WHY!!! WHY!!! WHY!!???????

A group calling themselves the Deccan Mujahedeen have massacered tourists and locals alike in gun and granade attacks on two of the top hotels in Mumbai (formally Bombay)...Horror shocked me to the core when I heard this terrible news from this vibrant and very beautiful city, which has a close place in my heart! The Deccan Mujahedeen were said to be spacifically targeting UK and US passport holders at the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels (both 5 star internationl class hotels) and one UK person has been reported dead.......As far as I know this group of worthless terrorists are from southern India, so why Mumbai which is on the west coast of Northen India!
Mumbai is normally a magical place filled with colour, chaos, contradictions and charm, like I could not find anywhere else in the world!! (and thats saying somthing!!) and from the moment I first visited this vibrant city back in 95', I fell in love! It was like stepping back in time to 1972 as everything was so very retro! The locals are very friendly, food is excellent and the beer cold!! Markets are a hussle and bussle, and you can't help but notice the huge gap of poverty and wealth! which is somtimes upsetting to an unacustomed westen tourist! In fact the whole of India can be challenging to say the least, unless the first time tourist recieves expert advice, and reads a "Lonely Planet India" from front to back!!! But I do adore the place because of its beautiful diversity, and ever-changing Kaliedascope of culture! ...and I will always love it, and hope to return one day!
So why have these evil people picked on this gorgeous city????
It appears to me (from what I have heard on the news) that they are mainly targeting tourists, now is this to undermine the local economy, because if it is, it just might work as the tourist and buisness $ boosts the economy in Mumbai and indeed most of India! These attacks will hit the locals who are involved in tourism, very hard! and in India there is often a very fine line between living in reletive comfort and poverty...so although the terrorists are mostly attacking UK and US nationals all they are realy doing is hurting the local people's jobs and families!...Much like the bomb attacks on Bali! After the Bali attacks I was invited as a member of P.A.T.A (Pacific Asia Travle Association) by Garuda Indoniesia to travel to Bali as part of a delegation of UK travel professionals, to promote tourism back to the island...But that trip broke my heart!!! I was invited to 5 star hotels that were totally empty and told to ignore the povety caused by lack of tourism...so much so I spent the whole trip either in tears in my hotel room or totaly drunk out of my brain!! simply because I was heartbroken by what I was seeing and hearing! On the flight home I drank a litre of Vodka to try to forget, but I was due to be interviewed at Gatwick on my arrival back by the Travel Trade Gazette...needless to say I was too plastered to be interviewed, embarracingly!.......This is totaly my fault as I get far too attached to the places I have had the privledge to visit, and very attached to the local people, and hearing news like this just hurts so much!
My thoughts and prayres are with the people of Mumbai, thier families, and the travellers who have been caught up in this senseless massacre! My heart goes out to them all.......
and lets just hope the terrorists are caught and delt with swiftly and severly by the Indian authorities!