26/11 Mumbai attacks: One year on, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

26/11 Mumbai attacks: One year on

Ceremonies are being held in Mumbai (Bombay) to mark the first anniversary of a series of devastating attacks on the Indian city by militants.

Police have paraded in the city, a memorial has been inaugurated and a candle-lit prayer service held.

The attacks, which began on 26 November 2008 and lasted nearly three days, left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen.

The only surviving attacker, Pakistani Mohammad Ajmal Qasab, is currently on trial in India.

On Wednesday, a court in Pakistan charged seven people in connection with the attacks, including alleged mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi - head of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The Mumbai gunmen staged co-ordinated attacks at a number of sites, including the CST railway station, two luxury hotels and the Nariman House Jewish community centre.

Security forces criticised

On Thursday, a candle-lit prayer service was held at the Gateway of India monument, near the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram unveiled a new memorial, which he dedicated to the memories of "those who laid down their lives to save Mumbai... and the idea of India as a secular, plural, tolerant, democratic republic".

A police band played as several officers and the families of their dead colleagues gathered around, reports the BBC's Prachi Pinglay in the city.

Earlier on Thursday, Mumbai's policemen and commandos marched in a parade and displayed the force's newly acquired equipment, including amphibious patrol boats and "rapid intervention" vehicles.

The equipment has been purchased under a $26m (£16m) modernisation plan to strengthen resources.

http://newageislam.com/26/11-mumbai-attacks--one-year-on/islamic-world-news/d/2147

Benazir: A song half-sung, Islamic Personalities, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Personalities

Benazir: A song half-sung

By Tariq Islam

I mourn today a woman who to me was more than a first cousin. Hers was a presence powerful and pervasive; she remained an all-embracing blanket of security and strength. She filled so many vacuums in one’s life that the thought of life without her is yet to crystallise into accepted reality.

Books will be written on her. She will be idolised, myths will be spun. It is also inevitable that there will be a rush to capture and canonise her memory. But in all the colourful stories that are told about her, one hopes that her true essence is not destroyed.

One hopes that lament rather than lucre remains the motivating factor in recalling her memory.

My earliest memories take me to the time when we were children all, playing hide-and-seek, climbing hills and having our usual spats. I recall how as kids we would be prancing around the lobby of 70 Clifton and her father would suddenly walk in.

After greeting the other children, he would head to his library, a sacred and out-of-bounds area. He would always pluck Pinkie, as we called her then, out of our small crowd and take her into his library. While we were reading comic books, Pinkie was being tutored in the art of politics and world affairs.

http://newageislam.com/benazir--a-song-half-sung---/islamic-personalities/d/1084