Terror in Mumbai: Dispatched

An opus by Dan Reed, Terror in Mumbai succeeds to be a heart touching and thought provoking documentary on the terrorist attack in Mumbai which took place on October 26, 2008. Dan reed builds up a terrifying, detailed picture of the attacks using CCTV footage, survivors’ testimonies and from police and people on the scene and narrates to us the entire story of coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai.

The actual recorded telephone conversations and CCTV images are shocking to watch. There are parts where the police officials have been shown running away in different directions instead of counter attacking the terrorist. A cop even accepts that an Ex policeman came up to him and asked for his rifle to shoot at the terrorists! The child who lost his parents shows amazing maturity in his dialogues and even talks about others losing their loved ones though it is unusual to think in such a matured way at his age.

The most intriguing parts are the telephonic conversations between the terrorists and their handlers. One gets to see the other side of the picture when they hear the handlers continuously directing his boys to kill more people and die in the end to go to ‘Allah’. The part where terrorists seem to be mesmerized by the Taj Hotel’s décor, big screen TVs and even windows for that matter and are immediately counseled by their handlers to focus on the goal i.e. to kill people is heart breaking. The telephonic conversation where one of the terrorists requests his master to pray for him as he has been shot twice and is going to die, makes us realize that who are the real culprits and the game is not all about these petty puppets.

The documentary could have been even better if little more of detailed elements like NSG interviews and graphics depicting the locations and course of attacks had been added but any which way Dan Reed successfully sums up the story of the attacks, which drew widespread condemnation across the world, began on 26 November 2008 and lasted until 29 November, killing at least 173 people and wounding hundreds.

Should ‘burqa’ be banned?

The inconclusive debate over the necessity of the face veil or ‘burqa’ has been once again thrown into the limelight owing to France’s decision to ban it. It has raised a worldwide debate on whether a citizen has the right to practice its religious beliefs in a nation or not. The French government has taken this decision as its determined effort to define and protect French values but it has also disconcerted many in the country's large Muslim community.

Proponents of the law say face-covering veils don't square with the French ideal of women's equality or its secular tradition but even if we look at it from a different perspective we realize that the purpose of religious customs and traditions is for a person’s or society’s well being and when a custom or tradition poses a threat to the national security and sovereignty then in people’s good it should be withheld and prohibited. The veil is just not about the Islamic belief to cover a woman’s body but it also hides one’s identity, propagates inequality and is an example of gender oppression.

Therefore in my opinion the ‘burqa ban’ is justified because not only it violates women rights but it also aides identity concealment which could be a hazard pertaining to security issues in any nation at a time where terrorism and violence have become very serious issues.