In the aftermath of Mumbai attacks Peace Activists try to dampen the sound of war drums

As the world watches India mulling its response to the most egregious terrorist attack on its soil, San Francisco Bay Area peace activists are urging India to act with restraint. This sane advice to India was aired in a vigil arranged by Friends of South Asia (FOSA), a group of Bay Area based South Asian and other activists, on Saturday, December 6. Over sixty people gathered on the stairs of San Francisco City Hall to participate in the program co-sponsored by a number of South Asian groups. Of the dozen or so speakers addressing the rally many had family and friends living in both India and Pakistan. The speakers noted that thus far India had acted with maturity--unlike Pakistan where last year after the murder of Benazir Bhutto lawlessness prevailed and angry mobs set private property on fire, Indians have neither violently unleashed their anger on their government nor on the Muslim community. But certain quarters of the Indian Diaspora are urging India for a military response to Pakistan, the purported source of ten terrorists who ran havoc in Mumbai for two days. FOSA’s vigil was to counteract the hawks among Indian-Americans and to advise Indian and Pakistani governments to work together in bringing the masterminds of Mumbai terror plot to justice.