Panel offers perspective on attacks

Close to 100 people came together on Wednesday evening at the University of Virginia in what was billed as a “teach-in” intended to field perspective on last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.

“For me, this is a very, very painful evening,” Gowher Rizvi, vice provost for international programs, said. “Maybe this will help us come to terms with some of our suffering today.”

Rizvi, who grew up in Bangladesh, cautioned the audience and the panelists not to jump to conclusions about who is responsible for the gun and grenade rampage of hotels, restaurants and community centers that began on Nov. 26 in Mumbai and ended three days later with more than 180 people dead.

Even while media speculation has centered on possible links between the terrorists and neighboring Pakistan, Rizvi, the night’s moderator, and others on the panel said jumping to conclusions about where to place blame would be wrong.

Some news reports have suggested that the lone terrorist captured from the siege may be from Pakistan.

For its part, the Pakistani government has denied any knowledge of the terrorist attacks.

Much of Wednesday’s panel at the discussion held in the Newcomb Hall Art Gallery was made up of people with experience in South Asian history, economics and literature. A similar teach-in was brought together after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Panelist John Echeverri-Gent, who is currently working on a book about India’s financial system, said wherever the terrorists came from, Pakistan would need to be as open as possible with the investigation in Mumbai, at the least, to ease tensions between the two countries.

Tensions, some in the audience noted, have not spilled over into additional retaliatory violence in the wake of the attacks.

From the panel there was also a palpable sense that the media have not been a trustworthy source of information about the attacks. Panelist Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee, a teacher at the Islamic Center in Charlottesville, said that the media wanted to paint the incident as an attack on westerners when, in fact, the killings have since been reported as methodless madness.

In addition, there was at least one call for the need to combat terrorism by learning more about what motivates attacks like the one in Mumbai.

“I think what this event shows us is that they seem to know so much about us, and we seem to know so little about them,” Arsalan Khan, panelist and UVa graduate student, said.