Terror Attacks on Mumbai-II

[Muppalla]

Fresh firing/explosion at Nariman House.

Israeli commondo team on the way - 40 of them.

Not commando team. It was just medical team.

[BijuShet]

what happened to that blue bag carrying porki? is he dead? want to spit on his rotten body!

Someone had posted here that the two were killed long back. Gorigawn or some place by that name?!

The place is girgaum

[sunilUpa]

Fresh firing/explosion at Nariman House.

Israeli commondo team on the way - 40 of them.

Not commando team. It was just medical team.

Timesnow reporter said commando...but you may be right.

[bart]

Same dumbass Times Now biatch claimed that terror attacks of this sophistication means that the NSG was asking for and receiving the help of FBI commandos and Israeli commandos. Looks like a basic knowledge of general knowledge is not required to become a prime-time television anchor.

[Muppalla]

Naval sources unhappy with chaotic situation

MUMBAI: Naval sources say they are unhappy with the chaotic situation near both the hotels with civilian bystanders and television media crews severely impeding operations. According to these sources, the state police was completely unprepared to provide even support functions in such a situation.

For instance, people exiting the hotels were not properly screened thus making it likely that terrorists themselves may have abandoned their weapons and mingled with hostages who were using the various fire escapes.

Vice Admiral Jagjit Singh Bedi, C-in-C, Western Naval Command, refused to comment on the ongoing gun-battle except to say that “these terrorists are highly trained, heavily armed and have probably done a detailed recce of these locations in advance.”

Highly placed sources at the Western Naval Command, Mumbai, have confirmed to ET that the injured Naval Marine Commando who was evacuated from the gunfight at the Taj Mahal Hotel is out of danger. According to these sources, the naval commando team has not yet suffered any fatalities. The Naval marine commandos better known as MARCOS, were the first elite force to be called to the scene of the terror attacks and two teams were assembled by midnight. Two ‘prahaars’ (a prahaar is a strike force of 8-9 MARCOS) entered the Taj Mahal hotel while another one and a half prahaara were sent to The Trident where they remained on standby and did not enter the hotel.

Meanwhile, defence PRO in Mumbai Captain Nambiar confirmed that a dead body has been found in a trawler intercepted off the coast of Mumbai. It is being brought back to Mumbai where it along with crew will be handed over to the police.

[George J]

GJ, I was talking about these guys.......and AFAIK, yellow and red are Mumbai police colours.
that vid looked like mopping up operations, could have been by paramil/police after the marcos had charged through....don't think the dariwala fauj would have taken kindly to the presence of a 'citizen journalist' in their midst during a hostage rescue crisis.

I think you are right, they could be Mumbai Police (MP): The ATS chief was taken out not the entire ATS and even the Protection and Service units of MP carry some serious firepower + BPJ.

The video clearly showed a different unit with Kevlar helmets + plus a few shots of the guys with the red/yellow helmets. And we know that MARCOS + MP were first on the scene. No NSG yet. Finally, I donno the circumstances but since the guy taking the video said he heard a grenade go off....anyone who was not carrying a weapon was not really worth fussing about as they were too busy with other stuff. Please see Muppalla post above about their first hand reaction.

Rahul Shukla and Bart:
I am very disappointed with you two. I am sure that "solidarity" means a lot to folks who are directly affected from this incident and those who are currently dealing with it. Don't push it.

Admins:
I need a NEWS & PICS ONLY thread for MARCOS and NSG Mumbai Ops. ABSOLUTELY NO DISCUSSION, JUST complete articles with links and pics.

[shyamd]

NDTV saying that a team from Tel Aviv is on its way, to find out about the israeli citizens holed up. Debka reported that a team of doctors from Israel was on its way

[Stan_Savljevic]

Fire at the Taj is under control, but not completely doused. Kamal is from Faridkot, Multan.

[vsudhir]

Media started by calling the terrorists terrorists and then changed tack sometime n the last 12 hours to label them 'militants', 'gunmen' and what not. I wonder why.

[bart]

Capturing some of those swine alive is a significant achievement. Something that we have not been able to do in many past tragedies.

Something to quietly be glad about, amongst the grief and horror.

[sunnyP]

Riz Khan from Al-Jazeera claiming many elite figures from Indian society critisizing the pm and president for their "uninspiring and robotic' speeches in response to these attacks.

