Two Indians, including an eight-year-old boy, were among the 59 people killed in a terrorist attack in Nairobi in Kenya, which was reminiscent of the Mumbai attack. A dozen or so terrorists, allegedly belonging to the Shabab, a Somalia-based Islamist militant group, sneaked into a fashionable mall and indiscriminately fired at the shoppers. Dozens of people, including four Indians, were injured, some of them seriously. The Indian diplomatic mission in Kenya should do everything possible to provide the best medical care to the injured and also make arrangements to bring the bodies to India. That is the least India can do at the moment.
The Shabab has sent out a barrage of Twitter messages bragging about the prowess of its fighters, before they were taken out of social media. They claimed their mission was a revenge against Kenya’s involvement in Somalia that began two years ago. The Shabab is alleged to have close links with the Al-Qaeda and is believed to promote a brand of religion that does not countenance education as a ladder for progress. They have been ruthlessly enforcing their social and religious codes in areas under their control. They are a disgrace to humanity and should be condemned by all.
The incident is yet another reminder that the world has to unite against terrorists. India knows better than any other nation how foreign-inspired terrorism causes havoc. There are close similarities between the Nairobi and Mumbai attacks. In both, the terrorists came from neighbouring countries and targeted innocents. If Mumbai is the financial capital of India, Nairobi is the economic engine of East Africa. While Mumbai witnessed serial bomb blasts in 1993, Al-Qaeda killed over 200 people in a truck bombing in 1998 that nearly levelled the American Embassy there. Terrorism is an international scourge that needs to be eliminated.