Terrorists Paralyze India's Business Capital　　
　　2008年11月29日　　
　　India's business capital was brought to a standstill as army and police continued to fight suspected Islamic militants in the heart of the usually bustling metropolis, marking a dramatic escalation of radical Islam's war against the world's largest democracy.
　　The coordinated, commando-style assault on Mumbai's luxury hotels, its historic train station, a Jewish center and other targets began Wednesday night, and marked the most audacious in a string of terror attacks to shake this majority-Hindu nation in recent years.
　　Friday morning, local time -- more than 35 hours after the initial attacks -- Indian commandos launched an all-out push to seize the Jewish center, where gunmen still held hostages. Helicopter-borne commados were dropped into the area. Intensive exchanges of gunfire could be heard.
　　Elsewhere in downtown Mumbai, Indian forces appeared to have made progress in flushing terrorists from other beseiged buildings. Earlier in the day, forces swept the famed Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel and the Oberoi Trident hotel for hostages, encountering sporadic resistance. But as of Friday morning, a small number of militants still remained in parts of both hotels.
　　About 120 people, including Mumbai's anti-terrorism chief and several foreigners, were reported killed in the attacks; more than 300 were injured.
　　With gun volleys still ringing out Friday morning and a major fire blazing in the Oberoi Trident, Indian officials were just beginning to piece together their investigation. Almost immediately, several blamed traditional arch-enemy Pakistan.
　　While not mentioning Pakistan by name, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to 'take up strongly with our neighbors that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated.'
　　Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have both condemned the bloodshed in Mumbai.
　　The scale and sophistication of the Mumbai attacks, as well as the choice of targets, however, appeared to point to a more insidious threat that the Indian government has been reluctant to acknowledge so far -- the potential involvement of extremists within the country's own Muslim community, which, at 150 million, is the world's third-largest after Indonesia and Pakistan. It is also one of India's most economically and politically disadvantaged minorities.
　　In a statement that couldn't be independently authenticated, a previously unknown group, the Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the Mumbai operation, describing itself as hailing from the south Indian city of Hyderabad. Hyderabad was the world's largest Muslim-ruled monarchy until it was invaded and annexed by India in 1948.
　　Indian security officials cast doubt on this statement, saying that the attacks bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda and Pakistani militant groups. They also claimed to have found a boat on which ammunition for the attacks was allegedly smuggled from Pakistan. That couldn't be confirmed.
　　While independent security experts said it's likely that the attackers received some support from like-minded radicals in Pakistan, they also stressed that such a massive operation would have been nearly impossible without a deep-rooted local network inside India itself.
　　India's Muslims, some of them still nostalgic for a medieval golden age when most of the subcontinent was under Muslim dominion, are among the country's poorest communities, partly because much of the Muslim professional class emigrated to Pakistan at partition in 1947.
　　In addition to being disproportionately targeted in outbreaks of religious violence, they are severely underrepresented in the country's government bureaucracy, universities and security services. On literacy scores, young Indian Muslims now lag behind even the country's historically most disadvantaged group, the Dalits, or Hinduism's 'untouchables.'
　　India's main stock exchange was closed on Thursday, some international flights were canceled at Mumbai's airport, and the city's central business district had the feel of a ghost town as most shops remained shuttered and occasional gunfire crackled.
　　'Business won't come back for one year at least,' said Vijay K. Hegiste, who owns a tobacco shop around the corner from the Taj hotel. 'No one is going to come.'
　　How India will respond to the attack is already shaping up as a central issue for upcoming elections in several states, and for the country's general elections due before May next year.
　　Addressing the country on television Thursday, Prime Minister Singh promised to prevent similar attacks in the future. He said India will create a new federal investigative agency and tighten legislation 'to ensure that there are no loopholes available to terrorists to escape the clutches of the law.'
　　Some in Mumbai's large Muslim community fear the attacks may stir the upcoming political campaigns, aware that such controversies can easily end up in religious clashes. 'Elections are coming around the corner -- and the politicians want the vote banks,' said garment merchant Mohammed Salim, as he watched riot police surround a building known as Nariman House in his Colaba neighborhood.
