Image of Kasab durin the attack.
Indians criticised their political leaders after the attacks, saying that their ineptness was partly responsible. The terrorists made use of loopholes in the security system to reach India from Pakistan without being caught. The public also felt the government should have been more prepared to handle such attacks. They believed that the government took way too long to deploy forces to attack locations, resulting in the loss of many lives. Many government offcials resigned in protest of the government's inability to deal with the situaton. The attack caused the people's approval of the government to plummet.
Artworks in the Taj Palace Hotel were destroyed by bullets and grenades, and 100 million US dollars will be needed to repair the hotel.
This caused the tourism industry to suffer greatly, as the hotel was a huge draw for touists. Five star hotels across Mumbai have adopted maximum security measures. Tough entry restrictions mean that unless you're actually staying at these hotels you won't be allowed inside to meet people, dine at hotel restaurants, use hotel bathrooms, or even walk into reception to make a reservation. These security measures were implmented to prevent similar accidents, and to restore tourists' faith in India's security, so as to allow the tourist market to recover.
Diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan are further strained, as India blames Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks, claiming the terrorists had links with the Pakistan government. Diplomatic ties between these two countries were already bad, as they had a historic rivalry over land due to the British’s poor partitioning of land when Pakistan and India were declared independent. These two rivals have had numerous conflicts since their independence from the British, and had fought 3 wars to date. Before the attack, the Pakistani prime minister had expressed te importance of peaceful co-existence with India, and annouced plans to improve relations. However, with this terrorist attack, these peace efforts will be difficult to accomplish.
Guiding question:
In what ways did the terrorist attack affect the general public?
How do you think this attack benefitted the terrorist's goals?
