Terror Attacks on Mumbai-II

[Ujjal]

As far as I know everybody wears it on the right hand and not left hand.

It depends upon the sex - Male or Female.

[Kati]

Kati,
I don't think we can go based on any of these facial and red band on the hand kind of superficial stuff. If I were ISI and if I want to plan an attack against India, then I will obviously do such things to confuse everyone. Why red band. I will make them wear clothes (including underpants) that are stiched/purchased by Hindus in Gujarat by a taylor named "ramachand" something and carry weapons that are Indian made and cellphones that are purchased from a Hindu.

These will tell us nothing. We need to go with other types of intelligence inputs such as conversation with the handlers (including checking the possibility of relayed conversation from within India etc)

rgsrini,
fully agree. Just scratching my head sitting in front of the monitor. ... Yes, we need to wait for a while for more
details. ....

[Jagan]

Armed gunmen are seen moving at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008.

[sampat]

Okay, I was focussing on the facial features (and the body profile) so far of that piglet.......

Kati, if the rat was a possible Hindu or wanted to obfuscate as a Hindu, he would have wore the thread on his left hand. Girls (Hindus) wear threads on their right hand. His wristband just looks like any other Live Strong-type "chalia" band.

I think it is other way around. Girls left and boys right. I have met many bangladeshis with similar looks so my first instinct was he is bangaldeshi.

[jmaxwell]

Are there any other newsmedia using the term "Mothership"? Heard it on CNN and was wondering if they picked it up from BR !

[Manny]

India was a soft target: Lord Meghnad

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/28/stories ... 891400.htm

“It is not a Hindu-Muslim thing. It is not an intra-India attack at all. The country needs to separate terrorism from communalism. The attack has not been done by the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Taliban or any fictitious organisation nobody has heard of earlier. It is the Al-Qaeda’s handiwork. The Indian state was all along worried about Pakistan and underestimated the Al-Qaeda. It has done thorough research. After 9/11 America is impregnable. Europe is well protected. China retaliates everything. So, India was a soft target.”

[amdavadi]

I think this is what Kiyani wanted. I suspect only thing can unite pakis is war with India. So this is what kiyani does to lower presure from western border, & excuse for not doing uncle's bidding in FATA.


Audio points to terrorist being paki, no doubt about that.

[shyamd]

Army soldiers stand at a balcony of the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. Indian commandos freed hostages from Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel on Thursday but battled on with gun-toting Islamist militants who launched an audacious attack across India's financial capital, killing more than 100 people.
REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe (INDIA)

[Ujjal]

MMS and his address to the nation was weak, pathetic and insulting. What was he thinking? It seemed like he was doing a teaching program on DD Gyandarshan or IGNOU.

"It is terrible ....that is terrible"
"That is the Area of Square"..

Seriously, WTF?

[George J]

NVM: Jagan already did it.

[Jagan]

Armed gunmen are seen moving at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008.

This photo and other photos of Girlie boywere taken by the Mumbai Mirror Photographer Stephen D'Souza. This is what Mumbai Mirror site says

exclusive pic of one of the terrorists at cst station taken by Our photo editor Sebastian D’Souza from barely a few feet away

The photographer was one brave / lucky and foolish dude.

[Arun_S]

I think this is important thus posting on this thread.
-----------------------------------------------------

Could be possible that piglets might be attracting commandos to come close in numbers and then they detonate their suicidal ammunition.

very tough and nervous times. salute to brave jawans!

As an aside the brave Jawans and Officers are only remembered by Indian citizens and government on these occasions, asked to put their life on jeopardy, while their pay and status are worse than bus drivers that drive you up to the boarding gates of Jet Airways. Yes it is true the young officers in Army are paid less than drivers in civil companies.

What kind of justice is this?

[RavinM]

I would say catch them, but say they are dead for the ddm folks. And then, put them in life cells, where you can show them what is hell.

During my stay in Blore, I met a army captain, who said this what they will do to the idiots, if they are 2 dangerous to be let out.

[Jagan]

Gentlemen, I understand some of you are outraged, angry and need to sound off. but we do have a seperate rant thread which would will be a better place for such posts proposing to deal with dead bodies. I will bemoving them there for further processing.

