Three Lashkar fidayeen captured; Security stepped up across country

New Delhi, November 28, 2008
India Govt.in

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 been 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, the 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 10 nautical miles to Mumbai’s Gateway of India area.

The 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; the Girgaum seafront; and the Taj and Trident Oberoi hotels.

Meanwhile, Intensified checkings and patrolling were being carried out at bus terminals, railway stations, airport, cinema halls and other public places.

Hotel authorities were also asked to step up security at their establishments.

In the national capital that witnessed a serial blast in September, policemen have been deployed in full strength.

The city is going to polls on Saturday.

"Our men have been briefed about the situation. We have strengthened the security by having maximum deployment. Checkings are being conducted at public places," a senior Delhi Police official said.

Leaving nothing to chance, security has also been stepped up at railway and Metro stations, inter-state bus terminals, airport, cinema halls, shopping malls and other sensitive points, he said.

Police personnel were deployed across Tamil Nadu at places, including hotels and places of worship, where people congregate.

A meeting of top police officials of the state was held on Thursday night. "We have taken certain decision regarding security and we are keen that they are implemented to the best," DGP K P Jain said.

In star hotels and railway stations, Jain said, "we have ensured more physical presence of police."

In Kerala, security has been strengthened across the state, especially at Sabarimala temple where thousands of devotees are pouring in, as the annual pilgrimage is on.

Authorities beefed up vigilance at all levels in Pune as terrorists struck ten places in south Mumbai which led to closure of many schools on Thursday.

Joint Commissioner of Police, Pune Rajendra Sonavne appealed to citizens to ignore rumours and go about their daily chores without reservations.

However, the terror strikes had a little impact on the normal life of this satellite city which has emerged as one of the centres of suspected terrorist activity in various forms.

Police had stepped up patrolling throughout the city covering important junctions as well as five-star hotels.

An alert has been sounded in Andhra Pradesh, too, where security has been tightened at all vital institutions and famous temples, besides railway and bus stations, police said.

A Red alert has been issued in Karnataka as well.

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Two terrorists captured are British nationals: Reports

Agencies
November 28, 2008, 22:01

British newspaper, Daily Mail, has reported that two of the terrorists captured by Indian security forces are British nationals of Pakistani origin.

Attributing to sources in the Maharashtra government, the paper claimed that as many as eight terrorists were captured by the National Security Guards (NSG) commandos during the raids on Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels.

Among the captured two happened to be British born Pakistanis

The Daily Mail also said that the British Security Services were studying images of the attackers that have appeared in the media in an effort to identify them.

The British Prime minister Gordon Brown meanwhile said on Friday it was 'too early' to reach any conclusions about British involvement.

The paper also reports that as many as nine terrorists have been confirmed killed in gun battles with the NSG, which were still ongoing today.

Daily Mail’s report further elaborated that three terrorists arrested at the Taj Mahal hotel have been officially identified as a Pakistani national and two Indians.

It claimed that the Indian authorities have not released any details about the two Britons and the Foreign Office has refused to confirm.

However, a team of Scotland Yard anti-terrorist detectives and negotiators are now on their way to Mumbai to assist the Indian intelligence officers. Interstingly, another of the detainees is reported to be a Mauritian national.

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Hostages said dead in Mumbai Jewish center
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Digg Facebook Newsvine del.icio.us Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer Ravi Nessman, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 5 mins ago

MUMBAI, India – Commandos who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group found the bodies of five hostages inside, including a New York rabbi and his wife, officials said, as a fresh battle raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a siege at another five-star hotel.

More than 150 people have been killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night, including 22 foreigners — four of them Americans, officials said.

Early Friday night, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow giant holes in the wall.

Inside, though, were five dead hostages.

A delegation from Israel's ZAKA emergency medical services unit entered the building after the raid and reported through an Indian aide that five hostages and two gunmen were dead, a ZAKA spokesman in Israel said. The spokesman had no information on the hostages' identities or whether there were wounded inside.

