The TamilNet news service reports that Red Cross and other aid and medical evacuation vehicles are being barred access to the northern pocket of Sri Lanka still held by the Tamil Tiger rebels, which has come under heavy bombardment in recent days. Sri Lankan army forces are blocking all traffic in and out of the zone, while government air-strikes continue. An unknown number of wounded civilians apparently remain trapped in the besieged pocket. (TamilNet, Jan. 7)

Hundreds of Muslim men, women and children held a silent march in Mumbai, stopping at each location which had been targeted by the armed attacks of what is becoming known in India as 26-11. For the first time, liberal groups such as Muslims for Secular Democracy, which called the march in the aftermath of the attacks, were joined by conservative organizations such as Jamiat-ul-Ulema under the common slogan "Killers of innocents are enemies of Islam." Marches were also held in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Delhi and other cities. (Times of India, Dec. 8)

Pakistan's armed forces have moved against a camp used by banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the BBC reports. A correspondent in Muzaffarabad says he was unable to reach the camp because of the cordon, but did see about 14 army vehicles leaving the area. The camp is run by the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely seen as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was banned in 2002. Reports said a number of people—between three and 20—from the charity have been arrested. (BBC News, Dec. 8)

India was planning a military strike over the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan's High Commissioner to London Wajid Shamsul Hassan told the BBC, saying New Delhi intended "to teach Pakistan a lesson." The network quoted the official saying, "This is what we were told by our friends that there could possibly be a quick strike at some of the areas they suspect to be the training camps, an air raid or something of that sort." India has made no comment on Hassan's remarks. (Press TV, Dec. 7)

A group of Indian-American organizations and individuals have launched a campaign against Sonal Shah, a member of the transition team of the US president-elect Barack Obama, for her alleged links to India's Hindu fundamentalist ultra-right. Specifically, she is said to have worked in America for the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), an civic ally of the right-wing BJP opposition party that was deeply implicated in the 2002 Gujarat pogroms. The organizations are demanding that Shah to come clean on the issue. From IndiaServer, Nov. 21:

In the wake of mass protests in Mumbai where many called for military action against Pakistan, marchers in Islamabad had their turn to chant slogans against India and the US Dec. 4, when thousands filled the streets to protest US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to New Delhi. At the protest, led by the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba and Jammat-e-Islami, a favorite banner slogan was, "We are ready to sacrifice ourselves by launching Jihad against the enemies of our country." Many protesters claimed India itself planned the Mumbai attacks as a means of waging a war against Pakistan. (Press TV, Dec. 4)

Thousands of people took to the streets of Mumbai Dec. 3 to demand India's leaders do more to protect them from terrorism in the wake of last week's attacks. A BBC reporter on the scene says many of the protesters called for military action against Pakistan. (AFP, BBC World Service, Dec. 4) Meanwhile, Muslims from Mumbai and several other Indian cities are preparing Dec. 8 demonstrations to oppose all those who spread terror in the name of Islam. In Mumbai, a silent vigil will be held at the scene of the attacks. The theme of the mobilization is "Killers of innocents are enemies of Islam." (Times of India, Dec. 4)

Five were killed and 35 others injured Dec. 2 in two separate attacks in the Karbi Anglong district of India's eastern Assam state. A bomb went off inside a second-class coach of a passenger train at the Diphu railway station at about 8 AM, killing three, including a five-year-old child. Thirty-five others were injured, 10 of them seriously. Elsewhere in the district, two motorcycle-borne militants with an AK–47 gunned down a couple at the Dolamora village later that morning.