Gulf media condemns Mumbai attacks

The ease with which the Mumbai terror attacks were carried out signalled the need for a re-examination of India's anti-terrorism strategy, the Khaleej Times said.

''There is no gainsaying the fact that the Maharashtra government has to re-examine its anti-terrorism strategy in view of the growing attacks on Mumbai,'' it said in an editorial titled ''Mumbai Remains Defiant''. ''But if the terrorists wanted to terrorise the world's greatest democracy, they may have failed in their mission. For the democratic, secular and pluralist India remains as defiant and as tolerant as ever,'' the editorial added.

Other leading newspapers in the Gulf have also condemned the terror attacks and said the need of the hour was unity among people of different religions in India.

The Gulf News said ''so far, not much has emerged about the perpetrators of these acts of terror, but they claim to be Islamist.

This is an outrage, since these terrorists have put themselves outside the bounds of any religion. Islam specifically forbids such casual killing, and for such murderers to claim any link to religion is ridiculous,'' it said.

''It is important that the whole world unites with India to resist these people. India is the world's largest democracy, and it is defined in its Constitution as secular. It has proved time and again that its democratic principles of tolerance are deeply rooted. Many religious extremists would like to stop this, but India has remained true to its liberal and secular self,'' the editorial said.

The Peninsula daily from Qatar said New Delhi and Islamabad must work closely to defeat terrorists. ''A worrying development yesterday was that Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee has pointed an accusing finger at Pakistan, saying there were proofs to establish that elements in Pakistan were involved in the attacks, like the fact that one of the captured militants was a Pakistani national.'' ''The terrorist attacks can't have come at a worse time for the nuclear-armed rivals as the relations between the two countries have started looking up, especially with the keenness of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to open a new page in ties with their traditional rival. The leaders of both the countries must make sure that the diplomatic gains made in the recent past are not allowed to be squandered away by terrorists,'' the daily said.

-- (UNI) -- 29DF10.xml

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