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| India-Pakistan |
| Mumbai toll: 101 killed, 287 injured |
| 2008-11-27 |
| The dead toll rose to 101 in the terror attack that struck Mumbai in yet another series of synchronised mayhem that was unleashed in the financial capital of India around midnight on Wednesday. At least 287 people were also injured in India's most audacious terror attack. Fresh gunshots rang out on Thursday morning at the Taj and Oberoi hotels where security forces battled terrorists holding hostages after a night of horror. As soldiers, police and elite commandos fanned out across the country's commercial capital to rescue hostages and kill terrorists who stormed the city at night and struck at seven sites in the business hub of south Mumbai, one of the terrorists claimed that the attack was to avenge the "persecution" of Muslims in India. The otherwise bustling city - home to Bollywood - was still on edge after a large but unknown number of terrorists armed with automatic rifles and grenades sneaked into Mumbai by the sea, a clear indication that they must be foreigners. Desperate to cope with a situation they had never encountered before, the authorities declared a holiday in Mumbai on Thursday. The Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange were ordered closed for the day. "This is a most audacious attack. It is a very serious situation and gun battles are still on in at least three places," said Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh as leaders around the world denounced the well-planned terrorist operation. The terrorists began targeting high profile landmarks close to the sea and popular with Western tourists from between 10.15 and 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday. The targets included Hotel Taj, Hotel Oberoi-Trident, Metro Theatre and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station. A grenade was also hurled at a taxi in Vile Parle, destroying it and killing its occupants, and one more attack took place at Mazgaon, a Mumbai suburb. A police van was hijacked. Panic set in quickly all over the city, which has seen several terror attacks in the past. The outwitted police took them on but suffered losses initially. Among the first to die was Hemant Karkare, the highly regarded Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief heading the controversial probe into bomb attacks in Maharashtra blamed on Hindu radicals. Among his four colleagues who were also believed to be killed were Additional Police Commissioners Ashok Kamte and Sadanand Date and Mumbai Police officer Vijay Salaskar who was known as "encounter specialist" for killing gangsters. As police reinforcements rushed to the attack sites, backed by the hurriedly summoned paramilitary and Indian soldiers, 200 commandos of the National Security Guards (NSG) were flown from New Delhi. The NSG is trained to take on terrorists. The security forces killed two terrorists and caught nine. But within a short time, a huge blast was heard on the top floor of the Taj Hotel and a raging fire erupted. Smoke billowed from there even on Thursday. The situation appeared to be somewhat under control Thursday, with police officers herding several tourists from the two hotels into ambulances and police vehicles to move them to safety. Yet there was no word on how many foreigners were dead but one Western woman - her nationality not known - was reportedly killed at Hotel Taj. Maharashtra Director General of Police A.N. Roy said: "The terrorists have fired indiscriminately." Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Ghafoor said AK-47 and AK-56 as well as semi-automatic rifles besides grenades were used in the "coordinated terrorist acts". On Thursday, a five-kilometre radius in south Mumbai, which covers business districts such as Colaba, Cuff Parade, Nariman Point and Churchgate, was cordoned off. A nationwide alert was sounded following the synchronised attacks that came less than a month after over 50 people died in serial terror bombings in the northeastern state of Assam. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #42 Its the f**king ISI. Pakistan needs to be dismembered - and so does the ISI - individually and physically. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-11-27 23:54 |
| #41 Some Indians in a forum said that accent and language of Terrorists they heard in news are clearly pashtun/Pakistan. |
| Posted by: Uleck Ghibelline9225 2008-11-27 23:35 |
| #40 Willing to bet that the interrogations of these assholes doesn't stop at waterboarding. and also willing to bet that any lib-based whining is ignored ( as it should be, and should have been) |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-11-27 21:26 |
| #39 Commandos have just slithered down ropes from a M1-17 chopper onto the roof of Nariman house where the Israelis are being held hostage |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-27 20:55 |
| #38 Latest from cnn/ibm One injured terr still holed up at Raj Hotel Ops still ongoing at Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-11-27 19:33 |
| #37 It still isn't over yet. Apparently they still have one hotel surrounded with holed up terrorists insid. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-11-27 17:49 |
| #36 Mumbai foto slide show here. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-27 16:33 |
| #35 "There are rumors " There are going to be a lot of rumors and early reports that are going to turn out to be false. At this moment it really isn't important for us to have a clear picture of what went on. In fact, it is probably best if we don't at this point. We need to be patient and the news media would probably do the world a better service if it would stop trying to report every snippet it finds. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-11-27 16:21 |
