2008 Mumbai attacks
Encyclopedia
The 2008 Mumbai attacks (sometimes referred to as 26/11) were more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai
, India's largest city, by Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan
. The attackers received reconnaissance assistance before the attacks, Ajmal Kasab
later claimed upon interrogation that the attacks were conducted with the support of Pakistan's ISI
. The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday, 26 November and lasted until Saturday, 29 November 2008, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308.
Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai
: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
, the Oberoi Trident
, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
, Leopold Cafe
, Cama Hospital
(a women and children's hospital), the Nariman House
Jewish community centre, the Metro Cinema, and a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College. There was also an explosion at Mazagaon
, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle
. By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj hotel had been secured by Mumbai Police
and security forces. On 29 November, India's National Security Guards
(NSG) conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining attackers; it resulted in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Taj hotel and ending all fighting in the attacks.
Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba
, the Pakistan
-based militant organisation, considered a terrorist organisation by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations, among others. The Indian government
said that the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers
were in Pakistan. On 7 January 2009, Pakistan's Information Minister Sherry Rehman officially accepted Ajmal Kasab's nationality as Pakistani. On 12 February 2009, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik asserted that parts of the attack had been planned in Pakistan. A trial court on 6 May 2010 sentenced Ajmal Kasab to death on five counts.
There have been many bombings in Mumbai since the 13 coordinated bomb explosions that killed 257 people and injured 700 on 12 March 1993. The 1993 attacks are believed to have been in retaliation for the Babri Mosque
demolition.
On 6 December 2002, a blast in a BEST
bus near Ghatkopar
station killed two people and injured 28. The bombing occurred on the tenth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. A bicycle bomb exploded near the Vile Parle
station in Mumbai, killing one person and injuring 25 on 27 January 2003, a day before the visit of the Prime Minister
of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee
to the city. On 13 March 2003, a day after the tenth anniversary of the 1993 Bombay bombings, a bomb exploded in a train compartment near the Mulund station, killing 10 people and injuring 70. On 28 July 2003, a blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar killed 4 people and injured 32. On 25 August 2003, two bombs exploded in South Mumbai
, one near the Gateway of India
and the other at Zaveri Bazaar in Kalbadevi
. At least 44 people were killed and 150 injured. On 11 July 2006, seven bombs exploded within 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway
in Mumbai. 209 people were killed, including 22 foreigners and over 700 injured. According to the Mumbai Police
, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba
and Students Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI).
(IST) on 26 November, when 10 men in inflatable speedboats came ashore at two fisherman's slums in Colaba
. They reportedly told local Marathi
-speaking fishermen who asked them who they were to "mind their own business" before they split up and headed two different ways. The fishermen's subsequent report to police received little response.
(CST) was attacked by two gunmen, one of whom, Ajmal Kasab
, was later caught alive by the police and identified by eyewitnesses. The attacks began around 21:30 when the two men entered the passenger hall and opened fire, using AK-47
rifles. The attackers killed 58 people and injured 104 others, their assault ending at about 22:45. Security forces and emergency services arrived shortly afterwards. The two gunmen fled the scene and fired at pedestrians and police officers in the streets, killing eight police officers. The attackers passed a police station. Many of the outgunned police officers were afraid to confront the attackers, and instead switched off the lights and secured the gates. The attackers then headed towards Cama Hospital with an intention to kill patients, but the hospital staff locked all of the patient wards. A team of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad led by police chief Hemant Karkare
searched the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and then left in pursuit of Kasab and Khan. Kasab and Khan opened fire on the vehicle in a lane next to the hospital and the police returned fire. Karkare, Vijay Salaskar
, Ashok Kamte
and one of their officers were killed, though the only survivor, Constable Arun Jadhav, was wounded. Kasab and Khan seized the police vehicle but later abandoned it and seized a passenger car instead. They then ran into a police roadblock, which had been set up after Jadhav radioed for help. A gun battle then ensued in which Khan was killed and Kasab was wounded. After a physical struggle, Kasab was arrested. A police officer, Tukaram Omble
was also killed.
, a popular restaurant and bar on Colaba Causeway
in South Mumbai
, was one of the first sites to be attacked. Two attackers opened fire on the cafe on the evening of 26 November, killing at least 10 people (including some foreigners), and injuring many more. The attackers fired into the street as they fled the scene.
, killing the driver and a passenger. The second explosion took place at Wadi Bunder between 22:20 and 22:25. Three people including the driver of the taxi were killed, and about 15 other people were injured.
Two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
and the Oberoi Trident
, were amongst the four locations targeted. Six explosions were reported at the Taj hotel and one at the Oberoi Trident. At the Taj Mahal, firefighters rescued 200 hostages from windows using ladders during the first night.
CNN initially reported on the morning of 27 November 2008 that the hostage situation at the Taj had been resolved and quoted the police chief of Maharashtra
stating that all hostages were freed; however, it was learned later that day that there were still two attackers holding hostages, including foreigners, in the Taj Mahal hotel.
During the attacks, both hotels were surrounded by Rapid Action Force
personnel and Marine Commandos
(MARCOS) and National Security Guards
(NSG) commandos. When reports emerged that attackers were receiving television broadcasts, feeds to the hotels were blocked. Security forces stormed both hotels, and all nine attackers were killed by the morning of 29 November. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan
of the NSG was killed during the rescue of Commando Sunil Yadav, who was hit in the leg by a bullet during the rescue operations at Taj. 32 hostages were killed at the Oberoi Trident.
