Singh Won't `Tolerate' Terror Attacks in India Hatched Overseas

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=ars2Ex7S8wDA&refer=india

By Subramaniam Sharma

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India's neighbors should stop groups using their territories to launch terrorist strikes, as security forces fought to end a siege of Mumbai hotels that has claimed more than 100 lives.

``We will take up strongly with our neighbors that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated,'' Singh said in a televised address to the nation. ``There would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them.'' He said the terrorists may have ``external linkages.''


As the prime minister spoke, commandos were storming the Trident/Oberoi hotel complex in India's financial capital, where an estimated 200 guests and staff were detained. This is the first terrorist strike in the country that has targeted foreign nationals, and adds a new dimension to a wave of bombings in India this year that has killed more than 300 people.

``It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital,'' said Singh. He did not name any country in his speech.

India in the past has blamed neighbor Pakistan for backing terrorists that have struck in the country, a charge Pakistan has denied. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi condemned the terrorist attacks today.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have been seeking to improve ties since 2003, after they came close to fighting a fourth war the previous year. The two countries are in talks on issues such as control of the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, commercial cooperation, terrorism and drug trafficking.

`Combat Menace'

The two neighbors yesterday ``affirmed their resolve to cooperate with each other to combat the menace of terrorism.''

The recent terrorist attacks in the country are probably from within the country, D. Suba Chandran, deputy director at the New Delhi-based Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies said.

``The problem is from within,'' said Chandran. ``These people involved, I fear they are locals, perhaps from the region.''

A little known Islamist group called the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks, the Press Trust of India reported. Gunmen may have come from Pakistan, the Times Now television channel said, citing an unidentified intelligence official.

Before yesterday's attack, as many as 243 people have been killed in terrorist attacks across the country. Last month more than 60 people were killed in 12 bombings in the space of a few hours across the eastern state of Assam.

Five blasts in 45 minutes in three crowded market areas in the capital New Delhi in September killed as many as 26 people and injured about 133. At least 23 bombs were discovered and defused in Surat, Gujarat state, over four days starting July 27.

Eighteen blasts rocked the western city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat in July, that killed 56 people. A little-known Islamist group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the blasts in Jaipur.

Two suspected terrorists were killed in a gun battle in the capital New Delhi on Sept. 19. Three of the arrested men belong to Indian Mujahedeen, the police had said.

India has struggled to locate and prosecute the perpetrators of earlier terrorist attacks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Subramaniam Sharma in New Delhi at ssharma@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 27, 2008 08:02 EST
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