Medeshi Nov 27, 2008Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday the attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 100 people were well planned and probably had "external linkages."
REUTERS/Graphic
Victims of Wednesday's shootings lie in the premises of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or Victoria Terminus railway station in Mumbai, November 26, 2008.
REUTERS/The Times of India
Indian army soldiers patrol a street in Mumbai November 27, 2008.REUTERS/Arko Datta
A suspected gunman in the premises of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, or Victoria Terminus railway station, in Mumbai, November 26, 2008.REUTERS/The Times of India
Firemen try to douse a fire at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008.REUTERS/Arko Datta
An employee (C) of the Taj Hotel (seen in the background) comforts foreign guests in Mumbai November 27, 2008.REUTERS/Arko Datta
Smoke and fire billows out of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, November 27, 2008.REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw
Pigeons fly near the burning Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008.REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe
Smoke and fire billows out of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, November 27, 2008.REUTERS/Peter Keep
By Charlotte Cooper
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian commandos fought to regain control of India's commercial capital, Mumbai, on Thursday after a highly-coordinated attack by armed militants that the prime minister blamed on a "terrorist" group outside the country.
Police said 119 people were killed and 315 were wounded when a small army of gunmen -- at least some of whom arrived by sea -- fanned out across Mumbai to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including two luxury hotels.
Commandos were fighting room-to-room battles in the two hotels to rescue people trapped by the militants, police said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed militant groups based in India's neighbors, usually meaning Pakistan, raising fears of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.
"It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country," he said in a televised address. "We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts."
Around two dozen militants in their early 20s, armed with automatic rifles and grenades and carrying backpacks full of ammunition, had fanned out across Mumbai to attack sites across the city, which also included a Jewish center.
At least some of them had come ashore in what police said was a rubber dinghy.
They commandeered a vehicle and sprayed passersby with bullets, fired indiscriminately in a train station, hospitals and a popular tourist cafe. They also attacked two of the city's poshest hotels packed with tourists and business executives.
"The situation is still not under control and we are trying to flush out any more terrorists hiding inside the two hotels," said Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Maharashtra state which is home to Mumbai.
The death toll was only an estimate in an attack which brought the biggest chaos to the city since serial bombings in 1993 killed 260 people and injured hundreds.
India blamed crime syndicates in the "Bollywood" underworld for that attack and saw it as revenge for death of Muslims in Hindu-Muslim violence which followed the destruction of a Muslim mosque in the north of the country. It said the perpetrators had later found refuge in Pakistan.
Pakistan condemned the latest attacks on Mumbai and promised full cooperation.
OPERATIONS CONTINUE
J K. Dutt, head of the National Security Guards, told the NDTV news channel that operations were continuing at the hotels.
At the Trident-Oberoi "we have been able to engage two terrorists," he said. "At the Taj, one terrorist has been engaged. He has been injured, and we should be able to mop up the operation fairly quickly."
At least 10 Israeli nationals were also trapped in buildings or held hostage, an Israeli embassy official in New Delhi said.
Flames billowed from an upper floor of the Trident-Oberoi where 20 to 30 people were thought to have been taken hostage and more than 100 others were trapped in their rooms.
Earlier, explosions rattled the nearby Taj Hotel as the troops flushed out the last of the militants there. Fire and smoke plumed from an open window.
Dipak Dutta told NDTV news after being rescued that he had been told by troops escorting him through the corridors not to look down at any of the bodies.
"A lot of chef trainees were massacred in the kitchen."
At least six foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national were killed.
A militant holed up at a Jewish center phoned an Indian television channel to offer talks with the government for the hostages' release. He complained of abuses in Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars.
"Ask the government to talk to us and we will release the hostages," the man, identified by the India TV channel as Imran, said, speaking in Urdu in what sounded like a Kashmiri accent.
"Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims. Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?"
WALKING THROUGH BLOOD
Australian actress Brooke Satchwell, who starred in the Neighbours television soap opera, said she narrowly escaped the gunmen by hiding in a hotel bathroom cupboard.
"There was people getting shot in the corridor. There was someone dead outside the bathroom," the shaken actress told Australian television. "The next thing I knew I was running down the stairs and there were a couple of dead bodies across the stairs. It was chaos."
"We threw ourselves down under the reception counter," Esperanza Aguirre, head of Madrid's regional government, said.
"I took off my shoes and we left being pushed along by the hotel staff," she said. "I didn't see any terrorists or injured people. I just saw the blood I had to walk through barefoot."
Singh said New Delhi would "take up strongly" the use of neighbors' territory to launch attacks on India.
"The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of terror by choosing high-profile targets."
The use of heavily armed "fedayeen" or suicide attackers bears the hallmarks of Pakistan-based militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, blamed for a 2001 attack on India's parliament.
Both groups made their name fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and were closely linked in the past to the Pakistani military's Inter Services Intelligence agency, the ISI.
Lashkar-e-Taiba denied any role in the attacks, and said it had no links with any Indian group. Instead, the little-known Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility.
"Release all the mujahideens, and Muslims living in India should not be troubled," said a militant inside the Oberoi, speaking to Indian television by telephone.
The attacks were expected to spook investors in one of Asia's largest and fastest-growing economies.