A number of European Parliament
Committee on International Trade
delegates were staying in the Taj Mahal hotel when it was attacked, but none of them were injured. British Conservative
Member of the European Parliament
(MEP) Sajjad Karim
(who was in the lobby when attackers initially opened fire there) and German Social Democrat
MEP Erika Mann
were hiding in different parts of the building. Also reported present was Spanish MEP Ignasi Guardans, who was barricaded in a hotel room. Another British Conservative MEP, Syed Kamall
, reported that he along with several other MEPs left the hotel and went to a nearby restaurant shortly before the attack. Kamall also reported that Polish MEP Jan Masiel
was thought to have been sleeping in his hotel room when the attacks started, but eventually left the hotel safely. Kamall and Guardans reported that a Hungarian MEP's assistant was shot. Also caught up in the shooting were the President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre
, while checking in at the Oberoi Trident
, and Indian MP N. N. Krishnadas
of Kerala
and Sir Gulam Noon while having dinner at a restaurant in the Taj hotel.
Nariman House, a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish center in Colaba known as the Mumbai Chabad House, was taken over by two attackers and several residents were held hostage. Police evacuated adjacent buildings and exchanged fire with the attackers, wounding one. Local residents were told to stay inside. The attackers threw a grenade into a nearby lane, causing no casualties. NSG commandos arrived from Delhi
, and a Naval helicopter took an aerial survey. During the first day, 9 hostages were rescued from the first floor. The following day, the house was stormed by NSG commandos fast-roping from helicopters onto the roof, covered by snipers positioned in nearby buildings. After a long battle, one NSG commando Havaldar Gajender Singh
Bisht and both perpetrators were killed. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg
and his wife Rivka Holtzberg, who was six months pregnant, were murdered with four other hostages inside the house by the attackers.
According to radio transmissions picked up by Indian intelligence, the attackers "would be told by their handlers in Pakistan that the lives of Jews were worth 50 times those of non-Jews." Injuries reported on some of the bodies indicate they may have been tortured.
In July 2009 Pakistani authorities confirmed that LeT plotted and financed the attacks from LeT camps in Karachi and Thatta
.
In November 2009, Pakistani authorities charged seven men they had arrested earlier, of planning and executing the assault.
Mumbai police originally identified 37 suspects — including two army officers — for their alleged involvement in the plot. All but two of the suspects, many of whom are identified only through aliases, are Pakistani. Two more suspects arrested in the United States in October 2009 for other attacks were also found to have been involved in planning the Mumbai attacks.
One of these men, Pakistani American David Headley
, was found to have made several trips to India before the attacks and gathered video and GPS information on behalf of the plotters.
In April 2011, the United States issued arrest warrants for four Pakistani men as suspects in the attack. The men, Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal, and alias "Major Iqbal", are believed to be members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and helped plan and train the attackers.
Pakistani authorities finally agreed that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani on 7 January 2009,
and registered a case against three other Pakistani nationals.
The Indian government supplied evidence to Pakistan and other governments, in the form of interrogations, weapons, and call records of conversations during the attacks. In addition, Indian government officials said that the attacks were so sophisticated that they must have had official backing from Pakistani "agencies", an accusation denied by Pakistan.
Under US and UN pressure, Pakistan arrested a few members of Jamaat ud-Dawa and briefly put its founder under house arrest, but he was found to be free a few days later. A year after the attacks, Mumbai police continued to complain that Pakistani authorities are not cooperating by providing information for their investigation. Meanwhile, journalists in Pakistan said security agencies were preventing them from interviewing people from Kasab's village. Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the Pakistani authorities had not shared any information about American suspects Headley and Rana
, but that the FBI had been more forthcoming.
An Indian report, summarising intelligence gained from India's interrogation of David Headley
, was released in October 2010. It alleged that Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI) had provided support for the attacks by providing funding for reconnaissance missions in Mumbai. The report included Headley's claim that Lashkar-e-Taiba's chief military commander, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, had close ties to the ISI. He alleged that "every big action of LeT is done in close coordination with [the] ISI."
, Pakistan, across the Arabian Sea
, hijacked the Indian fishing trawler 'Kuber', killed the crew of four, then forced the captain to sail to Mumbai. After murdering the captain, the attackers entered Mumbai on a rubber dinghy. The captain of 'Kuber', Amar Singh Solanki, had earlier been imprisoned for six months in a Pakistani jail for illegally fishing in Pakistani waters.
The attackers stayed and were trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in a safehouse at Azizabad
near Karachi
before boarding a small boat for Mumbai.
David Headley
was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and between 2002 and 2009 Headley traveled extensively as part of his work for LeT. Headley received training in small arms and countersurveillance from LeT, built a network of connections for the group, and was chief scout in scoping out targets for Mumbai attack having allegedly been given $25,000 in cash in 2006 by an ISI officer known as Major Iqbal
, The officer also helped him arrange a communications system for the attack, and oversaw a model of the Taj Mahal Hotel so that gunmen could know their way inside the target, according to Headley's testimony to Indian authorities. Headley also helped ISI recruit Indian agents to monitor Indian troop levels and movements, according to a US official. At the same time, Headley was also an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, and Headley's wives warned American officials of Headley's involvement with LeT and his plotting attacks, warning specifically that the Taj Mahal Hotel may be their target.
