was held up on the way because of a reported bomb blast in the city. Worried, we hurried up to my room to check the news which was reporting exchange of fire between Nigerians and the police at the famous Leopold Cafe some kilometers away. There was also news of a blast having been heard, however there was uncertainty about where. Within the next hour the the number of blasts had become three, number of casualties about 10 or so and armed attacks on two top hotels, Oberoi and Taj. Lynn's husband managed to arrive some time after midnight, and we agreed to stay in touch over the developing situation.

I called up my worried folks back home to let them know I was okay, and followed the news till around 2am by when there were already 25 or so deaths reported, 5 bombs and a hostage drama unfolding in the two hotels. Worried and feeling helpless, I fell asleep. At 8am on Nov27, I woke up in a fear-gripped and paralysed Mumbai to the news of over 100 people dead, scores more injured and continuing hostage crisis. Lynn called to say the management outing was obviously off, our Mumbai offices had been declared closed and that we were to stay indoors till further notice. Being a Pakistani in India, and aware of the history of traditional finger-pointing between the two countries, I decided to check on flights and get the first available one back to Karachi. The hotel staff were all very helpful, and with Lynn calling every quarter of an hour to check on progress, I managed to get to the airport, arrange a ticket and head back safely in the afternoon. In the absence of traffic it was probably also the quickest ever trip between the hotel and the airport.

Sure enough, the blame-game with Pakistan has now begun. This whole incident and the situation developing is a terrible thing to happen, especially at a time when relations between the two countries were at a high. The way the media on both sides is behaving, it seems that regardless of how much we work together to build a good relationship, it is all really just a farce - scratch the surface and just underneath there is so much ill-will, distrust and resentment on both sides, built up in all our years of animosity and war, that no amount of effort can really seem to wash it away.

We need to wake up to the fact that terrorism is not only a global problem, for Pakistan it is our single biggest national problem. We know the fear Mumbaikars are facing, because we live through it every day. And those who know this fear would never will it on anyone else. Pakistan has its hands full in dealing with this threat internally to think about unleashing it elsewhere. Instead of talking of troop buildups at the border we need to collectively put our best brains together to solve this issue.
I hope and pray that sanity prevails.