Mumbai attack

[WRW]

This seesm to be an escalation - these guys are willing to fight

[rmgill]

Looks like a running thing.

 

Hope the Indian police can put the knuckleheads down quickly.

[Marek Tucan]

Oh crap. Just saw it on BBC website. Not good.

[Exel]

At least 80 dead and hundreds wounded already, and two major hotels still under siege, one of them ablaze in flames.

Edited November 26, 2008 by Exel

[Marek Tucan]

Yep, reports get worse and worse.

 

Might it have something in common with the agreement about counter-terror fight between current Pak PM and India? ISI/islamists themselves fearing that "cold peace" between India and Pakistan will hurt their interests and trying to prevent it?

[Colin]

I also suspect that inciting India will force the Pakistan army to keep resources on the Eastren border rather than fighting Taliban and insugents in the NWF and FATA.

[Gregory]

Smart move by the ISI.

[Paul in Qatar]

Hospitals are appealing for blood donors. BO has made a statement, Indian sources are reporting it, not mentioning GWB. Police/Army are storming the Taj and the Trident hotels. At least three good guys killed, several T arrested.

[Vijay Reddy]

My friend's colleague was killed in the attack just outside a hospital. I just spoke to him - he was bawling. It was unreal.

 

Two of my other friends working in Mumbai say that the number of dead may cross 500 because there are several bodies inside 3 hotels that are still to be recovered. Several people were killed in a historic neighborhood that housed Indian Jews and some expat Israelis.

 

Pakistani hardliners want to drag India's economy down because they see no hope for their country and cannot stand India's relative success. This will affect India's economy and foreign investment for years. Some 10,000 Western expats and visitors are in Bombay at any given time, mainly investors.

 

Pakistan is a cancer in the world's corpus. Cancers need to be excised or the body dies.

[Corinthian]

Condolences to India. Woke up this morning to hear this bad news. I hope they catch the bad guys.

[Colin]

http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/wor...acks/index.html

[X-Files]

My friend's colleague was killed in the attack just outside a hospital. I just spoke to him - he was bawling. It was unreal.

 

Damn. Condolences.

Edited November 27, 2008 by X-Files

[Vijay Reddy]

The captured terrorists have spilled the beans. They came directly from Karachi, Pakistan in a fishing trawler used by smugglers. They belonged to the ISI-trained group Lashkar-e-Taiba, with local support given by Indian gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who lives under ISI protection in Karachi. They had directions to key locations including the specific addresses of guest houses used by Israelis.

 

BTW, one of the terrorists called an Indian TV station. I can clearly hear a Pashtun accent.

 

This is clearly done by the ISI because the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers were due to meet Thursday for the next round of peace talks. The Pakistani hardliners do not want the civilian government to "cave in" to India, as they see it.

[Marek Tucan]

Vijay, is it already in some English-speaking news?

[Doug Kibbey]

http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/wor...acks/index.html

 

 

I'm not surprised to hear the Taj Hotel was targeted. I stayed there a few years ago and it was hit with a car bomb a few days after I'd left by the group that used those stolen white Humbers or Ambassadors favored by the gov't for cover. Parked in that big green between the Taj and Victoria Gate (about a hundred meter quadrangle) frequented by people of all stripes heading out to various islands in small touring boats. Such a peaceful, mixed race/religion/whathaveyou scene with everybody gettin on fine whenever I was there. Then some waste of oxygen decides to militarized the place with a terrorist act. Very saddening. No regard for whom might be hurt, regardless of faith or age. Many families assemble there and lounge on the grass. The term "innocent civilians" was never more appropriate.

[Vijay Reddy]

Vijay, is it already in some English-speaking news?

 

Most of the best news are Hindi channels. You can watch a good English news channel at:

 

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/video_streaming.php

 

I don't know what to make of this but a local channel is reporting that a US "intelligence official" was among those killed, quoting a "senior" government source. Sounds a bit fishy to me but watch this space.

[rmgill]

Vijay, I know you guys are solid on your security services and don't need US/British assistance (ie the Marines), but this poster represents my sentiment at this moment quite firmly.