US officials believed that the Inter-Services Intelligence
(I.S.I.) officers provided support to Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who carried out the attacks.
. There were also reports of a SIM card purchased in the US state New Jersey
. Police had also mentioned that Faheem Ansari
, an Indian Lashkar operative who had been arrested in February 2008, had scouted the Mumbai targets for the November attacks. Later, the police arrested two Indian suspects, Mikhtar Ahmad, who is from Srinagar in Kashmir, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata. They supplied the SIM cards, one in Calcutta, and the other in New Delhi.
Type 86 Grenades made by China's state-owned Norinco
were used in the attacks.
Blood tests on the attackers indicate that they had taken cocaine
and LSD
during the attacks, to sustain their energy and stay awake for 50 hours. Police say that they found syringes on the scenes of the attacks. There were also indications that they had been taking steroids. The gunman who survived said that the attackers had used Google Earth
to familiarise themselves with the locations of buildings used in the attacks.
There were ten gunmen, nine of whom were subsequently shot dead and one captured by security forces. Witnesses reported that they looked to be in their early twenties, wore black t-shirts and jeans, and that they smiled and looked happy as they shot their victims.
It was initially reported that some of the attackers were British citizens, but the Indian government later stated that there was no evidence to confirm this. Similarly, early reports of twelve gunmen were also later shown to be incorrect.
On 9 December, the ten attackers were identified by Mumbai police, along with their home towns in Pakistan: Ajmal Amir from Faridkot
, Abu Ismail Dera Ismail Khan from Dera Ismail Khan
, Hafiz Arshad and Babr Imran from Multan
, Javed from Okara
, Shoaib from Narowal
, Nazih and Nasr from Faisalabad
, Abdul Rahman from Arifwalla, and Fahad Ullah from Dipalpur Taluka. Dera Ismail Khan is in the North-West Frontier Province
; the rest of the towns are in Pakistani Punjab
.
On 6 April 2010, the Home minister of Maharashtra
State, which includes Mumbai, informed the assembly that the bodies of the nine killed Pakistani gunmen from the 2008 attack on Mumbai were buried in a secret location in January 2010. The bodies had been in the mortuary of a Mumbai hospital after Muslim clerics in the city refused to let them be buried on their grounds.
On 12 February 2009 Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Pakistani national Javed Iqbal, who acquired VoIP phones in Spain for the Mumbai attackers, and Hamad Ameen Sadiq, who had facilitated money transfer for the attack, had been arrested. Two other men known as Khan and Riaz, but whose full names were not given, were also arrested.
Two Pakistanis were arrested in Brescia
, Italy (north-west of Milan
), on 21 November 2009, after being accused of providing logistical support to the attacks and transferring over US$200 to internet accounts using a false ID. They had Red Corner Notices issued against them by Interpol
for their suspected involvement and it was issued after the last year's strikes.
In October 2009, two Chicago men were arrested and charged by the FBI for involvement in terrorism abroad, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana
. Headley, a Pakistani-American, was charged in November 2009 with scouting locations for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Headley is reported to have posed as an American Jew and is believed to have links with militant Islamist groups based in Bangladesh. On 18 March 2010, Headley pled guilty to a dozen charges against him thereby avoiding going to trial.
In December 2009, the FBI charged Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani army, for planning the terror attacks in association with Headley.
On 15 January 2010, in a successful snatch operation R&AW agents nabbed Sheikh Abdul Khwaja, one of the handlers of the 26/11 attacks, chief of HuJI
India operations and a most wanted terror suspect in India, from Colombo
, Sri Lanka, and brought him over to Hyderabad, India for formal arrest.
The government of Maharashtra
announced about as compensation to the kin of each of those killed in the terror attacks and about to the seriously injured. In August 2009, Indian Hotels Company and the Oberoi Group received about $28 million USD as part-payment of the insurance claims, on account of the attacks on Taj Mahal and Trident, from General Insurance Corporation of India.
, appointed by the Maharashtra government, produced a report that was tabled before the legislative assembly
over one year after the events. The report said the "war-like" attack was beyond the capacity of any police force, but it also found fault with the Mumbai Police Commissionaer Hasan Gafoor
's lack of leadership during the crisis.
The Maharashtra government planned to buy 36 speed boats to patrol the coastal areas and several helicopters for the same purpose. It also planned to create an anti-terror force called "Force One" and upgrade all the weapons that Mumbai police currently have. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
on an all-party conference declared that legal framework would be strengthened in the battle against terrorism and a federal anti-terrorist intelligence and investigation agency, like the FBI, will be set up soon to coordinate action against terrorism. The government strengthened anti-terror laws with UAPA 2008, and the federal National Investigation Agency
was formed.
The attacks further strained India's slowly recovering relationship with Pakistan. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
declared that India may indulge in military strikes against terror camps in Pakistan to protect its territorial integrity. There were also after-effects on the United States's relationships with both countries, the US-led NATO war in Afghanistan, and on the Global War on Terror
. FBI chief Robert Mueller
praised the "unprecedented cooperation" between American and Indian intelligence agencies over Mumbai terror attack probe. Interpol
secretary general Ronald Noble
indicated Indian intelligence agencies did not share any information with them.
