Over Thanksgiving break, the world was gripped by the coordinated terrorist attacks throughout the city of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, in India. Mumbai is India’s financial capital and is a city that is gradually representing India’s rise as a global player. The recent violence, though, has shocked Indians to their core and caused doubts in the international community as to the effectiveness of the war against al-Qaeda and its followers.
The attacks, which claimed 174 people as of this briefing, were carried out by ten gunmen. Nine of those gunmen were killed when Indian forces raided the three major targets of the terrorist forces: the Taj Mahal hotel, the Oberi-Trident hotel, and a Jewish community center. The one gunmen who was caught alive and interrogated has said that the group received training in Pakistan, a fact that is bound to upset the already tense relationship between India and Pakistan.
This briefing will give a brief summary of the attacks, the implications for the India-Pakistan relationship, and what these attacks mean for India’s future. It is with these facts that extempers can start to sift through the information that has been published about the attacks and start to create a grounded understanding that can aid them in rounds this week.