恐怖襲擊令印度商業(yè)之都陷入癱瘓
　　印度的商業(yè)中心陷入了停頓，軍隊(duì)和警方同可疑的伊斯蘭武裝分子仍在以往熙熙攘攘的城市核心地區(qū)繼續(xù)交火，這標(biāo)志著針對(duì)這個(gè)全球最大的民主國(guó)家發(fā)動(dòng)的伊斯蘭戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)出現(xiàn)了明顯的升級(jí)。
　　對(duì)孟買(mǎi)的豪華酒店、歷史悠考試*大久的火車(chē)站、猶太人中心和其它目標(biāo)同時(shí)發(fā)動(dòng)的突擊隊(duì)式的襲擊從周三夜間開(kāi)始，這也是近年來(lái)針對(duì)這個(gè)印度教徒為主的國(guó)家發(fā)動(dòng)的一連串恐怖襲擊中最膽大妄為的一起。
　　在最初的襲擊發(fā)生35個(gè)多小時(shí)之后，當(dāng)?shù)貢r(shí)間周五上午，印度突擊隊(duì)對(duì)猶太中心發(fā)動(dòng)了總攻，武裝分子在這里仍扣押著人質(zhì)。直升飛機(jī)將突擊隊(duì)員空降到這一區(qū)域。可以聽(tīng)到密集的交火聲。
　　在孟買(mǎi)市區(qū)的其它地方，印度軍方在清剿藏匿于其它建筑物內(nèi)的恐怖分子方面似乎取得了進(jìn)展。周五早些時(shí)候，軍隊(duì)對(duì)知名的泰姬陵酒店(Taj Mahal Palace & Tower)和奧比歐酒店(Oberoi Trident Hotel)進(jìn)行了徹底搜查，在解救人質(zhì)過(guò)程中遇到了零星的抵抗。但截至周五上午，這兩個(gè)酒店中仍盤(pán)踞著少數(shù)武裝分子。
　　據(jù)報(bào)導(dǎo)，包括孟買(mǎi)反恐司令和幾名外國(guó)人在內(nèi)的120多人在襲擊中喪生；300多人受傷。
　　周五上午仍有槍聲傳出，奧比歐酒店的大火仍未熄滅，印度政府剛剛開(kāi)始著手調(diào)查此事。矛頭幾乎立刻就指向了印度的宿敵巴基斯坦。
　　盡管沒(méi)有提到巴基斯坦的名字，但印度總理辛格(Manmohan Singh)稱，印度要正告鄰國(guó)，利用他們的土地開(kāi)展針對(duì)印度的襲擊是不會(huì)被容忍的。　　
　　巴基斯坦總統(tǒng)扎爾達(dá)里(Asif Ali Zardari)和總理吉拉尼(Yousaf Raza Gilani)都譴責(zé)了孟買(mǎi)的這起流血事件。
　　不過(guò)，此次孟買(mǎi)襲擊的規(guī)模和精細(xì)程度，以及選擇的目標(biāo)似乎顯示出印度政府迄今為止一直不愿承認(rèn)的更為隱密的威脅，即印度國(guó)內(nèi)穆斯林社會(huì)中極端分子的可能參與。印度共有1.50億穆斯林，在世界排名第三，僅次于印尼和巴基斯坦。他們也是印度國(guó)內(nèi)經(jīng)濟(jì)和政治上最為弱勢(shì)的少數(shù)民族。
　　在一份無(wú)法獲得獨(dú)立證實(shí)的聲明中，之前鮮為人知的“德干圣戰(zhàn)組織”(Deccan Mujahideen)聲稱對(duì)孟買(mǎi)襲擊事件負(fù)責(zé)，并自稱來(lái)自印度南部城市海得拉巴。海得拉巴曾是世界上最大的穆斯林王國(guó)，1948年被印度占領(lǐng)。
　　印度安全部門(mén)的官員對(duì)這份聲明表示懷疑，并稱襲擊行動(dòng)帶有基地組織(Al Qaeda)和巴基斯坦軍事組織的特點(diǎn)。他們還透露發(fā)現(xiàn)了一艘船，相信船上用于襲擊行動(dòng)的武器是從巴基斯坦走私過(guò)來(lái)的。這一點(diǎn)目前無(wú)法證實(shí)。
　　雖然獨(dú)立的安全專家稱，襲擊者有可能從有相同想法的巴基斯坦激進(jìn)分子那里獲得了支持。但他們也強(qiáng)調(diào)，如此大規(guī)模的行動(dòng)基本不可能沒(méi)有根基很深的印度當(dāng)?shù)亟M織的參與。
　　在印度，一部分穆斯林還在 念中世紀(jì)印度次大陸完全由穆斯林統(tǒng)治的黃金時(shí)代。目前穆斯林在印度處于最貧困的階層，部分原因是1947年印巴分治時(shí)大部分專業(yè)階層的穆斯林都移居到了巴基斯坦。
　　印度的穆斯林在宗教暴力沖突中經(jīng)常成為襲擊對(duì)象，他們?cè)谡块T(mén)、大學(xué)和安全部門(mén)的就職機(jī)會(huì)嚴(yán)重偏少。在文化程度方面，印度穆斯林甚至還不如該國(guó)一直以來(lái)最落后的達(dá)利人，這是印度教里考試*大視為“不可接觸者”的一個(gè)種姓。
　　印度主要的證券交易所在周四休市，孟買(mǎi)機(jī)場(chǎng)的一些國(guó)際航班被取消，市中心商務(wù)區(qū)一片死寂，大部分商店都關(guān)門(mén)歇業(yè)，偶爾能聽(tīng)到幾聲槍響。
　　在泰姬陵酒店旁的街角上經(jīng)營(yíng)香煙店的Vijay K. Hegiste說(shuō)，估計(jì)生意至少要一年才能恢復(fù)正常。沒(méi)有人會(huì)來(lái)這里。
　　印度有好幾個(gè)邦即將舉行選舉，明年5月還要舉行全國(guó)大選。如何應(yīng)對(duì)此次襲擊已成為選舉的中心話題。
　　印度總理辛格周四在電視上講話，他承諾要防止類似襲擊再次發(fā)生。他表示，印度將成立一個(gè)新的聯(lián)邦調(diào)查機(jī)構(gòu)并加強(qiáng)立法，以“確保不會(huì)給恐怖分子留下逃過(guò)法律制裁的漏洞”。
　　孟買(mǎi)一些大型穆斯林團(tuán)體擔(dān)心這次襲擊可能會(huì)擾亂即將到來(lái)的政治活動(dòng)，他們擔(dān)心這方面的爭(zhēng)論很容易演變成宗教沖突。在Colaba區(qū)，服裝商人穆罕默德?薩林(Mohammed Salim)一邊看著包圍他附近的Nariman House大樓的防暴警察一邊說(shuō)，很快就要選舉了，而政治家們都想爭(zhēng)取到大量支持者。