Anil Patil, Commodity Online
MUMBAI : When the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari categorically denies that his government is involved in the Mumbai terror attacks and then resists all attempts by the Indian government to brand Pakistan as the perpetrators of world terrorism, he is fighting a terror within himself.

A terror as the head of a failed state. A terror of being attacked by an emotional India. A terror of being attacked by the same group groomed by the state itself. A terror whether the nuclear weapons will detonate.

The master of all fears, however, is whether Barrack Obama will take a call on redirecting his troops from Iraq to Pakistan and then contain this failed state to arrest the root of terrorism.

For long the world knows that terrorism was born and brought up in Pakistan and its neighbouring areas. But can Pakistan be bombed like Iraq? Is Zardari another Saddam Hussain?

Since the answer is no, an imminent attack is not on the radar. But this will be the litmus test for Barrack Obama when he enters the White House.

Zardari is of the opinion that the attack was nothing less than provocation by rogue "non-state actors" for a possible war and instability in the region. To an extent, he is true because Pakistan is hit by terrorist attacks more than India can imagine. Bombings have become a routine exercise in Pakistan. Every person moving around could be a fidayeen. Pakistan became another Somalia with a civil government without power.

India, on the other hand, overcame all the disasters to be an economic super power. Its strong constitution – with some right and left wing abuse – became its pillar of strength. Its democracy got fine tuned with each attack. Only the politicians did not change.

Perhaps this could be the first time that the terror put an entire city to standstill. The only moving force was the media and the security men. It also showed how India’s security system collapsed with the terrorists easily entering the city, went wherever they wanted to, killed whoever they aimed at and entered wherever they planned to.
A force that worked with clinical precision.

This attack shook political establishments as hard as it shook the minds of the people around the world who watched the horror unfolding in over four days. It was not an attack on India but the entire sub-continent. A sub-continent where mixed religion and cultures co-exists with great harmony dating back to many centuries.

The motive seems to be shifting the terror capital from Pakistan and Afghanistan to India. The aim was to make India a dangerous place where foreign countries would put continuous advisories. To put India’s leading tourism industry to stand still. To squeeze out India’s long standing expertise in various fields by putting end to various foreign collaborations.

Imagine who would go to Pakistan to have a business tie up? The idea was to replicate a Pakistan in India.

It was proved beyond doubt by western intelligence agencies who traced the attackers of Indian embassy attack in Kabul to Pakistan’s ISI. Experts are saying that the manner in which the Mumbai terrorists were trained points out this finger again at ISI, which Pakistan clearly denies.

But it cannot be denied that this would not have been possible without the help from home grown fanatics who are brain washed by India’s own hatred towards minorities. And this is what will make India’s Muslim population vulnerable to public fury.

When terrorism is the biggest industry flourishing in Pakistan, what can the news president of United States do to contain? The present incumbent, George Bush has already given enough warnings officially and unofficially. American establishment is aware that controlling terrorism is beyond the capacity of the President or Prime Minister of Pakistan. The final option for him will be an assault.