[sunilUpa]

Timesnow is reporting that 2 people are killed in Nariman. Don't know whether they are hostages, Pigs or Security personnel.

[anishns]

I wish instead of the photographer there was an armed cop who should have mowed this guy down.
This pig looks like he just got up after having a long session of playing Call of Duty!

Armed gunmen are seen moving at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008.

This photo and other photos of Girlie boywere taken by the Mumbai Mirror Photographer Stephen D'Souza. This is what Mumbai Mirror site says

exclusive pic of one of the terrorists at cst station taken by Our photo editor Sebastian D’Souza from barely a few feet away

The photographer was one brave / lucky and foolish dude.

[gandharva]

When he arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus last night, Karkare did don a helmet and a bullet-proof vest. But somewhere between VT and Cama Hospital, a stone’s throw from each other, he took both off. “He died cheaply,” said a journalist who saw the end

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081128/j ... 176790.jsp

[Jagan]

I wish instead of the photographer there was an armed cop who should have mowed this guy down.
This pig looks like he just got up after having a long session of playing Call of Duty!

This photo and other photos of Girlie boywere taken by the Mumbai Mirror Photographer Stephen D'Souza. This is what Mumbai Mirror site says
The photographer was one brave / lucky and foolish dude.

Sadly there were cops on the scene who were killed and (see photo in previous post) who didnt have a chance to even take out their pistols. These same terrorists also killed three cops outside and hijacked the qualis .

[kshirin]

Saw a news flash, perhaps on Fox, that the Pak Def Min had warned India against reacting.

That got me thinking - as another poster pointed out -Tibet pressure grows, China is miffed on Arunachal, Zardari offers No First Use bringing about the possibility of an India-Pak understanding which would leave both China and Pak Army out in the cold - I am sure China is behind this through its Pak proxies. More than Pak, China is jealous of our progress and must be gnashing its teeth at the descriptions of Indian democracy on all western media channels right now, at a time their growth is more seriously jeopardised than anyone will know. That is why this is so dangerous. Someone should analyse whether the terror strikes have been timed everytime Z makes a peace offering to India.

[bahdada]

I feel so lost.

[Jagan]

First details of the gunfight from CST / Cama / Metro
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081128/j ... 176791.jsp

Chalk and cheese heroes
SATISH NANDGAONKAR



Salaskar, Kamte
Mumbai, Nov. 27: The three officers who fell to militants in Mumbai last night were each a police star but deeply unlike one another in temperament and methods.

The soft-spoken Hemant Karkare, 54, was an engineer by training and a sculptor by hobby, a stickler for rules and fair investigation under whom the state’s terror investigators unearthed one Hindu bombing plot after another.

Vijay Salaskar was an “encounter specialist” — a breed not known for sticking to copybook methods — who shot dead 70-odd gangsters but was transferred for a while when his team came under suspicion of having mafia links.

The tall Ashok Kamte was a bundle of opposites His fit, muscular build and trademark beret — rather than a senior police officer’s khaki cap — gave him the look of an army commando. And sure enough, he too had taken part in many encounters, earning a reputation for daring.

Yet, what he stood out for was his coolness of mind and this led him to be trained as a negotiator. And it was this skill, always in demand in a hostage situation, that explained his presence with Karkare and Salaskar before the Cama and Albless Hospital last night.

Three militants had sprayed bullets at commuters at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus before entering the hospital. When the gunfight began, all the three officers were wearing bullet-proof vests — of the kind that leaves the sides of the torso unprotected.

Karkare, shown on TV wearing a light blue shirt, dark trousers and a helmet, talking continuously on his cellphone, took three bullets in the neck. Salaskar too was hit in the neck. As the militants tried to escape, a further exchange of gunfire outside the nearby Metro Adlabs multiplex saw Kamte getting shot in the head. The entire 35,000-strong force mourned for three of its best officers today.

Karkare, former colleagues said, had followed an unusual career course, getting a BTech in mechanical engineering from Nagpur in 1975 and working as a marketing executive with Hindustan Lever before joining the IPS in 1982.

He battled Naxalites during his 1991 posting in Chandrapur, where he developed the hobby of making driftwood sculptures. He had some 150 such sculptures, some of them displayed in his office.