Now they have some 'security' expert claiming its still too early to claim a Pakistan connection (yeah right)

edit - the guy making the comment was called mahan abedin.

[Rahul M]

Admins:
I need a NEWS & PICS ONLY thread for MARCOS and NSG Mumbai Ops. ABSOLUTELY NO DISCUSSION, JUST complete articles with links and pics.

good idea.
please start one in mil.

[bart]

Riz Khan from Al-Jazeera claiming many elite figures from Indian society critisizing the pm and president for their "uninspiring and robotic' speeches in response to these attacks.

Now they have some 'security' expert claiming its still too early to claim a Pakistan connection (yeah right).

That was Shoba De, who called the speech by the PM robotic. She also said that LKA can go back and all the politicians visiting the scene should be kicked out and their Z class security be re-assigned to protecting the public. She was one pissed off lady, and rightly so.

[SaiK]

Capturing some of those swine alive is a significant achievement. Something that we have not been able to do in many past tragedies.

Something to quietly be glad about, amongst the grief and horror.

->

[
For instance, people exiting the hotels were not properly screened thus making it likely that terrorists themselves may have abandoned their weapons and mingled with hostages who were using the various fire escapes.

looking for answers, bart?

[bart]

looking for answers, bart?

eh?

[Madhusudhan]

Just heard Shoba De say there wasn't enough water pressure to reach the 5th floor of Taj to put out the fire. Is this true? If so, the municipal authorities need to be ashamed.

[madhum]

restrict this thread to actual news and discussion about the terrorist incident.

take opinions etc elsewhere. and avoid large fonts.
thanks.


I take back the large fonts, but isn't this news related to terrorist incident??

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/terro ... il/391406/

[Victor]

Holtzberg toddler asking for his mother
Four inside the Chabad/Nariman House are reported to be "unconscious", so not good situation and hence vengeful Israeli boots on ground in Mumbai. Shalom, let them come and make keema out of the b@stards inside.

[Mihaylo]

GJ, I was talking about these guys.......and AFAIK, yellow and red are Mumbai police colours.
that vid looked like mopping up operations, could have been by paramil/police after the marcos had charged through....don't think the dariwala fauj would have taken kindly to the presence of a 'citizen journalist' in their midst during a hostage rescue crisis.

I think you are right, they could be Mumbai Police (MP): The ATS chief was taken out not the entire ATS and even the Protection and Service units of MP carry some serious firepower + BPJ.

The video clearly showed a different unit with Kevlar helmets + plus a few shots of the guys with the red/yellow helmets. And we know that MARCOS + MP were first on the scene. No NSG yet. Finally, I donno the circumstances but since the guy taking the video said he heard a grenade go off....anyone who was not carrying a weapon was not really worth fussing about as they were too busy with other stuff. Please see Muppalla post above about their first hand reaction.

Rahul Shukla and Bart:
I am very disappointed with you two. I am sure that "solidarity" means a lot to folks who are directly affected from this incident and those who are currently dealing with it. Don't push it.

Admins:
I need a NEWS & PICS ONLY thread for MARCOS and NSG Mumbai Ops. ABSOLUTELY NO DISCUSSION, JUST complete articles with links and pics.

Inspite of what Kapil Sibal claims that the porkies targeted the top cops (ATS chiefs and others), I don't think that is the case. It is just a case of underestimation and heroism on the part of the top cops which cost them their lives.

I wonder what retribuition (if any) is MMS and his team ruminating over. There better be one soon, else there would be anarchy. And to hear LKA talking about being tough with terrorists and all, well this is the guy who was in the goverment who released the LET chief during the Kandahar hijacking. They are all dirtbags.

[SaiK]

fundamental questions.. from the time the cop jeep was hijacked,

1. were there any cops survived that hijacked jeep?

2. if so, did they raise an alarm, and projected bigger things to come having seen terror with guns, stolen jeep.

3. if they do, then, how is that police so handicapped to handle this chase?

I guess, for 1. none survived. Else, things would have been a different story., including the ones commented out by our naval forces.

[Stan_Savljevic]

Just heard Shoba De say there wasn't enough water pressure to reach the 5th floor of Taj to put out the fire. Is this true? If so, the municipal authorities need to be ashamed.