Indians criticised their political leaders after the attacks, saying that their ineptness was partly responsible. The Times of India
commented on its front page that "Our politicians fiddle as innocents die." Political reactions in Mumbai and India included a range of resignations and political changes, including the resignations of Minister for Home Affairs
Shivraj Patil
, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh
and Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil
for controversial reactions to the attack including taking the former's son and Bollywood
director Ram Gopal Verma to tour the damaged Taj Mahal and the latters remarks that the attacks were not a big deal in such a large city. Prominent Muslim personalities such as Bollywood actor Aamir Khan
appealed to their community members in the country to observe Eid al-Adha as a day of mourning on 9 December. The business establishment also reacted, with changes to transport, and requests for an increase in self-defense capabilities. The attacks also triggered a chain of citizens' movements across India such as the India Today Group's
"War Against Terror" campaign. There were vigils held across all of India with candles and placards commemorating the victims of the attacks. The NSG commandos based in Delhi
were delayed by more than 6 hours due to the lack of adequate emergency transport facility and detailed maps and took almost 10 hours to reach the 3 sites under attack.
International reaction for the attacks was widespread, with many countries and international organisations condemning the attacks and expressing their condolences to the civilian victims. Many important personalities around the world also condemned the attacks.
Media coverage highlighted the use of new media
and Internet social networking tools, including Twitter
and Flickr
, in spreading information about the attacks. In addition, many Indian bloggers and Wikipedia
offered live textual coverage of the attacks. A map of the attacks was set up by a web journalist using Google Maps
. The New York Times
, in July 2009, described the event as "what may be the most well-documented terrorist attack anywhere."
In November 2010, families of American victims of the attacks filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn, New York, naming Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, chief of the I.S.I., as being complicit in the Mumbai attacks. On September 22, 2011, the attack on the American Embassy in Afghanistan, was attributed to Pakistan via cell phone records identical to the attacks in Mumbai, also linked to Pakistan. The investigation continues.
, formally charging Kasab with murder, conspiracy, and waging war against India among other charges.
Kasab's trial began on 6 May 2009. He initially pleaded not guilty, but later admitted his guilt on 20 July 2009. He initially apologized for the attacks and claimed that he deserved the death penalty for his crimes, but later retracted these claims, saying that he had been tortured by police to force his confession, and that he had been arrested while roaming the beach. The court had accepted his plea, but due to the lack of completeness within his admittance, the judge had deemed that many of the 86 charges were not addressed and therefore the trial continued.
Kasab was convicted of all 86 charges on 3 May 2010. He was found guilty of murder for directly killing seven people, conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of the 166 people killed in the three-day terror siege, waging war against India, causing terror, and of conspiracy to murder two high-ranking police officers. On 6 May 2010, he was sentenced to death by hanging.
However, he appealed his sentence at high court.On 21 February 2011, the Bombay High Court
upheld the death sentence of Kasab, dismissing his appeal.
Manmohan Singh
said that Pakistan has not done enough to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice.
On the eve of the first anniversary of 26/11, a Pakistani anti-terror court formally charged seven accused, including LeT operations commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi
.
in his testimony before a Chicago
federal court during co-accused Tahawwur Rana's trial revealed that Mumbai Chabad House
was added to the list of targets for surveillance given by his Inter Services Intelligence handler Major Iqbal, though the Oberoi hotel, one of the sites attacked, was not originally on the list.
On June 10, 2011, Tahawwur Rana was acquitted of plotting the 2008 Mumbai attacks, but was held guilty on two other charges.
took place in downtown South Mumbai
.
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India's largest city, by Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. The attackers received reconnaissance assistance before the attacks, Ajmal Kasab
Ajmal Kasab
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is a Pakistani Islamic terrorist who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. Kasab is the only attacker captured alive by police and is currently in Indian custody. The Government of Pakistan initially denied that Kasab was from Pakistan, but in January 2009,...
later claimed upon interrogation that the attacks were conducted with the support of Pakistan's ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
. The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday, 26 November and lasted until Saturday, 29 November 2008, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308.
Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai
South Mumbai
South Mumbai , sometimes incorrectly referred to by English Media as "SoBo" , the southern-most precinct of the city of Mumbai, India, comprises the city's main business localities and its adjoining areas...
: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
, the Oberoi Trident
Oberoi Trident
The Oberoi and Trident are two brands of five star hotels operated and sometimes owned by the Oberoi Hotels & Resorts located in several cities in India and across the world...
, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is a five-star hotel located in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, next to the Gateway of India. Part of the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, this building is considered the flagship property of the group and contains 565 rooms...
, Leopold Cafe
Leopold Cafe
The Leopold Cafe is a large and popular restaurant and bar on Colaba Causeway, in the Fort area of Mumbai, India, located across from the Colaba Police station.It was one of the first sites attacked during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks...
, Cama Hospital
Cama Hospital
The Cama & Albless Hospital is a major hospital for women and children in the city of Mumbai, India, with 367 beds.-History:It was attacked during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. It appears that the situation at Cama Hospital has been resolved as of Thursday morning; however, it is unknown whether the...
(a women and children's hospital), the Nariman House
Nariman House
The Nariman House , renamed as Chabad House , is a five-story landmark in the Colaba area in southern Mumbai, India. The building was home to a Chabad house, a Jewish outreach center run by Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, and they have owned the Building since around 2006. The center had an...