After tackling drug traffickers and white-collar criminals in Mumbai, he joined spy agency RAW where his work during the IC-814 hijack earned him a posting in Vienna where he spent nine years working on secret missions.

He returned a couple of years ago as joint commissioner (administration) but his skills in terror intelligence-gathering were too precious to be wasted. Last January, he was appointed anti-terrorist squad (ATS) chief.

Known as a “copybook cop” for conscientious adherence to every norm, Karkare was “deeply pained” by the accusations of torturing Malegaon suspects, officers said.

Karkare cracked the blasts in Panvel, Vashi and Thane theatres, arresting Hindutva activists of the Sanatan Sanstha. State police, earlier accused of targeting Muslims after every blast, soon had Malegaon to point to.

Kamte had followed his father Marutrao, an inspector-general of police, into the force. He did the family name proud as deputy commissioner of Solapur, when he became a hero among residents.

“A cop that turned Solapur from a wrong city to the right one. The person who every responsible Solapurkar liked and loved,” writes one of the 400-odd fans on his Orkut profile.

Salaskar made last night’s team because of his reputation as a gung-ho encounter specialist. The college teacher’s son had broken the back of the Amar Naik gang by killing the don himself in 1997, then helped bust Arun Gawli by gunning down many of his henchmen.

[darshan]

Saw a news flash, perhaps on Fox, that the Pak Def Min had warned India against reacting.

That got me thinking - as another poster pointed out -Tibet pressure grows, China is miffed on Arunachal, Zardari offers No First Use bringing about the possibility of an India-Pak understanding which would leave both China and Pak Army out in the cold - I am sure China is behind this through its Pak proxies. More than Pak, China is jealous of our progress and must be gnashing its teeth at the descriptions of Indian democracy on all western media channels right now, at a time their growth is more seriously jeopardised than anyone will know. That is why this is so dangerous. Someone should analyse whether the terror strikes have been timed everytime Z makes a peace offering to India.

Whenever somebody talks of pakis, chinese are automatically included without any doubt. You cannot talk about children without talking about their parents.

Is it possible that Indian politicos put pressure on officers on ground so they do not interrogate freed hostages?
Who knows? There could have many paki supporters already waiting in Taj and Oberoi.

Did not GoI just increased salaries for govt workers?
Were police officers, military, and fire fighters included in this pay hike? If not, then what a shame this govt is.

[RavinM]

A few strategic analysts and business hotshots, were speaking- they said Indian economy was resilient and will bounce back within days, eventhough this would be a scarred memory. They estimate investor pullout may not be so bad, as expected at this point. They however said, this should soon be coupled with re-assurances from GoI to put in robust security measures for financial and technology capitals.

[Kati]

telegraph.co.uk

Mumbai attacks: the terrorists' tactics

As India burns, Amir Taheri examines how radical Islamists may be changing their tactics to inspire home-grown jihadists

Amir Taheri
Last Updated: 10:50PM GMT 27 Nov 2008

The Army of Muhammad is back. This was the message buzzing in radical Islamist circles yesterday as the world tried to absorb the shock of the terrorist attacks in Bombay, India's economic capital.

While it is not yet clear which group was behind the attacks, it looks as if the perpetrators were trying to imitate the tactic of ghazwa, used by the Prophet against Meccan caravans in his decade-long campaign to seize control of the city.

The tactic consists of surprise no-holds-barred attacks simultaneously launched against a caravan or settlement with the aim of demoralising the enemy and hastening his capitulation.

The Bombay attacks differed from previous terror operations in India in a number of ways. In the past, one approach had been to place explosive-packed devices in crowded places with the aim of killing large numbers at random. Another was suicide attacks on specific targets by lone "volunteers for martyrdom".

This time, however, the approach was "symphonic", in the sense that it involved different types of operations blended together.

Involved in the operations were men who had placed explosives at selected points. But there were also gunmen operating in classic military style by seizing control of territory at symbolically significant locations along with hostages. Then there were militants prepared to kill, and be killed, in grenade attacks against security forces.

Whoever designed the operations had another important Islamic tactic in mind: tabarra or exoneration.