Authorities closed stock, bond and foreign exchange markets, and the central bank said it would continue auctions to keep cash flowing through interbank lending markets, which seized up after the global financial crisis.
The attackers appeared to target British, Americans and Israelis as they sought hostages in the hotels and elsewhere.
Police said they had shot seven gunmen and arrested nine suspects. They said 12 policemen were killed, including Hemant Karkare, the chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai.
(Reporting by New Delhi and Mumbai bureaux; Writing by Myra MacDonald; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian commandos fought to regain control of India's commercial capital, Mumbai, on Thursday after a highly-coordinated attack by armed militants that the prime minister blamed on a "terrorist" group outside the country.
Police said 119 people were killed and 315 were wounded when a small army of gunmen -- at least some of whom arrived by sea -- fanned out across Mumbai to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including two luxury hotels.
Commandos were fighting room-to-room battles in the two hotels to rescue people trapped by the militants, police said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed militant groups based in India's neighbors, usually meaning Pakistan, raising fears of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.
"It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country," he said in a televised address. "We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts."
Around two dozen militants in their early 20s, armed with automatic rifles and grenades and carrying backpacks full of ammunition, had fanned out across Mumbai to attack sites across the city, which also included a Jewish center.
At least some of them had come ashore in what police said was a rubber dinghy.
They commandeered a vehicle and sprayed passersby with bullets, fired indiscriminately in a train station, hospitals and a popular tourist cafe. They also attacked two of the city's poshest hotels packed with tourists and business executives.
"The situation is still not under control and we are trying to flush out any more terrorists hiding inside the two hotels," said Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Maharashtra state which is home to Mumbai.
The death toll was only an estimate in an attack which brought the biggest chaos to the city since serial bombings in 1993 killed 260 people and injured hundreds.
India blamed crime syndicates in the "Bollywood" underworld for that attack and saw it as revenge for death of Muslims in Hindu-Muslim violence which followed the destruction of a Muslim mosque in the north of the country. It said the perpetrators had later found refuge in Pakistan.
Pakistan condemned the latest attacks on Mumbai and promised full cooperation.
OPERATIONS CONTINUE
J K. Dutt, head of the National Security Guards, told the NDTV news channel that operations were continuing at the hotels.
At the Trident-Oberoi "we have been able to engage two terrorists," he said. "At the Taj, one terrorist has been engaged. He has been injured, and we should be able to mop up the operation fairly quickly."
At least 10 Israeli nationals were also trapped in buildings or held hostage, an Israeli embassy official in New Delhi said.
Flames billowed from an upper floor of the Trident-Oberoi where 20 to 30 people were thought to have been taken hostage and more than 100 others were trapped in their rooms.
Earlier, explosions rattled the nearby Taj Hotel as the troops flushed out the last of the militants there. Fire and smoke plumed from an open window.
Dipak Dutta told NDTV news after being rescued that he had been told by troops escorting him through the corridors not to look down at any of the bodies.
"A lot of chef trainees were massacred in the kitchen."
At least six foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national were killed.
A militant holed up at a Jewish center phoned an Indian television channel to offer talks with the government for the hostages' release. He complained of abuses in Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars.
"Ask the government to talk to us and we will release the hostages," the man, identified by the India TV channel as Imran, said, speaking in Urdu in what sounded like a Kashmiri accent.
"Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims. Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?"
WALKING THROUGH BLOOD
Australian actress Brooke Satchwell, who starred in the Neighbours television soap opera, said she narrowly escaped the gunmen by hiding in a hotel bathroom cupboard.
"There was people getting shot in the corridor. There was someone dead outside the bathroom," the shaken actress told Australian television. "The next thing I knew I was running down the stairs and there were a couple of dead bodies across the stairs. It was chaos."
"We threw ourselves down under the reception counter," Esperanza Aguirre, head of Madrid's regional government, said.
"I took off my shoes and we left being pushed along by the hotel staff," she said. "I didn't see any terrorists or injured people. I just saw the blood I had to walk through barefoot."
Singh said New Delhi would "take up strongly" the use of neighbors' territory to launch attacks on India.
"The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of terror by choosing high-profile targets."
The use of heavily armed "fedayeen" or suicide attackers bears the hallmarks of Pakistan-based militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, blamed for a 2001 attack on India's parliament.
Both groups made their name fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and were closely linked in the past to the Pakistani military's Inter Services Intelligence agency, the ISI.
Lashkar-e-Taiba denied any role in the attacks, and said it had no links with any Indian group. Instead, the little-known Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility.
"Release all the mujahideens, and Muslims living in India should not be troubled," said a militant inside the Oberoi, speaking to Indian television by telephone.
The attacks were expected to spook investors in one of Asia's largest and fastest-growing economies.
Authorities closed stock, bond and foreign exchange markets, and the central bank said it would continue auctions to keep cash flowing through interbank lending markets, which seized up after the global financial crisis.
The attackers appeared to target British, Americans and Israelis as they sought hostages in the hotels and elsewhere.
Police said they had shot seven gunmen and arrested nine suspects. They said 12 policemen were killed, including Hemant Karkare, the chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai.
(Reporting by New Delhi and Mumbai bureaux; Writing by Myra MacDonald; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
