One week on, Mumbai still fumes over deadly attacks

Mumbai, Dec 3 : A week has passed since the lively and buzzing city of Mumbai was struck by militants in one of the deadliest terror attacks, but the wounds are still raw.

Exactly a week ago on November 26, militants armed with AK-47s and grenades let loose on two of the best-known luxury hotels and other landmarks across Mumbai, during a 60-hour frenzy.

The initial grief and trauma has paved way to anger and the Mumbaikars, famous for their lively spirit, fume over what they term as incapability of the government to prevent such acts.

They blame the government for taking advantage of the fact that out of compulsion people resume their normal activities after such incidents and it provides them with a chance to sideline such importance matters.

"The life of a common man is not affected by all this. He is only concerned about his bread and butter. He is not bothered by all this...All this hype about 'Spirit of Mumbai' is a facade and politicians have taken advantage of it. The people cannot do anything, they have to go out and work, they cannot sit idle at home," said Aneesh, a writer.

Many have expressed anger at apparent intelligence lapses.

"In India, especially I've seen, not only now, earlier also, when something happens then they come up with security measures. They should be pro-active not reactive. This is reactive. Pro-active in the sense before something happens they should try and catch the things and do something about it. This is after something has happened they'll start investigation. So this is called reactive. So I think hopefully the government and the police they should be more pro-active than reactive," said Krishna, a local.

On Monday, India renewed a longstanding demand for about 20 fugitives it believes are hiding in Pakistan.

Officials said the list includes Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and Jaish-e-Muhammad founder Maulana Masood Azhar, who was released by the Indian Government to save hostages seized in 1999.

ANI