This consists of separating the "outsider", in this case the British and American "infidel", from the community with the intent of blaming them for the ills of the world before sacrificing them. It was no accident that one of the places attacked was a Jewish centre, where gunmen seized a rabbi and several members of the congregation as hostages.

The loud message was that a small group of individuals could turn a megalopolis of almost 15 million inhabitants into a battlefield for at least a day.

Terrorism is a beast with an extraordinary ability to mutate. As soon as its victims have learnt to cope with its methods, it develops new ones. Groups of anarchists throwing bombs follow the lone assassin who would target a king or a political leader. The hijacking of passenger jets is replaced by the transformation of aircraft into missiles against fixed targets.

All the time, the intention is to terrorise the largest number of people, eroding the ordinary man's confidence in the ability of the authorities to protect him, and, in the long run, persuading a majority of the people, who just want to live their lives, to trade their freedom for the security that the terrorist promises in his utopia.

Although new to India, the tactic of "symphonic" attacks has been tried in a number of other countries in the past decade, notably Algeria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, at times with devastating effects.

Most recently, it was tried, on a smaller scale, by the Taliban in the Afghan city of Qala-Mussa. Theoretically, the tactic could be used in any city, from Bombay to New York, passing through London and Paris.

On Wednesday, it was obvious that India's various anti-terror units were surprised, unable to cope with methods of operations not mentioned in their manuals.

So far the only claim of responsibility has came from a hitherto unknown group using the name the "Deccan Mujahedin".

This may be a cover for other groups, perhaps the Lashkar Tayyiba (the Army of the Pure) and the Jaish Muhammad (the Army of Muhammad), two terrorist organisations created by the Pakistani military intelligence services.

Earlier this year, in one of his last acts as president, Pervez Musharraf announced the dissolution of both, but it is possible that the two groups and their backers in the Pakistani military and intelligence elite have returned to the market under a new brand, with new tactics.

The attacks came 48 hours after Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, practically threw away 50 years of Pakistani policy by announcing his readiness to end the dispute with India over Kashmir.

Zardari is an ethnic Baluch who, unlike previous Pakistani leaders who had Indian backgrounds, has no direct family history in pre-partition India. As a result, he is not as sensitive on Kashmir as his predecessors.

The Bombay attacks could be a message to Zardari that, though he may be uninterested in Kashmir, the issue is still central to many in Pakistan.

The new label used may also be significant. Deccan, a region in south-central India, was the intellectual and cultural capital of Indian Islam for centuries.

By using the term "Deccan Mujahedin", the terrorists may be trying to pass two messages. First, that the Islamist movement is no longer interested only in Kashmir but intends to strive for the reconquest of the whole of India for Islam.

This runs in line with the new pan-Islamist thinking that propagates the will to recover all lands once ruled by Muslims – from India to Spain and southern France, passing by Siberia, parts of Russia and the Balkans. "Deccan" designates a movement that has universal aspirations precisely because it claims local roots.

The designation is also intended to show that India now has a home-grown Islamist terror movement.

This started to form more than a decade ago after Hindu nationalists won power in New Delhi through the BJP and its radical anti-Muslim allies. The Islamist terror movement has adopted what is known as the Matryoshka method, after the Russian dolls nested one into another. The outer and bigger doll in this case is the Students' Islamic Movement of India (Simi), which claims millions of members.

Indian authorities call Simi an antechamber of terrorism. Within it are nested other dolls in the form of cultural associations, charities and political lobby groups. The smallest and deadliest doll represents the kind of groups that may have been behind these attacks.

The need for a home-grown terror movement in India may have been further emphasised by the success of the US-led coalition in destroying virtually all Islamist training bases and safe havens in Afghanistan.

With Pakistan also becoming inhospitable, partly thanks to Zardari's apparent determination to move his country close to both India and the United States, Indian Islamists are forced to look for training centres and safe havens at home.

While many have mentioned al-Qaeda as the perpetrator of the latest attacks, the connection is not easy to establish.

Many experts believe al-Qaeda has ceased to exist as an organisation, although it survives as a model and inspiration. Al-Qaeda's number two, the Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been calling on militants to refocus their efforts on winning power in Muslim countries such as India, which is home to 150 million Muslims, and thus the largest "Muslim" country in the world, ahead of Indonesia.