 

 

Hopefully that's taken as a positive notion of support for India and Indians and not just bluster. It's meant as support most emphatically.

 

My fear is that this coupled with the bombing at the US embassy in Kabul is part of a LARGER chain of acts focused on this week.

[WRW]

Vijay, I know you guys are solid on your security services and don't need US/British assistance (ie the Marines), but this poster represents my sentiment at this moment quite firmly.

 

 

Hopefully that's taken as a positive notion of support for India and Indians and not just bluster. It's meant as support most emphatically.

 

My fear is that this coupled with the bombing at the US embassy in Kabul is part of a LARGER chain of acts focused on this week.

 

 

Assistance maybe but not the Marines - low key behind the scenes intel - the Indian Security Forces as the national forces have to and have to be seen running the show - it is their country that has been attacked and from I have seen so far they are not doing a bad job

[WRW]

The captured terrorists have spilled the beans. They came directly from Karachi, Pakistan in a fishing trawler used by smugglers. They belonged to the ISI-trained group Lashkar-e-Taiba, with local support given by Indian gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who lives under ISI protection in Karachi. They had directions to key locations including the specific addresses of guest houses used by Israelis.

 

BTW, one of the terrorists called an Indian TV station. I can clearly hear a Pashtun accent.

 

This is clearly done by the ISI because the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers were due to meet Thursday for the next round of peace talks. The Pakistani hardliners do not want the civilian government to "cave in" to India, as they see it.

 

Any ideas on the numbers of attackers

[Vijay Reddy]

5-6 terrorists still have a couple of dozen Israeli tourists/visitors hostage in a residential complex. Most of the media coverage has been focused on the 2 big hotels but no one is covering the other sites.

[Vijay Reddy]

Any ideas on the numbers of attackers

 

One of the TV channels interviewed people in a fishermen's slum saying that they saw 15-20 people wearing jackets and backpacks jump ashore from a fishing trawler and then split up into two groups after their leader spoke on the phone to someone. A government official said that there were at least 10 bad guys inside the Taj Mahal hotel.

 

I wonder if there are more terrorists holed up in the city. BTW, here's a CCTV capture of two terrorists at the entrance to the train station.

 

[philgollin]

The captured terrorists have spilled the beans. They came directly from Karachi, Pakistan in a fishing trawler used by smugglers. They belonged to the ISI-trained group Lashkar-e-Taiba, with local support given by Indian gangster Dawood Ibrahim, who lives under ISI protection in Karachi. They had directions to key locations including the specific addresses of guest houses used by Israelis.

 

BTW, one of the terrorists called an Indian TV station. I can clearly hear a Pashtun accent.

 

This is clearly done by the ISI because the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers were due to meet Thursday for the next round of peace talks. The Pakistani hardliners do not want the civilian government to "cave in" to India, as they see it.

 

 

Has this been confirmed ?

 

There is a lot of coverage in the UK, but this sort of info is noticeable by its absence.

 

Condolences.

 

.

[Vijay Reddy]

This is a developing situation, so it will take a while before it gets to the Western media. Not surprisingly, US and UK media are focusing their initial coverage on the status of their citizens. We still have at least 3 major hostage situations. I hope and pray that it ends with minimal loss of civilian life.

[Vijay Reddy]

The terrorists guns turn out to be MP5s. The largest MP5 maker in the region is Pakistan Ordnance Factory. They had bagfuls of ammo and had instructions to leave no hostages and not be captured alive.

 

BTW, my friend just called me to say that there is word that at least one group of terrorists killed themselves after slaughtering a conference room full of hostages at the Trident hotel. I hope that is not true

[WRW]

The terrorists guns turn out to be MP5s. The largest MP5 maker in the region is Pakistan Ordnance Factory. They had bagfuls of ammo and had instructions to leave no hostages and not be captured alive.

 

BTW, my friend just called me to say that there is word that at least one group of terrorists killed themselves after slaughtering a conference room full of hostages at the Trident hotel. I hope that is not true

 

 

Security forces seem to be responding well