It may well be the case now, but when I was looking at the live feed the 5th floor was too high to be reached by the firefighter standing on the ground. The pressure may have had something to do with it. So I saw this guy, hanging in mid-air between the 4th and 3rd floors and spraying water to the 5th floor. His position was seriously precarious. Braveheart!

[Anant]

IBN is showing interviews of Lalit Modi and the impact on cricket. As John McEnroe once said, You cannot be serious. At this time of national crisis, these idiots are worried about ODI's. Pathetic. On the flip side, I think this will unite India and Indians. There is a common enemy and that is Pakistan. It needs to be exterminated; in all forms. Period. I also think it is noteworthy to see how Israel is coming to the defense of its own people (not necessarily even citizens). This is a lesson that needs to be learned by all Indians. I met an Israeli soldier last week and talked to her on the growing Israeli Indian relationship and she said yes India is a great nation but lacks the resolve to root out terrorism, not the talent. She lauded the Indian military but called the Indian government impotent. Perhaps this event will change things. Peace out to all Bombayites. Stay safe.

[Abhi_G]

Shobha De may well shut up. How does she lose if there is not enough water for her shower at least today? Was the massage party so important at this hour? Was she there when the fire fighters were fighting against the flames? Typical BS whining has started from the elites.

[SwamyG]

Why was Karan Thapar cutting off Kumar Ketkar and Shobha De were lamenting on how Mumbaikars were getting desensitized and blaming the Government's inaction?

[svinayak]

INDIA
The Pakistan Connection

Evidence is still sketchy, but tensions are already rising between India and its nuclear-armed neighbor.
By Ron Moreau and Sudip Mazumdar | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Nov 27, 2008 | Updated: 2:25 p.m. ET Nov 27, 2008

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.

An hour later, the carnage began. Those gunmen and others, armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades, spread out across southern Mumbai and started shooting into crowds at several city landmarks. By midnight more than 100 people lay dead, including three of Mumbai's top cops, one of them the head of the anti-terrorist squad. The series of well-coordinated and bloodthirsty attacks hit two of Mumbai's flagship hotels, its main Victorian-era railway station, and several other soft targets in the city. Gunmen in both hotels took scores of hostages. The dead senior policemen were inexplicably standing exposed outside the spots where terrorists were holding hostages.

Even as Indian commandos worked to free hostages holed up in the hotels and elsewhere, attention quickly turned to who might have planned and staged the brazen attacks. Beyond those killed and wounded, one victim certainly looks to be the gradually improving peace process between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed rivals who have fought three major wars between them. While no conclusive links between the Mumbai terrorists and Pakistan have yet been proved, initial reports are pointing to some level of Pakistani involvement. Police have arrested nine suspects, including one from the Oberoi hotel. They claim that preliminary interrogation reports reveal that some of gunmen were of Pakistani origin, and were well-trained in handling guns and explosives. They also carried photo credit cards.

A previously unknown jihadi group called the Deccan Mujahedeen quickly claimed responsibility. (Deccan refers to the great plains of central and southern India.) But security experts think the militants simply floated this name in order to confuse investigators. One of the alleged gunmen spoke to an Indian TV reporter by cell phone; the man did not have a south Indian accent, and in fact spoke Urdu with a Punjabi inflection. The caller told the TV station that he didn't even know what the group's demands were. During the conversation, he asked the TV anchor to wait and then could be heard asking a companion in the background: "Tell me, what are our demands?" Finally the man answered that they demanded that all "mujahedeen" in Indian jails should be freed and that "persecution" of Muslims should stop. The caller disconnected the phone when pressed for further information about their numbers and goals.

Despite the rather flimsy evidence pointing to Pakistan's involvement, Islamabad is expected to come under extremely heavy Indian and international pressure once again to get tough with the extremist organizations that still operate rather openly inside the country. After past terrorist attacks Indian authorities have been quick to blame Pakistan and its shadowy Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI). This time, too, while the hotels still smoldered, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced in a nationally televised address that the assailants had "external linkages," clearly a reference to neighboring Pakistan. He added that he would tell India's "neighbors" that the use of their territory to attack India would not be tolerated. Many Indians were pointing a finger at the Pakistani jihadi group Lashkar-I-Taiba, which was formed in the early 1980s with the assistance of the ISI to promote an anti-Indian revolt in Muslim-majority, Indian-administered Kashmir.