This is in contrast with Osama bin Laden's theory that the US and its Western allies must be prime targets because, if they fall, the world system they dominate will disintegrate, opening the way for Islam's final triumph.

It is possible that al-Zawahiri's writings influenced the Bombay attackers. But it is unlikely that he and al-Qaeda had any direct role in planning or executing them.

There are other reasons why India is targeted. Over the past five years, it has emerged as the largest aid donor to Afghanistan and the second most important backer of President Hamid Karzai's regime after the US.

The buzz in jihadist circles is that once the US and its allies have left, India will emerge as the principal foreign power behind the new democracy in Afghanistan. India is already playing a leading role in training and equipping the new Afghan army and police.

India has also moved from its traditional anti-Americanism to a new policy of close friendship with the US. Earlier this year, India signed a landmark nuclear co-operation agreement, paving the way for massive purchases of American military hardware in the future.

In jihadist circles, the new Indian economic boom is often described as the "House of the Spider", a reference to a sura of the same name in the Koran, Islam's holy book. On Wednesday, the attackers may have wished to show the flimsy nature of the "House of the Spider" by attacking Bombay, the engine of India's economic transformation.

However, if that was the intention, the terrorists are likely to be disappointed. Bombay and India in general have been victims of terror before, although not in so spectacular a fashion. And yet they have managed to absorb the shock and move ahead.

As always, the terrorists may end up like the man who, having won a great many tokens at the roulette table, is surprised when the casino tells him his winnings cannot be cashed.

Amir Taheri is author of 'Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism'. His new book, 'The Persian Night', will be published next month.

[jmaxwell]

CNN keeps flashing something about multiple indian military casualties. can anyone confirm this from any other source?

[Jagan]

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/28/stories ... 050100.htm

3 Lashkar fidayeen captured



Praveen Swami



Injured terrorist identified as Pakistan national from Faridkot










MUMBAI: Maharashtra Police investigators say they have evidence that operatives of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out the fidayeen-squad attacks in Mumbai — a charge which, if proven, could have far-reaching consequences for India-Pakistan relations.

Police sources said an injured terrorist captured during the fighting at the Taj Mahal hotel was tentatively identified as Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot, near Multan, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Highly-placed police sources said two other Pakistani nationals had also be held in the course of intense fighting on Thursday.

All three, the sources said, identified themselves as members of a Lashkar fidayeen squad.

Based on the interrogation of the suspects, investigators believe that one or more groups of Lashkar operatives left Karachi in a merchant ship early on Wednesday. Late that night, an estimated 12 fidayeen left the ship in a small boat and rowed some ten nautical miles to Mumbai’s Gateway of India area.

Investigators say the fidayeen unit of which Mr. Kamal was a part then split up into at least six groups, each focussing on a separate target: Mumbai’s Nariman House, which is home to a large number of Israeli families and a Jewish prayer house; the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus rail station; the Cama hospital

[Sid]

Sadly there were cops on the scene who were killed and (see photo in previous post) who didnt have a chance to even take out their pistols. These same terrorists also killed three cops outside and hijacked the qualis .

They do not seem to be normal terriorists. Highly trained, had accurate fire. They didn't spray and pray, went for head shots.

They have to be trained by specialist military personals some considerable time. We highly underestimated them and Mumbai police paid the price, thinking its yet another wild west encounter

India we will learn from this, we have to.

[Jagan]

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/28/stories ... 911900.htm

Caught in the crossfire, 9 foreign nationals killed

Australian, Japanese, British citizens among the victims

— Photo: AFP

END OF TRAUMA: Two foreign nationals come out of the Trident Hotel on Thursday after being caught inside for almost 24 hours.

Mumbai: Nine foreigners were killed and 11 injured in the multiple terror attacks here, hospital sources said on Thursday. The dead included an Australian, a Briton and a Japanese who have been identified with their nationality while four have been identified without nationality, they said. However, three others were yet to be identified, sources said.

The Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome said among the dead was an Italian national, identifying him as Antonio de Lorenzo.

All Italians who were in hotels or other areas attacked in Mumbai have been contacted “except for one or two people,” the country’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told a local TV channel.

