Terrorist attacks hit home for local India native

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Two years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hirem Desai became an American citizen. The bloodshed in his native India over the last several days has reinforced his belief that terrorism can happen at any time and any place.

Desai, who works as a cashier at the Marathon gas station on North Dixie Freeway, has been heartbroken over the carnage that claimed nearly 200 lives in Mumbai -- a half dozen Americans.

The world is not big enough for terrorism to hit home, Desai said. "It's bad and getting worse," said the 27-year-old native of Braruch, 200 miles south of Mumbai, India's largest city. Now a resident of South Daytona, he added, "I feel bad for everybody."

This isn't the first time a major terrorist attack has struck his native India, though not of this magnitude. Desai re

called a train bombing a couple of years linked to militant separatists. Some media reports have described this latest group of terrorists as Kashiran saparatists with links to Pakistani militants and that has Desai worried about the already shaky relationship between neighbors India and Pakistan -- two nuclear powers in the region.

"I read where they got their training in Pakistan," said Desai, a hindu, of the muslim gunmen armed with grenades and AK-47s, who killed without mercy. "The Indian government has to do something about this."

Desai actually got his green card at the American embassy in Mumbai 10 years ago, before arriving in Boston with his immediate family. Six years ago he got his citizenship and moved to Florida.

With global economic conditions at a difficult time, Desai said he's also concerned not only about the loss of life, but the fear that has now gripped his homeland and the negative impact on tourism.

"It's not just in Mumbai, but all of India that will suffer," Desai said. "The economy will be tough. Everyone will be seared."

NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera King.