Mumbais Ruthless Underground

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Mumbai’s Ruthless Underground​

The latest attack happened in a secure, glittering part of the city. The media is forgetting that the rest of the city is home to a ruthless mafia with an ability to shut down the city from the rest of the country. The organized Hindu terrorist organizations have a fertile ground to operate.



By HASAN MUIZUDIN
Saturday, 29 November 2008.
Ahmed Quraishi-Pakistan/Middle East politics, Iraq war, lebanon war, India Pakistan relations



ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Having lived in Bombay I have some little personal knowledge of Bhai Loag, the local term used to describe the city’s lethal underworld.


There was a run-away child from Patiala (my home city, now in Indian Punjab) to Bombay who, penniless, was taken in the protection of Bhai Loag, and grew up to be a gang leader himself. When I met him, he recognized me from my Patialvi accent, though he himself could not speak a word in that dialect, so well immersed in the typical Bumbai-wala Urdu.


There was a time when Hindu and Muslim gangs became one and united to fight a common battle, against the British soldiers. That was during the now little talked about mutiny in the Indian Navy, in 1946. They ruled Bombay for three days and offered three thousand dead bodies to British bullets.



The mutiny was quelled. But, ever since, the Gangs of Bombay have become a force to be reckoned with by any Government, and the least resistance to the gangs comes from the Bombay Police, who value the valor and ferocity and ruthlessness of the Gangs. They usually stick to the unspoken and undeclared mutual pact of coexistence, live and let live.


Last year I had visitors from Bombay, the natives of the city. They told me there are several parts of the city that are beyond the control of the city and state governments, under the same unspoken mutual pact. When the police wants to patrol the area or a nearby location, they go in jeeps after a due notification in advance, so that the women folks do not appear on the balconies to spread their laundry.


Haji Mastan was one of them, the known, post-1947 gang leader.


I thought this information may be helpful to understand the Hotel Taj Mahal siege. It is pertinent to note that the first target, the senior most senior Police officers, were the first to die at their hands.


This time, it was the Hindu Gangs in vengeance. Or it was a stage managed drama by RAW, the Indian intelligence.


But, we must be at high military alert, if it was a drama. We have to support our military wholeheartedly, without a wink.