Anti-Pakistan posters come up in Geneva ahead of 15th anniversary of 26/11

GENEVA: A day-long poster exhibition was organised at the Broken Chair in front of the United Nations Geneva on Friday to mark the 15th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The posters highlighted the gruesome 2008 Mumbai attacks when ten members of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks, lasting four days across Mumbai.

A total of 175 people were killed and more than 300 injured in the attacks.

A human rights activist and author who organised the poster exhibition, Priyajit Debsarkar, said: “Today, we are protesting in front of United Nations Geneva. We have displayed a lot of balance here to commemorate the costly and terrible barbaric terror attacks which rocked Mumbai, the Indian financial epicentre 15 years ago.”

Fifteen years ago, Pakistan carried out one of the most heinous terror attacks perpetrated anywhere in the world. The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was named after the date in 2008. The targets were carefully chosen after being surveyed for maximum impact, viz. the Taj and Oberoi Hotels, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the Jewish centre at Nariman House, and the Leopold Cafe, since these places were frequented by Europeans, Indians and Jews.

“Ten gunmen who came across from Pakistan, rocked the Indian city of Mumbai, killing almost 166 people and severely injuring 300, almost as high as 26, 27 different nationalities. Innocent citizens were killed by this terror attack,” said Debsarkar.

The human rights activist further said that all of those terrorists were trained and facilitated by Pakistan and called for justice for those victims and their families.

“All of these terrorists were trained, facilitated and then eventually they carried out their attacks with the help of the Pakistani deep state. We will seek justice for those victims and their families and we will keep this pressure so that the Western world can take cognizance of the terror that is coming out from the sub-continent, especially from the deep state of Pakistan and it is not only a threat to India but to the entire region,” he said.

Debsarkar called on liberal-minded people and democracies of the world to say no to terrorism and said, “This is the 15th anniversary so it is a critical piece of time in history where liberal-minded people and democracies of the world should say no to terrorism and should take into account and hold into account those who actively perpetrated it.”

Meanwhile, Israel recently put a ban on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Israel’s Ambassador to India Naor Gilon on Thursday said that Tel Aviv had a few months back decided to ban LeT after his deputy found that it was not listed as a terrorist organisation in Israel.

On Israel banning Lashkar-e-Taiba to mark the 15th year of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Gilon said, “When it comes to Lashkar-e-Taiba, it started a few months ago when my deputy found out that we never, designated them as their organization. It was done, by the way, less relevant, I would say even designating them because they have no footprint in Israel. And if India would come, any country with another terror organization would come and tell us, look, this terror organization is funnelling money through Israel or recruiting people, you know, whatever. We will go against it because it’s terrorism.”