Jewish community centre, the Metro Cinema, and a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College. There was also an explosion at Mazagaon
Mazagaon
Mazagaon, also spelled Mazgaon and Mazagon , and pronounced by the Catholics as 'Mazgon' or 'Maz-a-gon' and the Marathi-speakers as Mazhgav. It is one of the seven islands of Mumbai. It is part of South Mumbai and can be reached by Byculla Station on the Central railway line and Dockyard Road...
, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle
Vile Parle
Vile Parle , also known as "Parla", is a suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle is also the name of the railway station in this suburb, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. The name "Vile Parle" has...
. By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj hotel had been secured by Mumbai Police
Mumbai Police
The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...
and security forces. On 29 November, India's National Security Guards
National Security Guards
The National Security Guard is a Special Response Unit in India that has primarily been utilized for counter-terrorism activities and was created by the Cabinet Secretariat under the National Security Guard Act of the Indian Parliament in 1986...
(NSG) conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining attackers; it resulted in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Taj hotel and ending all fighting in the attacks.
Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
, the Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
-based militant organisation, considered a terrorist organisation by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations, among others. The Indian government
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
said that the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers
Agent handling
In intelligence organizations, agent handling is the management of agents, principal agents, and agent networks by intelligence officers typically known as case officers.-Human intelligence:...
were in Pakistan. On 7 January 2009, Pakistan's Information Minister Sherry Rehman officially accepted Ajmal Kasab's nationality as Pakistani. On 12 February 2009, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik asserted that parts of the attack had been planned in Pakistan. A trial court on 6 May 2010 sentenced Ajmal Kasab to death on five counts.
Background
There have been many bombings in Mumbai since the 13 coordinated bomb explosions that killed 257 people and injured 700 on 12 March 1993. The 1993 attacks are believed to have been in retaliation for the Babri Mosque
Babri Mosque
The Babri Mosque , was a mosque in Ayodhya, a city in the Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh, on Ramkot Hill . It was destroyed in 1992 when a political rally developed into a riot involving 150,000 people, despite a commitment to the Indian Supreme Court by the rally organisers that the mosque...
demolition.
On 6 December 2002, a blast in a BEST
Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport
The BEST ) is Mumbai's public transport service and electricity provider....
bus near Ghatkopar
Ghatkopar
Ghatkopar is a suburban neighbourhood of eastern Mumbai. It is also a railway station serviced by Central Railway line of the Mumbai suburban railway.-History:...
station killed two people and injured 28. The bombing occurred on the tenth anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. A bicycle bomb exploded near the Vile Parle
Vile Parle
Vile Parle , also known as "Parla", is a suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle is also the name of the railway station in this suburb, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. The name "Vile Parle" has...
station in Mumbai, killing one person and injuring 25 on 27 January 2003, a day before the visit of the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...
to the city. On 13 March 2003, a day after the tenth anniversary of the 1993 Bombay bombings, a bomb exploded in a train compartment near the Mulund station, killing 10 people and injuring 70. On 28 July 2003, a blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar killed 4 people and injured 32. On 25 August 2003, two bombs exploded in South Mumbai
South Mumbai
South Mumbai , sometimes incorrectly referred to by English Media as "SoBo" , the southern-most precinct of the city of Mumbai, India, comprises the city's main business localities and its adjoining areas...
, one near the Gateway of India
Gateway of India
Its design is a combination of both Hindu and Muslim architectural styles, the arch is in Muslim style while the decorations are in Hindu style. The Gateway is built from yellow basalt and reinforced concrete. The stone was locally obtained, and the perforated screens were brought from Gwalior.The...
and the other at Zaveri Bazaar in Kalbadevi
Kalbadevi
Kalbadevi is an old neighbourhood in Mumbai , India. It is named after the Hindu Goddess of the same name. Postal code 400002. Kalbadevi area is one of the busiest areas during peak hours. The area has mostly traders in watches, bicycles, steel utensils, etc.Kalbadevi is within walking distance...
. At least 44 people were killed and 150 injured. On 11 July 2006, seven bombs exploded within 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway
Mumbai Suburban Railway
The Mumbai Suburban Railway system, part of the public transport system of Mumbai, is provided for by the state-run Indian Railways' two zonal Western Railways and Central Railways. The system carries more than 6.99 million commuters on a daily basis. It has the highest passenger densities of any...
in Mumbai. 209 people were killed, including 22 foreigners and over 700 injured. According to the Mumbai Police
Mumbai Police
The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...
, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
and Students Islamic Movement of India
Students Islamic Movement of India
The Students Islamic Movement of India is an Islamic student organization that was formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, in April 1977. The stated mission of SIMI is the ‘liberation of India’ from Western materialistic cultural influence and to convert its Muslim society to live according to Muslim...
(SIMI).
Attacks
The first events were detailed around 20:00 Indian Standard TimeIndian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly during the Sino–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971...
(IST) on 26 November, when 10 men in inflatable speedboats came ashore at two fisherman's slums in Colaba
Colaba
Colaba is a part of the city of Mumbai, India, and also a Lok Sabha constituency. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Candil...
. They reportedly told local Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
-speaking fishermen who asked them who they were to "mind their own business" before they split up and headed two different ways. The fishermen's subsequent report to police received little response.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji TerminusChhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
(CST) was attacked by two gunmen, one of whom, Ajmal Kasab
Ajmal Kasab
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is a Pakistani Islamic terrorist who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. Kasab is the only attacker captured alive by police and is currently in Indian custody. The Government of Pakistan initially denied that Kasab was from Pakistan, but in January 2009,...
