India has joined a global cast of countries expressing monumental support for Paris following the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks that have killed nearly 130 people and left hundreds more injured. The Chhatrapati Shivaji train station in Mumbai, which was the site of its own deadly attacks in 2008, was illuminated with the tri-colors of the French flag, as the Washington Post noted.
The gesture is more than an act of solidarity. The Mumbai attacks marked the beginning of a new kind of terror that shifted away from large-scale massacres to smaller, harder-to-stop missions that would nonetheless prove psychologically damaging to their targets:
The 26/11 Mumbai attack by the LeT has now become the blueprint for terrorist attacks globally, as the latest Paris tragedy shows. While a 9/11 is spectacular in planning and execution, it is also far more difficult to carry out in today’s age of increased surveillance. But a Mumbai-style 26/11 attack is far easier to plan and execute with deadlier results. To procure and smuggle in small arms, motivate suicide attackers and then unleash them on vulnerable public spaces is the worst nightmare for security professionals that has now come true.