Jewish law requires the burial of a dead person's entire body, and the mission of the ultra-Orthodox ZAKA volunteers is to rescue the living — and in the case of the dead, carry out the task of gathering up all collectable pieces of flesh and blood.

Numerous local media reports, quoting top military officials, also said five hostages and two gunmen had been killed in the Jewish center.

The airborne assault on the center run by the Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was punctuated by gunshots and explosions as forces cleared it floor by floor.

Late Friday, Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, a spokesman for the Chabad Lubavitch movement, said that Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, were among the dead.

The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was smuggled out of the center by an employee, and is now with his grandparents.

By Friday evening, at least nine gunmen had been killed and one had been arrested, said R. Patil, a top official in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital. Media reports said one or two were thought to still be in the Taj Mahal.

Patil said a total of more than 150 people had been killed and 370 injured.

After hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions Friday at the Taj Mahal, a hotel with 565 rooms, the battle heated up at dusk when Indian forces began launching grenades at the hotel, where at least one militant was believed to be holed up inside a ballroom, officials said.

Commandos had killed the two last gunmen inside the nearby Oberoi earlier in the day.

"The hotel is under our control," J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit, told reporters, adding that 24 bodies had been found. Dozens of people — including a man clutching a baby — had been evacuated from Oberoi earlier Friday.

Security officials said their operations were almost over.

"It's just a matter of a few hours that we'll be able to wrap up things," Lt. Gen. N. Thamburaj told reporters Friday morning.

The group rescued from the Oberoi, many holding passports, included at least two Americans, a Briton, two Japanese nationals and several Indians. Some carried luggage with Canadian flags. One man in a chef's uniform was holding a small baby. About 20 airline crew members were freed, including staff from Lufthansa and Air France.

"I'm going home, I'm going to see my wife," said Mark Abell, with a huge smile on his face after emerging from the hotel. Abell, from Britain, had locked himself in his room during the siege.

The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shell-shocked.

Late Thursday, after about 400 people had been brought out of the Taj hotel, officials said it had been cleared of gunmen, but they later said two to three more were still inside with about 15 civilians.

Early Friday, Thamburaj, the security official, said at least one gunman was still alive inside the hotel and had cut of electricity on the floor where he was hiding. Shortly after that announcement, another round of explosions and gunfire were heard coming from the hotel.

On Friday, India's foreign minister pointed an accusing finger across the border at rival Pakistan.

"According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks," Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in the western city of Jodhpur.

"Proof cannot be disclosed at this time," he said, adding that Pakistan had assured New Delhi it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks against India. India has long accused Islamabad of allowing militant Muslim groups, particularly those fighting in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, to train and take shelter in Pakistan. Mukherjee's carefully phrased comments appeared to indicate he was accusing Pakistan-based groups of staging the attack, and not Pakistan itself.

Earlier Friday, Pakistan's Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, in Islamabad, denied involvement by his country: "I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents."

Indian home minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunmen had been identified as a Pakistani and Patil, the Maharashtra state official, said: "It is very clear that the terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are from Pakistan."

Neither provided further details.

Pakistan's government said Friday that it will send its spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, to India to help probe the attacks.

The gunmen apparently came to Mumbai by boat, and Indian forces expanded their investigation to the sea. Authorities stopped a cargo ship off the western coast of Gujarat that had sailed from Saudi Arabia and handed it over to police for investigation, said Navy Capt. Manohar Nambiar.

They also stopped a cargo ship that had come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan, but released it when nothing suspicious was found on board.

The British government, meanwhile, was investigating whether some of the attackers could be British citizens with links to Pakistan or the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, a British security official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.

The gunmen were well-prepared, apparently scouting some targets ahead of time and carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy.

"It's obvious they were trained somewhere ... Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that," an unidentified member of India's Marine Commando unit told reporters, his face wrapped in a black mask. He said the men were "very determined and remorseless" and ready for a long siege. One backpack they found had 400 rounds of ammunition inside.