New Delhi has long accused Lashkar, and by extension Pakistan, of being behind the long-simmering unrest in Indian Kashmir, as well as being instigators of terror attacks inside India. Indian officials, however, conveniently ignore the serious economic, religious, political and social causes of Muslim discontent in Kashmir as well as in much of India, which is home to more than 150 million Muslims, roughly equivalent to the population of Pakistan. There have been five similar attacks, albeit on a smaller scale with fewer casualties, across India in the last eight months. Security agency sources say that the government's response to the attacks has been routine, if not incompetent, and that inter-agency rivalries and non-coordination often result in terrorists having a free hand. In addition, the police are notorious for using crude methods such as rounding up largely innocent Muslim youth and torturing them to extract information, tactics that alienate even moderate Muslim voices.

As a result, Islamic radicalism now seems to be becoming an increasingly serious threat to India just as it is in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Indeed, there may be enough dissatisfaction among Muslims in India to spawn a cadre of native, would-be jihadists who do not necessarily need external support to carry out terrorist attacks. Even so, the precise planning, stealth and coordination involved in the attacks may point to some external assistance, if not inspiration. Pakistan can certainly be faulted for not having dealt a deathblow to Lashkar and several other similar, ISI-assisted, Kashmir-oriented, jihadist outfits such as Jaish-I-Mohammad, a splinter group that was responsible for American journalist Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and beheading in 2002. Despite several much-ballyhooed crackdowns by former President Pervez Musharraf on Lashkar, Jaish and other such extremist groups, these radical organizations were never dismembered or decapitated. They went underground or kept on functioning under different monikers. Unlike Jaish and other Pakistani jihadi groups, Lashkar wisely did not become involved in military strikes against Pakistani security forces. As a result, the army and police crackdown was less harsh on Lashkar than it was on other extremist groups that were in open revolt against Pakistan after it moved to close the infiltration pipeline into Indian-occupied Kashmir in 2003.


To escape any of the government's anti-extremist dragnets, Lashkar cleverly morphed into Jamaat ud Dawah, a so-called Islamic charitable group, after Musharraf banned it following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Today Jamaat ud Dawah openly solicits funds and recruits adherents in Pakistan, particularly in mosques, and has undertaken high-profile relief work in the aftermath of the deadly 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the more recent destructive tremor in Baluchistan, earning it an increased following. The group's radical founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, is free and still openly preaches his sermons of hate despite occasional, and brief, stints in jail. Earlier this month, Saeed openly preached to a gathering of tens of thousands of faithful in Pakistan's Punjab province. He called on Pakistan to halt the truck convoys supplying U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan through Pakistan, accused the Pakistani army of fighting the Pakistani people, called on U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to embrace Islam, declared that only by invading India would Pakistan get river waters that he claimed were being criminally diverted by India, and promised the jihad would continue until Kashmir was free from Indian rule.

Meanwhile, Jaish-e-Muhammad, like Lashkar, has established insurgent training camps in the tribal areas. And its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, is said to be working closely with Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Indeed, a spate of reports over the past year or so indicated that Kashmir-oriented Pakistani jihadi groups like Lashkar and Jaish had moved most of their camps and operational centers from Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, where they were born, to the safer environs of the tribal area where the Taliban and Al Qaeda hold sway. For the past few years the Pakistan Army and ISI had put these jihadi groups on a very short leash, not allowing them to infiltrate across the heavily mined and guarded Line of Control that separates the Pakistani- and Indian-controlled sectors of Kashmir. As a result, the bulk of the groups are thought to have shifted their main operational bases to the tribal area.

Lashkar, Jaish and other Kashmiri jihadi groups are believed to be involved in cross-border operations into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and coalition troops operating there. But from their new tribal-areas bases, they also get an opportunity to work closely with Al Qaeda planners operating in the region. Indeed these tribal havens are perfect places for Lashkar and other like-minded, anti-Indian groups to safely plan attacks and then communicate operational ideas to loosely affiliated jihadist groups in India, most probably via the Internet. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Taliban sources tell Newsweek, has never hidden his goal of sabotaging the Indo-Pakistani peace process, even though negotiations between the two countries aimed at establishing normal cross border traffic and trade and finding a solution to the Kashmir conflict are moving at a snail's pace. Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's No. 2 man, is on the record saying he would like to promote an all-out conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Ironically, the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan had just completed a round of successful talks in Islamabad on countering terrorism and drug trafficking, among other things, the day before the Mumbai attacks occurred.

