Indians, Pakistanis in N.J. unsure what to think, feel

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Indians, Pakistanis in N.J. unsure what to think, feel

By LEE PROCIDA Staff Writer, 609-457-8707

Published: Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Hindu Temple of South Jersey in Egg Harbor City was nearly empty late Saturday afternoon, hours after Indian commandos killed all but one gunman in one of the luxury hotels in Mumbai that they raided three days before.

Nina Shah had been following the news closely because she has family members in Mumbai, although they were in another section of the Indian financial capital and were safe. She said they told her that people are still on edge there, unsure of what will happen next.

"It's like there's still all this tension," she said, standing with some family members near the temple's office.

Shah and her father, Jack, said it's too early to know what happened, and they really only knew what they saw on CNN and in Indian news sources. They said worries about this conflict igniting another one between India and its neighbor Pakistan are premature, and they had not formed an opinion yet.

"Who did it?" Jack Shah said. "Actually, we do not know."

A few miles away in Absecon, Zeeshan Khan was buying groceries while he visited family in the area, and he said he had an idea who orchestrated the attacks, saying it was individual terrorist cells that have nothing to do with the two countries as wholes.

"It's totally nothing like that," he said. "This was done by guys who were trained by Al-Qaida."

Khan is from Pakistan and is visiting family there in January. He scoffed at the idea that these attacks would affect whether he would still go, saying he still has to live his life regardless of what terrorists do.

"It's not a safe place right now," he said, "but you gotta do what you gotta do."

He said he has talked to his family since the attacks, and everyone there condemns the gunmen. Resolving the situation will require the two countries to work together, he said, and he hoped from now on the governments would share their intelligence if it could stop future atrocities.

"It's totally insane what they did," he said. "It's not human."

E-mail Lee Procida:

LProcida@pressofac.com