Mumbai Terrorists Had Getaway Plan

I’ve been wondering about the Mumbai terrorists’ not committing suicide--taking hostages and engaging in shootouts with security forces rather than blow themselves up suggests that killing themselves wasn’t part of their agreement, which is rather strange if, as alleged, the terrorists included members of LeT’s “suicide squad.”

Well apparently the men were assured no suicide was necessary: they had a getaway plan. The Times of India reports that a captured terrorist claims that,

the group had planned to sail out [of Mumbai] on Thursday. Their recruiters had even charted out the return route for them and stored it on the GPS device which they had used to navigate their way to the Mumbai shoreline..

This suggests that the terrorists were willing to undertake a mission which they knew would be very risky, but not necessarily suicidal.

Sources said that the bait of safe return must have been used by the recruiters to convince the wavering among the group to join the audacious plot against Mumbai. (ToI)

So belief in The Cause is no longer sufficient to prompt young men to kill themselves afet sacrificing countless innocents? Does a heavenly reward for self-murder no longer seem guaranteed for the recruited?

This is telling.