| #34 From Newsweek Around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, a band of 10 young armed militants zoomed up to a fishermen's colony in Colaba, on the Mumbai waterfront, in inflatable Zodiac speedboats. Locals confronted them: unlike the dark-skinned Mumbai fishermen, who speak only Marathi, the regional dialect, the intruders were young, tall and fair-skinned and spoke Urdu with a northern accent. According to local press, the gunmen reportedly told them to mind their business, then gave a raised-thumb gesture, and splitting into small groups, walked off into two different directions. The fishermen reported the suspicious men to a police post nearby, but the tip-off failed to rouse the cops to action. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-27 15:50 |
| #33 #32 There are rumors of an electronic intercept of communication between the Pak embassy and the terrorists Very, very bad juju. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-27 15:33 |
| #32 There are rumors of an electronic intercept of communication between the Pak embassy and the terrorists. Some of the terrorists spoke with Punjabi and Pashtun accents |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-27 15:00 |
| #31 An FBI team is reportedly on the way. An Israeli team is on the ground now |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-27 14:37 |
| #30 http://mumbai.metblogs.com/ Flicker Photos A blog called Ground Report.com |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-11-27 14:16 |
| #29 Pakistan is part of the problem, no matter where these particular subhuman specimens came from. The madrassas spew hate and intolerance for everyone not a muslim, and those muslims that don't worship quite the way the imam of the madrassa believes. Eliminating the source of so much hate cannot be a bad thing. India's new western border should be the Indus river (from which India gets its name, and one of the major travesties of the British partition). Afghanistan, UNDER US OCCUPATION, should take over the other half. Let India also reclaim Bangladesh, another source of muslim perfidity. It won't end all the "fun and games", but it will slow it down a bit. John, if you can, could you provide an update later this afternoon? Your work is the best I've seen from that area. If Time Magazine weren't so deeply imbedded in the left, you would make an excellent correspondent for them. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-11-27 13:42 |
| #28 The problem is that Pakistan is an Islamic state with nukes. Pakistan cannot now be economically self supporting. They seem to get help from the US, China, Saudis, in various forms, to various groups. They need their nukes, nuke infrastructure, and means of subsidy taken away. Then they can go back to their tribal sh*thole backwater that they seem to prefer. So the issue is how to achieve these ends. We need some research, thoughtful analysis, a plan and a figurative or literal wrecking crew, and carry out the mission. I am not talking frontal assault. I am not talking about nation building. I am talking about dismantaling this petri dish of terrorism. I think that the US and India could create a strategic partnership in the task. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-11-27 13:41 |
| #27 Cell phones and credit cards recovered would appear to indicate they might have been planning to melt into the population at some point. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-27 13:34 |
| #26 "Any information that they came from Karachi is way too preliminary to have much reliability at this point." "Satellite phone recovered from dead terrorist. 3 calls made to Karachi after the attack" pretty damning evidence, but hey he could have been calling his mom to wish her a happy birthday.... |
| Posted by: Jan from work 2008-11-27 13:14 |
| #25 Pakistan is a cancer on the region. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-11-27 12:23 |
| #24 Some more speculation: Al Qeada has been hurt badly by Pakistan's push into the territories. Al Qeada needs Pakistan to do something besides go after the territories. I'd be very interested if Al Qaeda cadre were among the dead terrorists. Sent in to prod the Indians into distracting the Pakistani army. 20 cadre from Pakistan linking up with an in place support network of maybe 5 times that would account for the scope of the operation. |
| Posted by: Minister of funny walks 2008-11-27 11:48 |
| #23 Despite the large scale and the sea access this does not look like an attack that the ISI command would sponsor. The jihadists (and I think that's the most accurate term to call them) may have had help from a few rogue ISI agents (or ex agents) but that's not the same thing. In short, I don't think this atrocity comes from Pakistan as much as it comes from Islam. |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-11-27 11:45 |
| #22 I wonder which training camps these people are from - the Indo-Pak or the Afghan-Pak side of the border? Either way, I suspect Uncle Sam will seriously step up bombing raids in Pakistan because of US casualties. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-11-27 11:42 |
| #21 Don't admit you captured ANY of the terrorists, or if there are witnesses, make sure you report that the prisoners were critically injured and died shortly afterward. You don't want your hands tied during your 'discussions' and you don't want them to be 'celebrities'. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-11-27 10:07 |
| #20 Thanks for the updates, neelesh kulkarni and john frum. I am so sorry this has happened to your country. (Am hoping that a good friend of the Tsar wasn't kicking around there for a few days as planned and went straight off to Puna like a good boy.) |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2008-11-27 09:12 |