, was later caught alive by the police and identified by eyewitnesses. The attacks began around 21:30 when the two men entered the passenger hall and opened fire, using AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
rifles. The attackers killed 58 people and injured 104 others, their assault ending at about 22:45. Security forces and emergency services arrived shortly afterwards. The two gunmen fled the scene and fired at pedestrians and police officers in the streets, killing eight police officers. The attackers passed a police station. Many of the outgunned police officers were afraid to confront the attackers, and instead switched off the lights and secured the gates. The attackers then headed towards Cama Hospital with an intention to kill patients, but the hospital staff locked all of the patient wards. A team of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad led by police chief Hemant Karkare
Hemant Karkare
Hemant Karkare was the chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks after being shot three times in the chest...
searched the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and then left in pursuit of Kasab and Khan. Kasab and Khan opened fire on the vehicle in a lane next to the hospital and the police returned fire. Karkare, Vijay Salaskar
Vijay Salaskar
Vijay Salaskar was a Senior Police Inspector and encounter specialist serving with the Mumbai police. He was widely credited with killing 75–80 criminals in encounters — most of these were members of the Arun Gawli gang...
, Ashok Kamte
Ashok Kamte
Ashok Kamte was the Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police for the East Region. He was killed in terrorist action during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. His bravery was honoured with the Ashoka Chakra on 26 January 2009....
and one of their officers were killed, though the only survivor, Constable Arun Jadhav, was wounded. Kasab and Khan seized the police vehicle but later abandoned it and seized a passenger car instead. They then ran into a police roadblock, which had been set up after Jadhav radioed for help. A gun battle then ensued in which Khan was killed and Kasab was wounded. After a physical struggle, Kasab was arrested. A police officer, Tukaram Omble
Tukaram Omble
Tukaram Omble was an assistant sub-inspector , and a retired army man who had entered the Mumbai police. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks while fighting terrorists at Girgaum Chowpatty...
was also killed.
Leopold Cafe
The Leopold CafeLeopold Cafe
The Leopold Cafe is a large and popular restaurant and bar on Colaba Causeway, in the Fort area of Mumbai, India, located across from the Colaba Police station.It was one of the first sites attacked during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks...
, a popular restaurant and bar on Colaba Causeway
Colaba Causeway
The Colaba Causeway is a commercial street , and a major causeway or land link between Colaba and the Old Woman's Island in the city of Mumbai, India....
in South Mumbai
South Mumbai
South Mumbai , sometimes incorrectly referred to by English Media as "SoBo" , the southern-most precinct of the city of Mumbai, India, comprises the city's main business localities and its adjoining areas...
, was one of the first sites to be attacked. Two attackers opened fire on the cafe on the evening of 26 November, killing at least 10 people (including some foreigners), and injuring many more. The attackers fired into the street as they fled the scene.
Bomb blasts in taxis
There were two explosions in taxis caused by timer bombs. The first one occurred at 22:40 at Vile ParleVile Parle
Vile Parle , also known as "Parla", is a suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle is also the name of the railway station in this suburb, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. The name "Vile Parle" has...
, killing the driver and a passenger. The second explosion took place at Wadi Bunder between 22:20 and 22:25. Three people including the driver of the taxi were killed, and about 15 other people were injured.
Taj Mahal Hotel and Oberoi Trident
Two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is a five-star hotel located in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, next to the Gateway of India. Part of the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, this building is considered the flagship property of the group and contains 565 rooms...
and the Oberoi Trident
Oberoi Trident
The Oberoi and Trident are two brands of five star hotels operated and sometimes owned by the Oberoi Hotels & Resorts located in several cities in India and across the world...
, were amongst the four locations targeted. Six explosions were reported at the Taj hotel and one at the Oberoi Trident. At the Taj Mahal, firefighters rescued 200 hostages from windows using ladders during the first night.
CNN initially reported on the morning of 27 November 2008 that the hostage situation at the Taj had been resolved and quoted the police chief of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
stating that all hostages were freed; however, it was learned later that day that there were still two attackers holding hostages, including foreigners, in the Taj Mahal hotel.
During the attacks, both hotels were surrounded by Rapid Action Force
Rapid Action Force
The Rapid Action Force is a specialised wing of the Indian CRPF . It was established on 11 December 1991 and became fully operational in October 1992, to deal with riots & related unrest...
personnel and Marine Commandos
MARCOS (India)
MARCOS is an elite special operations unit of the Indian Navy. "MARCOS" is short for "Marine Commandos"....
(MARCOS) and National Security Guards
National Security Guards
The National Security Guard is a Special Response Unit in India that has primarily been utilized for counter-terrorism activities and was created by the Cabinet Secretariat under the National Security Guard Act of the Indian Parliament in 1986...
(NSG) commandos. When reports emerged that attackers were receiving television broadcasts, feeds to the hotels were blocked. Security forces stormed both hotels, and all nine attackers were killed by the morning of 29 November. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan
Sandeep Unnikrishnan
Sandeep Unnikrishnan was a Major in the Indian Army serving in the elite Special Action Group of the National Security Guards . He was killed in action while fighting terrorists in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks...
of the NSG was killed during the rescue of Commando Sunil Yadav, who was hit in the leg by a bullet during the rescue operations at Taj. 32 hostages were killed at the Oberoi Trident.
