Mumbai attacks: a new age of terror in India?

A coordinated series of terrorist attacks in Mumbai today signals a new age of extremism and sectarian violence that will likely increase over time. Since 2001 there have been 24 major terrorist strikes in India resulting in at least 966 deaths. The last five months have been the most harrowing with 302 dead from ten different attacks. As a hostage standoff continues in Collaba that number could rise even higher before the day is out.

What is most troubling about the recent assault on souther Mumbai is the sudden change in tactics. In the last several years most terrorist attacks have come in the form of coordinated small explosive charges, mostly left in nylon bags in commercial districts or IEDs made out of tiffin containers placed on the backs of bicycles in crowded shopping areas. What happened today doesn't fit the pattern of previous events. This wasn't a terrorist attack, this was a coordinated military assault on southern Mumbai excecuted with precision and calculated to inflict ecomonmic, civic, human and symbolic casualities. More...

See also:

1. Mumbai attacks: Westerners being targeted?
2. Bollywood film suspended over migrant fears...
3. India grapples with "hindu terrorism..."