What happened
Pakistani soldiers raided a camp used by Lashkar-e-Taiba—the group India blames for the deadly Mumbai massacre—and arrested a man they said was one of the masterminds of the terrorist attacks. (CNN) American intelligence officials say the group has thrived during a crackdown on other militias thanks to help from Pakistan’s main spy service. (The New York Times)
What the columnists said
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Destroying Lashkar’s training camps won’t rid Pakistan of terrorists, said Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek. They are “symptoms, not the sources of the rot.” Until the Pakistani government roots out terrorist sympathizers from its intelligence service and military—which India believes were involved in the Mumbai attacks—Pakistan will never be trusted by its neighbors.
The terrorists have another key group of enablers—the media, said Gregory Rodriquez in the Los Angeles Times. The murderers in Mumbai monitored “their three-day killing spree on their BlackBerrys,” a clear sign that all the attention fed their dreams of martyrdom. We can really strike a blow against terrorism if, during the next attack, we “summon the courage to look away.”
Don’t underestimate the hatred seething within Lashkar-e-Taiba, said Patrick French in The New York Times. Its leader, Hafiz Saeed, counts among his “bugbears” Hindus, Shiites, and women who wear bikinis.” Saeed “has an explicit political desire to create a state of war between the religious communities in India and beyond, and bring on the endgame” in his fight with all the enemies of Islamist extremism.