A number of European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
Committee on International Trade
Committee on International Trade
The Committee on International Trade INTA is a committee of the European Parliament.-External links:*...
delegates were staying in the Taj Mahal hotel when it was attacked, but none of them were injured. British Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
(MEP) Sajjad Karim
Sajjad Karim
Sajjad Haider Karim also known as Saj is a Member of the European Parliament for North West England.Karim was the first British Muslim elected to the European Parliament on 4 June 2004. He was re-elected in June 2009.-Early life:...
(who was in the lobby when attackers initially opened fire there) and German Social Democrat
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
MEP Erika Mann
Erika Mann (politician)
Erika Mann is a German politician and was a Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1994 - 2004...
were hiding in different parts of the building. Also reported present was Spanish MEP Ignasi Guardans, who was barricaded in a hotel room. Another British Conservative MEP, Syed Kamall
Syed Kamall
Dr Syed Salah Kamall is a British Conservative Party politician, Member of the European Parliament for London.Kamall was born and brought up in London. He is married with two children. He was educated at The Latymer School, Edmonton...
, reported that he along with several other MEPs left the hotel and went to a nearby restaurant shortly before the attack. Kamall also reported that Polish MEP Jan Masiel
Jan Masiel
Jan Tadeusz Masiel is a Polish politician andMember of the European Parliament for the Greater Poland Voivodshipwith the Self-Defense,and is therefore a Non-Inscrit in the European Parliament....
was thought to have been sleeping in his hotel room when the attacks started, but eventually left the hotel safely. Kamall and Guardans reported that a Hungarian MEP's assistant was shot. Also caught up in the shooting were the President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre
Esperanza Aguirre
Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma, Countess of Murillo, Grandee of Spain, DBE is a Spanish politician and the current President of Madrid...
, while checking in at the Oberoi Trident
Oberoi Trident
The Oberoi and Trident are two brands of five star hotels operated and sometimes owned by the Oberoi Hotels & Resorts located in several cities in India and across the world...
, and Indian MP N. N. Krishnadas
N. N. Krishnadas
N. N. Krishnadas was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Palakkad constituency of Kerala and is a member of the Communist Party of India political party.-External links:*...
of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
and Sir Gulam Noon while having dinner at a restaurant in the Taj hotel.
Nariman House
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, and a Naval helicopter took an aerial survey. During the first day, 9 hostages were rescued from the first floor. The following day, the house was stormed by NSG commandos fast-roping from helicopters onto the roof, covered by snipers positioned in nearby buildings. After a long battle, one NSG commando Havaldar Gajender Singh
Havaldar Gajender Singh
Havaldar Gajender Singh Bisht was an NSG commando who died during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. His act of bravery was honoured with the Ashoka Chakra award by the President of India on 26 January 2009, India's republic day.-Childhood:...
Bisht and both perpetrators were killed. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg
Gavriel Holtzberg
Gavriel Noach Holtzberg was an Orthodox rabbi and the Chabad emissary to Mumbai, India, where he and his wife Rivka ran the Mumbai Chabad House. He was also a religious leader and community builder for the local Jewish Indian community, and led the Friday-night Shabbat services at the Knesset...
and his wife Rivka Holtzberg, who was six months pregnant, were murdered with four other hostages inside the house by the attackers.
According to radio transmissions picked up by Indian intelligence, the attackers "would be told by their handlers in Pakistan that the lives of Jews were worth 50 times those of non-Jews." Injuries reported on some of the bodies indicate they may have been tortured.
End of the attacks
By the morning of 27 November, the army had secured the Jewish outreach center at Nariman House as well as the Oberoi Trident hotel. They also incorrectly believed that the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers had been cleared of attackers, and soldiers were leading hostages and holed-up guests to safety, and removing bodies of those killed in the attacks. However, later news reports indicated that there were still two or three attackers in the Taj, with explosions heard and gunfire exchanged. Fires were also reported at the ground floor of the Taj with plumes of smoke arising from the first floor. The final operation at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel was completed by the NSG commandos at 08:00 on 29 November, killing three attackers and resulting in the conclusion of the attacks. The security forces rescued 250 people from the Oberoi, 300 from the Taj and 60 people (members of 12 different families) from Nariman House. In addition, police seized a boat filled with arms and explosives anchored at Mazgaon dock off Mumbai harbour.Attribution
The Mumbai attacks were planned and directed by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants inside Pakistan, and carried out by ten young armed men trained and sent to Mumbai and directed from inside Pakistan via mobile phones and VoIP.In July 2009 Pakistani authorities confirmed that LeT plotted and financed the attacks from LeT camps in Karachi and Thatta
Thatta
Thatta is a historic town of 220,000 inhabitants in the Sindh province of Pakistan, near Lake Keenjhar, the largest freshwater lake in the country. Thatta's major monuments especially its necropolis at Makli are listed among the World Heritage Sites. The Shah Jahan Mosque is also listed...
.
In November 2009, Pakistani authorities charged seven men they had arrested earlier, of planning and executing the assault.
