Mumbai Attack: Disinformation & Propaganda
Source: The claims about the Islamist group Laskar-e-Toiba's role in the Mumbai attacks must be viewed skeptically.The Indian government has long used disinformation and propaganda to further its political and military agenda at Pakistan's expense.
Tensions are rising between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan after Indian politicians accused Pakistan of supporting or tolerating the armed groups responsible for the massacre in Mumbai, India's largest city.
The sensational attacks killed nearly 200 people during a three-day rampage.
The operation was reportedly carried out by a group of no more than a dozen well-armed men, who targeted various public buildings and locations around the city in a coordinated assault.
A hitherto-unknown group, calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attack. Deccan is a region of India, suggesting that the fighters might have been Indian citizens. They have since threatened to carry out similar attacks in the country's capital of Delhi.
However, Indian authorities insisted from the outset that Pakistan must have played a role in the attack.
The government then announced that the lone survivor among the attackers, Ajmal Amir Kasab, is from the Punjab province of Pakistan.
The Indian media reported that Kasab said--under interrogation--that he was one of 24 fighters who trained for a year in a camp run by the Islamist group Laskar-e-Toiba (LeT).
India has long claimed that LeT was created by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to carry out operations in the Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir, a province claimed by both Pakistan and India, as well as other violent acts.
India accuses the LeT of carrying out the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi.
The claims about LeT's role in the Mumbai attacks must be viewed skeptically, however. The Indian government has long used disinformation and propaganda to further its political and military agenda at Pakistan's expense (Pakistan does likewise).
Even so, major media outlets, including prominent newspapers like The Hindu, reported the claim of LeT's involvement in the Mumbai massacre as valid, despite the lack of any credible evidence.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanded the presence of the director-general of the ISI in India to help investigate the connections between the attackers and their alleged Pakistani backers. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari at first acceded to the demand, but then refused, following a meeting with the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani.
The mass killings in Mumbai are the largest and most spectacular in a series of attacks in India by armed groups.
In July 2006, hundreds were killed in a series of bomb blasts on Mumbai's commuter trains, and in recent months, smaller explosions have hit several cities across India in what seems to be an escalating campaign.
Also, in July, a suicide bomber attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
After each attack, the Indian government placed blame either directly on Pakistan's ISI or on Indian Muslim organizations, such as the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which the government claims is funded and trained by the ISI.
This has emboldened Hindu chauvinists in the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) and their far-right allies, who have long advocated a more aggressive policy towards Pakistan.
Even before all the Mumbai attackers had been killed or captured, the BJP launched an advertising campaign accusing the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition of incompetence in failing to prevent the attacks and responding slowly.
The UPA, dominated by the center-left Congress Party, has tried to deflect the criticism by making its own loud threats towards Pakistan. More...