He said the Taj was filled with terrified civilians, making it very difficult for the commandos to fire on the gunmen.

"To try and avoid civilian casualties we had to be so much more careful," he said, adding that hotel was a grim sight. "Bodies were strewn all over the place, and there was blood everywhere."

A U.S. investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity because the U.S. and Indian governments were still working out final details.

India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking crowded places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai — one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million people — was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.

These attacks were more sophisticated — and more brazen.

They began at about 9:20 p.m. with shooters spraying gunfire across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station, one of the world's busiest terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes — the Jewish center, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. There were 10 targets in all.

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Associated Press writers Ramola Talwar Badam, Erika Kinetz, Anita Chang and Jenny Barchfield contributed to this report.

 

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Security forces secure Oberoi, Nariman House, firing on at Taj

Kapil Kelkar and Shruti Ganpatye, Press Trust Of India
Mumbai, November 28, 2008
First Published: 12:35 IST(28/11/2008)
Last Updated: 23:11 IST(28/11/2008)

The terror war on Mumbai was on the verge of ending tonight with security forces securing the 5-star Oberoi hotel and a Jewish Centre but a lone gunman continued to hold out inside the Taj hotel at the end of pitched combat that left 30 hostages dead.

At the Centre, a residential complex housing a prayer hall, commandos were air dropped from helicopters in first such operation in urban India the security forces spent the entire day to clear it. Two terrorists were killed but not before five of the hostages were eliminated by them.

A clean-up operation was still on late tonight at the Centre where the victims reportedly included the Rabbi and his wife.

The might of the Indian security forces had to be brought in to rid these landmarks in the country's financial capital of the heavily-armed suspected Pakistani terrorists who seized the two hotels and the Centre on Wednesday night, but the costs were heavy on both sides.

When the Oberoi was cleared of the terrorists this afternoon, as many as 30 hostages were found dead raising the toll in the worst terrorist strike against India to over 160 including 16 security personnel. 11 terrorists were also eliminated, one was captured and one, possibly two, were still inside the Taj.

"The Oberoi-Trident is totally clear of terrorists and is now under our control. The two terrorists holed up there have been killed," NSG Director General J K Dutt told reporters outside the hotel in south Mumbai after more than a day of fierce exchange of fire between his commandos and terrorists.

"We are sanitising every room to make sure no undesirable elements are there and relief can be provided to guests there," Dutt said.

Twentyfour bodies were found in the search operations in Oberoi hotel, Police Commissioner Hasan Ghafur told reporters adding six hostages were killed on Wednesday by the terrorists under a staircase while taking them to the roof.

While the 34-floor Trident has 541 rooms, the adjacent 11-storeyed Oberoi has 327 rooms.

At the 565-room Taj, commandoes continued to be engaged in fierce exchange of fire with a militant who is believed to be moving between floors. "We are trying to corner him," Dutt said.

The NSG has recovered two AK-47 assault rifles, one 9 mm pistol and some unexploded grenades.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil said nine terrorists have been killed and one arrested.

The arrested terrorist is a Pakistani national and the state police has acquired a lot of information about the whole plan for the strikes.

ML Kumawat, Secretary (internal Security) in the Union Home Ministry, told reproters in Delhi that Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan of the NSG was killed during the encounter with terrorists in Taj while another commando Omkar Chander was killed in Nariman House.

He said a 60-member fresh contingent of NSG commandos was dispatched from Delhi today in addition to two contingents already there. 475 commandos are engaged in the operations.

"It is just a matter of a few hours before we will be able to wrap up things," Southern Command Chief Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj told reporters in Mumbai outside Taj hotel as 35 hostages, including foreigners and a six-month old infant, were successfully rescued from Oberoi-Trident.

The new building of Taj hotel has been totally flushed out and cleared and handed over to police, he said adding that one terrrorist, possibly two, had moved into the adjacent old heritage building.

"We have heard the sound of a woman and a man, giving indications that they are being held hostage," Thamburaj said but added that almost all guests and staff in the hotel have been evacuated.