| #19 Mike N., as someone who took FBI hostage training many moons ago....it's not a moral hazard in the slightest. The goal is to get the people held against their will released safely, and yes, getting the nut in the trailer park out without getting someone else hurt in the process. That includes the good guys, since from time to time the hostage takers/crazies have booby traps set up. Besides, if you don't talk to them, you may be losing out on some valuable intelligence. It could range from where in their "fortress" they might be vulnerable to a SWAT-type operation, to who's underwriting the whole thing, to.....who knows what else. Just sayin'. |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2008-11-27 09:09 |
| #18 Unless India wins without destroying itself. Maybe then the Chinese and Ruskies could go after each other and we could finish what the Indians start. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-11-27 07:45 |
| #17 Let me say the obvious here: If India and Pakistan destroy each other in war, it'd de facto be a victory for China and Russia, as their supremacy would now be uncontested in Central/Southern Asia. Iran would also benefit, as with Pakistan's destruction it'd be the most powerful militarily muslim state, and (since Saddam's overthrow) the only muslim country that could threaten its hegemony in the region. Therefore I wouldn't be surprised if these attacks were therefore so encouraged by agents of one of these three powers for the explicit purpose of weakening both India and Pakistan by driving them to conflict. |
| Posted by: Slim1704 2008-11-27 07:02 |
| #16 sadanand date is injured and is critical. pls dont get panic due to this report. he is improving. |
| Posted by: neelesh kulkarni 2008-11-27 06:00 |
| #15 The IN frigate Vindhyagiri has chased down and boarded the MV Alpha, which reportedly transported men and weapons from Karachi |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-27 05:50 |
| #14 Its about time India attacked Pakistan as they are the cancer in the region!!!! |
| Posted by: Paul2 2008-11-27 05:08 |
| #13 The 101 dead includes some of the terrorists. I hate it when we group them together. |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-11-27 04:32 |
| #12 I just hope the backlash is larger than these attacks. |
| Posted by: Marzipan 2008-11-27 04:16 |
| #11 I really feel for these hostages, but negotiating for the release of hostages is a giant moral hazard. The reason so many hostages are taken in this world is precisely because taking them triggers a negotiation process and not an immediate death sentence. Negotiating with even the local crazy in the trailer park should have been stopped several decades ago at least. Betweens the thousands of movies, tens of thousands of tv shows and probably hundreds of thousands of books and comic book featuring hostages the message has made it to every soul on the planet. Taking hostages gives you a chance to get out alive. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-11-27 03:14 |
| #10 Make that 3 possibly targetted executions. http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/79154/ats-chief-top-cops-killed-in-mumbai-attacks--pics.html |
| Posted by: Wheting Hitler2646 2008-11-27 02:53 |
| #9 This is some Die Hard shit. |
| Posted by: Omomomble Tojo8809 2008-11-27 02:46 |
| #8 10 sepparate attacks across the city, over 900 hurt or worse, 2 possibly targetted executions of officials. No way this was done by 18-20 guys, I am thinking about 40 to 60, and I am as always quite weary to except things at face-value when the ISI is somehow involved. |
| Posted by: Wheting Hitler2646 2008-11-27 02:34 |
| #7 Contrary to some reports the best solid information I have at this point is they have captured one of the individuals, six are still at large and believed to be holed up with hostages. Any information that they came from Karachi is way too preliminary to have much reliability at this point. But Pakistan seems to be the nexus for pretty much every major global terrorist operation so it wouldn't surprise me to find that to be the case. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-11-27 02:28 |
| #6 According to highly reliable intelligence sources, two boatfuls of weapons and some 18-20 terrorists most likely came from Karachi in Pakistan. That's not an "attack" that's is an invasion. Commence the nuclear bombardment of Karachi immediately. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-27 02:16 |
| #5 I'm watching an IBN feed. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-11-27 02:09 |
| #4 http://broadband.indiatimes.com/toishowvideo/3763271.cms |
| Posted by: Wheting Hitler2646 2008-11-27 02:07 |
| #3 The two bodies are said to have been women. More ambulances are now being pulled into position near the entrance of the hotel. Two RDX bombs were found and disarmed. Not sure where those were located. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-11-27 02:03 |
| #2 I am listening to a live feed. Two bodies were just removed from the Taj hotel. So far the word is that they were guests. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-11-27 02:01 |
| #1 November 27, 2008 11:44 IST According to highly reliable intelligence sources, two boatfuls of weapons and some 18-20 terrorists most likely came from Karachi in Pakistan. Intelligence agencies are zeroing in on the Lashkar-e-Tayiba as the agency behind the terror attacks. The initial interrogation of terrorists captured in Mumbai has yielded some basic information. According to sources, for some time the directions kept coming "live" to the terrorists in Mumbai via satellite phones. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/27mum-terrorists-in-touch-with-karachi-via-satphone.htm |
| Posted by: Wheting Hitler2646 2008-11-27 01:55 |