Unfortunately, Pakistan does not seem to realize the full danger that these jihadist groups it once sponsored still pose to regional stability. The Pakistan military still seems to view the huge Indian army as an existential threat along its eastern border, perhaps a greater menace than the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and the Kashmiri extremist groups. "(India) is a living threat," says a senior Pakistan official. "You decide what is a threat by looking at the other person's capability: what he can do in terms of troop formations and where those formations are deployed. The intention to go and attack somebody can change in an instant, so Pakistan is focused on India. While it is fighting the war on terror, (Pakistan) has not shut its eyes to the conventional threat."

In view of India's and Pakistan's rather ineffective responses to terrorism at home, strikes by Islamic militants in India are unlikely to disappear. The fact that the Mumbai terrorists were trying to single out British and American citizens, and attacked a building housing some Jewish families, clearly points to an international dimension to this attack. It may not only be a twisted way to get revenge against the alleged maltreatment of Indian Muslims at home, but also to send a message to western powers like U.S. and the U.K., which are New Delhi's close allies, to keep their hands off of India. The attacks further rattled India's already shaky economy by scaring foreigners away from Mumbai, the country's financial capital, and creating uncertainty in this formerly relaxed commercial hub.

The Mumbai attack, however, should make it clear to Pakistan and Indian--indeed to Washington and the region--that is essential for the two countries to work together ever more closely to combat this extremist threat before it derails the fledgling peace process and throws both countries back into the dangerous game in which they view each other as mortal enemies. That would be suicidal. Officials in both countries most probably realize the serious threat that a new round of mutual recriminations would pose to regional security. "It's terrible, it's tragic," says the senior Pakistani official. "I hope we can work together to end this menace which affects us both. Nothing will be served by accusations or finger pointing," he says. "That would only serve the terrorists who want to sabotage Pakistani-Indian relations." That could very well have been the terrorists' ultimate goal.

With Zahid Hussain in Islamabad

© 2008

[CRamS]

Guys:

I don't understand a couple of things. Why would TSP target the Jewish folks. I mean its one thing targetin us SDREs who can't hit back, its quite another going after Jews and westerners. Now its clear that ISI instrcuted the LeT piglets to let the westerners go; hence the steady stream of western hostages released. But the pigs have not relented on the Jewish hostages. This doesn't make sense to me.

[Kati]

From the CCTV pics of those two piglets - I was trying to ascertain the
(sub)ethnicity. Though the indian subcontinent is now fairly homogeneous -
it appears the chubby, short, dark profile of the two may make them
Bangladeshi/bengali with very high probability. Next, most probable is -
Keralite. My rank three probable - Andhra. Four - locals from Mumbai.
May be the the total team had some pakistanis (as the leaders), but
looks like they recruited some from India, and had them trained in the
Mumbai surroundings.

[Rahul Shukla]

Rahul Shukla and Bart: I am very disappointed with you two. I am sure that "solidarity" means a lot to folks who are directly affected from this incident and those who are currently dealing with it. Don't push it.

I am very disappointed by your reaction as well. I was surprised to know I am no longer patriotic for posting a news clip you did not approve of...

Oh well.

[Rahul Shukla]

India official says 20-30 people may still be hostages (Reuters)

"Twenty to thirty people are expected to be still hostage at Oberoi hotel....Exact number is not known," M.L. Kumawat, special secretary for internal security at the home ministry, told a news conference.

[Rahul M]

Guys:

I don't understand a couple of things. Why would TSP target the Jewish folks. I mean its one thing targetin us SDREs who can't hit back, its quite another going after Jews and westerners. Now its clear that ISI instrcuted the LeT piglets to let the westerners go; hence the steady stream of western hostages released. But the pigs have not relented on the Jewish hostages. This doesn't make sense to me.

may be because RAPE-ISI is not the only controller. the islamist faction/AQ is involved as well.

[SaiK]

somebody asked why fbi is coming?