Japanese national Tsuda, who was working with Mtsui Marubeni Liquefied Gas Co, died at a hospital after being shot in the leg, stomach and chest at the Trident hotel, the company’s vice-president Hajime Tamaki said in Tokyo. Another of its employees, 44, fell and suffered light injuries as he fled the scene, he said, without identifying the injured by name.

The Australian, Braid Gilbert Taylor (49) was brought dead to St. George Hospital in south Mumbai, sources added.

Among the 60 injured admitted to the Bombay Hospital, 11 foreigners were from different nationalities, Ashish Tiwari of the hospital said.

The injured foreigners are from Australia, U.S., Norway, Spain, Canada and Singapore.

Seven Britons injured


Seven British citizens were injured in the attacks, British High Commissioner in India Sir Richard Stag, said.

Britain would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with India in countering terrorism, he told reporters outside the Taj hotel. Sir Richard described the attacks as “appalling and unjustifiable.”

2 MEPs escape


A London report said two European Parliament members escaped indiscriminate terrorist firing at the Taj hotel, but their whereabouts were not known.

Conservative member Sajjad Karim and Erika Mann, a German Socialist, were part of a delegation of European parliamentarians from a trade committee staying in the Mumbai hotel for meetings ahead of an European Union-India summit.

Karim, 38, spoke to Sky News by mobile phone of his ordeal and attempts to hide from the terrorists in the basement of the hotel until his mobile phone battery ran out.

Mann, 57, was reportedly hiding in the hotel’s kitchen from where she told a colleague who called her on her mobile: “It is too dangerous to talk.”

Mr. Karim told Sky News that he and others had fled from machine-gun fire and had no idea why the hotel was targeted.

“I was in the lobby of the hotel when gunmen came in and people started running. There were about 25 or 30 of us. A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me. I managed to turn away and I ran into the hotel kitchen and then we were shunted into a restaurant in the basement. We are now in the dark in this room and we have barricaded all the doors. It’s really bad. There was a lot of commotion in the main lobby, and then another gunman came right in front of us and started shooting. I saw a number of people go down, but I was fortunate enough to get away.”

German killed


A German national has been confirmed killed and several injured in Mumbai, the Foreign Ministry said in Berlin.

“We have to assume that other Germans have been affected,” a spokeswoman said.

While the Ministry did not name the victim, a spokesman for a Munich-based firm called CAMP TV said the victim was its co-owner Ralph Burkei.

Munich newspaper Abendzeitung reported that 51-year-old Burkei fell from the Taj hotel while trying to escape and died on the way to hospital.

Russians safe


A Moscow report said that all its nationals staying in the Taj and the Trident were “safe.” Expressing Russia’s support, President Dmitry Medvedev “unconditionally” condemned the terror strikes as “heinous.”

The Foreign Ministry said the Russian Consulate-General was in close contact with the Indian authorities in Mumbai. A spokesperson for the Russian airlines Aeroflot Irina Dalenberg said that eight crew members staying in the Trident have been safely shifted to the Sheraton, while two airhostesses were safe in their rooms in the Trident as the authorities advised them to remain where they were.

French nuclear physicist M. George Vendryes, 88, and his wife, who were staying in the Taj, have been brought out safely, official sources said in Mumbai.

The scientist was in Mumbai to receive the Indian Nuclear Society’s Eminent Scientist Award and was staying at the five-star hotel, Department of Atomic Energy sources said.

A Warsaw report said a Polish citizen was holed up in the Trident, a Polish diplomat in India, Piotr Opalinski, told the Polish rolling news channel TVN24 over telephone.

An Ankara report said three Turks were holed up in their rooms in the Trident, the Anatolia news agency reported quoting the Turkish Ambassador to India.

“There were eight or nine Turkish citizens in the hotel, but most of them saved themselves and are now in a safe area in Mumbai,” Levent Bilman told the agency.

All Spanish nationals in Mumbai had been located, with about 20 having taken refuge inside the Spanish Consulate premises.



Pakistani cricketers Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir, who were to play for Rajasthan Royals in the Champions League Twenty20, are safe in their team hotel in Mumbai.