[Raj]

From the CCTV pics of those two piglets - I was trying to ascertain the
(sub)ethnicity. Though the indian subcontinent is now fairly homogeneous -
it appears the chubby, short, dark profile of the two may make them
Bangladeshi/bengali with very high probability. Next, most probable is -
Keralite. My rank three probable - Andhra. Four - locals from Mumbai.
May be the the total team had some pakistanis (as the leaders), but
looks like they recruited some from India, and had them trained in the
Mumbai surroundings.

He is not dark.

When I first looked at this image

My response was bangladeshi. But then I saw other pictures which are more clear.

is same as this guy.

[sunilUpa]

somebody asked why fbi is coming?

And?? What's with this one liner non-sense? Can't you post a coherent post even now?

[ramana]

Guys:

I don't understand a couple of things. Why would TSP target the Jewish folks. I mean its one thing targetin us SDREs who can't hit back, its quite another going after Jews and westerners. Now its clear that ISI instrcuted the LeT piglets to let the westerners go; hence the steady stream of western hostages released. But the pigs have not relented on the Jewish hostages. This doesn't make sense to me.

Sigh. i guess all those Isalmism threads didn't give any wisdom. TSP is an Islamist state. It shows its Islamism by targeting Jews. Most Pakis are virulent in their hatred of Jews even though they never saw one.

[Rahul Shukla]

India's president condemns attacks during visit to Hanoi (Monster & Critics)

The embassy of India said Thursday that the president would continue on to Indonesia as planned. 'She will stay here as scheduled until tomorrow morning,' PK Mathur, the first secretary at the Indian embassy in Hanoi, said Thursday. 'Then she will visit Indonesia after that.'

[George J]

Children:
You need to be a bit patient. Once the actual rescue operation is over (its almost there). You will see what will probably be the fastest most comprehensive investigation into this affair. In a few weeks you WILL know everything about every one of these terrorist. I am willing to bet you will even know which village/madrassa the "girly boy" originates from and even who his friends are, all will be disclosed.

Something of this magnitude has a way of bringing out all information in a very short amount of time.

Edit: Each country that has lost a citizen will send someone to investigate the circumstances surrounding the even (which is where the madrassa of the "girly boy" and other such data comes into play). Given the visibility of this event they will be under tremendous political pressure to do so.

[svinayak]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD94NGOBO0


Clues suggest homegrown terrorists in India attack

By PAISLEY DODDS – 47 minutes ago

LONDON (AP) — The attack on India's financial capital bears all the trademarks of al-Qaida — simultaneous assaults meant to kill scores of Westerners in iconic buildings — but clues so far point to homegrown Indian terrorists, global intelligence officials said Thursday.

Spy agencies around the world were caught off guard by the deadly attack, in which gunmen sprayed crowds with bullets, torched landmark hotels and took dozens of hostages.

"We have been actively monitoring plots in Britain and abroad and there was nothing to indicate something like this was about to happen," a British security official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.

Britain is the former colonial power in India and Pakistan and closely monitors terrorist suspects in those countries.

In some ways, the attack illustrated just how fluid terror tactics have become since Sept. 11 — and how the threat has become more global. Al-Qaida's leaders on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border still provide inspiration but groups are becoming increasingly local.

The group that claimed responsibility, Deccan Mujahideen, was unknown to global security officials. The name suggested the group was Indian.

One of the suspects reportedly called an Indian television station, speaking the main Pakistani language of Urdu, to demand the return of Muslim lands. That was a reference to Kashmir, territory claimed by both India and Pakistan.

But Ajai Sahni, head of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management who has close ties to India's police and intelligence, said the attack was a departure from past assaults waged over Kashmir. Other such attacks had targeted Indian legislators, not Westerners.

Security officials said it was too soon to make a connection to Pakistan.

"It would be premature ... to reach any hard-and-fast conclusions on who may be responsible for the attacks, but some of what we're seeing is reminiscent of past terrorist operations undertaken by groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed," a U.S. counterterrorism official said on condition of anonymity, referring to Pakistani militant groups linked to al-Qaida who have fought Indian troops in Kashmir.

Another British security official told the AP on condition of anonymity that the attack doesn't look to have been directed by al-Qaida's core leadership, which has been weakened by the deaths of several leaders and key operatives in recent months.

Al-Qaida's core leadership is believed to be fewer than 100 people now, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al-Qaida" and a terrorism expert at the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

The British security official said it appeared the attack was inspired by Islamic extremist ideology and al-Qaida propaganda popular among radicalized youths. Many of the attackers in the Mumbai assault were young.

Gunaratna said he believed the group that carried out Wednesday's attack was the Indian Mujahideen, responsible for past attacks in Mumbai.

The word "Deccan" refers to a plateau in southern India. "Mujahideen" refers to holy warriors.

"The earlier generation of terrorist groups in India were mostly linked to Pakistan," Gunaratna told the AP. "But today we are seeing a dramatic change. They are almost all homegrown groups. ... They are very angry and firmly believe that India is killing Muslims and attacking Islam."

British-based Jane's Information Group said it thought the attackers could be Indian but that taking hostages suggested a wider anti-Western agenda.

"Until now, terrorist attacks in India have targeted civilians, often in busy market or commercial areas, and in communally sensitive areas with the intention to foment unrest between Hindu and Muslim communities," said Urmila Venugopalan, Jane's South Asia analyst.

"This stands in contrast to the national issues that appeared to motivate Indian Mujahideen," Venugopalan said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed "external forces" but stopped short of blaming Pakistan. Both are nuclear-armed countries.

In September, a massive suicide truck bomb devastated the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killing at least 54 people, including three Americans and the Czech ambassador.

"This type of terrorism is spreading, through Pakistan and now India, but we were all surprised by such a large-scale attack like this," said Wajid Hassan, Pakistan's High Commissioner in London. "This is no coincidence that this type of attack happened so soon after the bombing of the Marriott Hotel. People from all countries are being paid to fight this al-Qaida war. This is a war that goes beyond any nationality."

Sahni, however, said "very preliminary investigations and intelligence information would suggest that some groups based in Pakistan are the most likely.

"If there is Indian participation, it's most likely to be Students' Islamic Movement of India," he said, referring to a radical student group banned in India in 2001.

Indian intelligence officials were also investigating whether Mumbai's criminal underworld could be involved.

"It's a possibility," Sahni said. "When we say Mumbai underworld we're talking of Dawood Ibrahim."

Ibrahim is one of India's most wanted men and also the alleged mastermind behind bombings in Mumbai in 1993 that killed 257 people. He has reportedly fled Mumbai, and police now believe he lives in Pakistan. Pakistani officials have denied this.

British-based Jane's Information Group said it thought the attackers could be Indian but that taking hostages suggested a wider anti-Western agenda.

"Until now, terrorist attacks in India have targeted civilians, often in busy market or commercial areas, and in communally sensitive areas with the intention to foment unrest between Hindu and Muslim communities," said Urmila Venugopalan, Jane's South Asia analyst.

"This stands in contrast to the national issues that appeared to motivate Indian Mujahideen," Venugopalan said.

Associated Press writers Pamela Hess in Washington, Gregory Katz and David Stringer in London, Lee Keath in Cairo and Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

[rgsrini]

The embassy of India said Thursday that the president would continue on to Indonesia as planned.

This cannot be true. I don't think it is possible for anyone to be as unconcerned, let alone the president of our country. I would like to wait and see on this one.

[Victor]

Now its clear that ISI instrcuted the LeT piglets to let the westerners go; hence the steady stream of western hostages released.

I'm afraid this is a very unrealistic expectation. Taj, Oberoi and Chabad House are NOT over yet by a long shot and I have the worst fears for the outcome. The people who have escaped are a small trickle, nobody was "released", they were helped to "escape" by our forces and there are many still in danger in those locations. These pigs are too well trained and conditioned to have wasted their efforts on a mere 125 Indian lives. One of their first actions was to purposefully round up brit and yankee passport holders, so no chance of wishy-washy objectives. Their target is the Indian economy, period.

[Praveen]

From the CCTV pics of those two piglets - I was trying to ascertain the
(sub)ethnicity. Though the indian subcontinent is now fairly homogeneous -
it appears the chubby, short, dark profile of the two may make them
Bangladeshi/bengali with very high probability. Next, most probable is -
Keralite. My rank three probable - Andhra. Four - locals from Mumbai.
May be the the total team had some pakistanis (as the leaders), but
looks like they recruited some from India, and had them trained in the
Mumbai surroundings.

He is not dark.

When I first looked at this image

My response was bangladeshi. But then I saw other pictures which are more clear.

is same as this guy.

looks same. Also has the same orange hand band. He looks like a bangladeshi.