Both the players have told their relatives in Pakistan that they were out of harm’s way. “After hearing the news, my father called me and I told them I was safe,” Akmal said. — Agencies

Japan expresses solidarity


P.S. Suryanarayana reports from Singapore:

Countries across East Asia, especially those whose nationals were killed or wounded or trapped at the sites targeted by terrorists in Mumbai, have expressed solidarity with India and offered anti-terror cooperation. A Japanese businessman was killed on the spot and his associate wounded at a hotel as they were about to check in. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, expressing shock over the carnage, said Japan was “willing to work together with India” in taming terrorists.

Speaking immediately after news trickled in that two Australians were injured, Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean, described the terrorist strikes as “an appalling assault on the people, and the stability and the democracy in India.”

[darshan]

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/28/stories ... 911900.htm

Caught in the crossfire, 9 foreign nationals killed

Australian, Japanese, British citizens among the victims

I think this should have been: caught in the crossfire, 100+ Indians killed.

[A Sharma]

CNN-IBN reporting 2 army soldiers killed
RIP

[Jagan]

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/28/stories ... 911900.htm

Caught in the crossfire, 9 foreign nationals killed

Australian, Japanese, British citizens among the victims

I think this should have been: caught in the crossfire, 100+ Indians killed.

its just one of the dozen stories on the hindu site.

[RajeshA]

Clues suggest homegrown terrorists in India attack by Paisley Dodds: AP

I see some concerted effort from some media outlets at trying to portray these attacks as from some Indian Muslim organization.

I don't know, whether someone is working behind the curtains, trying to portray this as an internal Indian matter or at least as as yet very dubious matter that TSP was involved. Someone in TSP has been calling people up in USA or INC to direct the media to put in these theories, aspersions and doubts.

[Jagan]

Images of the Girgaum Chowpatty Encounter - taken from a CCTV
http://www.itgo.in/index.php?issueid=&i ... t_bottom=0

[Muppalla]

Clues suggest homegrown terrorists in India attack by Paisley Dodds: AP

I see some concerted effort from some media outlets at trying to portray these attacks as from some Indian Muslim organization.

I don't know, whether someone is working behind the curtains, trying to portray this as an internal Indian matter or at least as as yet very dubious matter that TSP was involved. Someone in TSP has been calling people up in USA or INC to direct the media to put in these theories, aspersions and doubts.

This has started on expected lines.

[Jagan]

Interview of the Car Owner- he encountered the Girly boy and his boy friend who stole it from him.
http://www.itgo.in/index.php?issueid=&i ... t_bottom=0

Poor guy, must have been traumatic

[Sontu]

They do not seem to be normal terriorists. Highly trained, had accurate fire. They didn't spray and pray, went for head shots.

Even three top cops were hit in their neck,ATS chief was hit three times in his neck?

How come 47s became so acurate .that too during a fidayen attack..as basically being an ASSULT rifle?

Who will become next Maharastra DGP after current A N Roy ?

[Sudip]

Cant there be a covert/commando operation carried out behind enemy lines to retrieve and bring back the masters of these organizations just like israelis did after world war II or with the bosses of terrorist organizations against them?

[vdutta]

Images of the Girgaum Chowpatty Encounter - taken from a CCTV
http://www.itgo.in/index.php?issueid=&i ... t_bottom=0

ab dil ko thodi thandak pahoochi.
i still want to see that girly-pork-chop's dead body.

i wonder why they havent released video of the encounter.

[Ardeshir]

'India mishandled hostage situation'
Israeli defense officials have criticized the way Indian security forces initially handled the hostage situation in Mumbai, claiming on Thursday that the forces prematurely stormed the besieged areas.

At least three buildings in the Indian port city were taken over by terrorists - the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Hotel and the nearby Chabad House.

The Israeli officials said that Indian counter-terrorist forces were well trained but failed to gather sufficient intelligence before engaging the terrorists.

"In hostage situations, the first thing the forces are supposed to do is assemble at the scene and begin collecting intelligence," said a former official in the Shin Bet's security unit. "In this case, it appears that the forces showed up at the scene and immediately began exchanging fire with the terrorists instead of first taking control of the area."

[RavinM]

[quote="arunabh"]Cant there be a covert/commando operation carried out behind enemy lines to retrieve and bring back the masters of these organizations just like israelis did after world war II or with the bosses of terrorist organizations against them?[/qu

unfortunately they will have to bring back the whole porkistan with them!!