Mumbai police originally identified 37 suspects — including two army officers — for their alleged involvement in the plot. All but two of the suspects, many of whom are identified only through aliases, are Pakistani. Two more suspects arrested in the United States in October 2009 for other attacks were also found to have been involved in planning the Mumbai attacks.
One of these men, Pakistani American David Headley
David Headley
David Coleman Headley, formerly known as Daood Sayed Gilani, is a Chicago-based Pakistani American,who conspired with Lashkar-e-Taibaand, he claims, Pakistani military officers...
, was found to have made several trips to India before the attacks and gathered video and GPS information on behalf of the plotters.
In April 2011, the United States issued arrest warrants for four Pakistani men as suspects in the attack. The men, Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal, and alias "Major Iqbal", are believed to be members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and helped plan and train the attackers.
Negotiations with Pakistan
Pakistan initially denied that Pakistanis were responsible for the attacks, blaming plotters in Bangladesh and Indian criminals, a claim refuted by India, and saying they needed information from India on other bombings first.Pakistani authorities finally agreed that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani on 7 January 2009,
and registered a case against three other Pakistani nationals.
The Indian government supplied evidence to Pakistan and other governments, in the form of interrogations, weapons, and call records of conversations during the attacks. In addition, Indian government officials said that the attacks were so sophisticated that they must have had official backing from Pakistani "agencies", an accusation denied by Pakistan.
Under US and UN pressure, Pakistan arrested a few members of Jamaat ud-Dawa and briefly put its founder under house arrest, but he was found to be free a few days later. A year after the attacks, Mumbai police continued to complain that Pakistani authorities are not cooperating by providing information for their investigation. Meanwhile, journalists in Pakistan said security agencies were preventing them from interviewing people from Kasab's village. Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the Pakistani authorities had not shared any information about American suspects Headley and Rana
Tahawwur Hussain Rana
Tahawwur Hussain Rana is a Pakistani Canadian resident of Chicago, USA who was convicted of providing support to banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and plotting an attack on Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten....
, but that the FBI had been more forthcoming.
An Indian report, summarising intelligence gained from India's interrogation of David Headley
David Headley
David Coleman Headley, formerly known as Daood Sayed Gilani, is a Chicago-based Pakistani American,who conspired with Lashkar-e-Taibaand, he claims, Pakistani military officers...
, was released in October 2010. It alleged that Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI) had provided support for the attacks by providing funding for reconnaissance missions in Mumbai. The report included Headley's claim that Lashkar-e-Taiba's chief military commander, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, had close ties to the ISI. He alleged that "every big action of LeT is done in close coordination with [the] ISI."
Investigation
According to investigations, the attackers traveled by sea from KarachiKarachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Pakistan, across the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
, hijacked the Indian fishing trawler 'Kuber', killed the crew of four, then forced the captain to sail to Mumbai. After murdering the captain, the attackers entered Mumbai on a rubber dinghy. The captain of 'Kuber', Amar Singh Solanki, had earlier been imprisoned for six months in a Pakistani jail for illegally fishing in Pakistani waters.
The attackers stayed and were trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in a safehouse at Azizabad
Azizabad
Azizabad is one of the neighbourhoods of Gulberg Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It is named after reputed civil servant Aziz-ul-Haq.-Location:...
near Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
before boarding a small boat for Mumbai.
David Headley
David Headley
David Coleman Headley, formerly known as Daood Sayed Gilani, is a Chicago-based Pakistani American,who conspired with Lashkar-e-Taibaand, he claims, Pakistani military officers...
was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and between 2002 and 2009 Headley traveled extensively as part of his work for LeT. Headley received training in small arms and countersurveillance from LeT, built a network of connections for the group, and was chief scout in scoping out targets for Mumbai attack having allegedly been given $25,000 in cash in 2006 by an ISI officer known as Major Iqbal
Major Iqbal
Major Iqbal is a Pakistani national who has been indicted in United States district court in Chicago on April 25, 2011 as an alleged conspirator in 2008 Mumbai attacks. Iqbal occasionally went by the name of Chaudhery Khan. The trial started at a time when U.S. relations with Pakistan were strained...
, The officer also helped him arrange a communications system for the attack, and oversaw a model of the Taj Mahal Hotel so that gunmen could know their way inside the target, according to Headley's testimony to Indian authorities. Headley also helped ISI recruit Indian agents to monitor Indian troop levels and movements, according to a US official. At the same time, Headley was also an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, and Headley's wives warned American officials of Headley's involvement with LeT and his plotting attacks, warning specifically that the Taj Mahal Hotel may be their target.
US officials believed that the Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(I.S.I.) officers provided support to Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who carried out the attacks.
Method
The attackers had planned the attack several months ahead of time and knew some areas well enough for the attackers to vanish, and reappear after security forces had left. Several sources have quoted Kasab telling the police that the group received help from Mumbai residents. The attackers used at least three SIM cards purchased on the Indian side of the border with BangladeshBangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. There were also reports of a SIM card purchased in the US state New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Police had also mentioned that Faheem Ansari
Faheem Ansari
Faheem Ansari, also known as Mohammad Faheem Ansari, is an Indian national alleged to be a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba , an organisation considered terrorist by India and the United States, among others. He was arrested on 10 February 2008 along with five others, and was charged in connection with...
, an Indian Lashkar operative who had been arrested in February 2008, had scouted the Mumbai targets for the November attacks. Later, the police arrested two Indian suspects, Mikhtar Ahmad, who is from Srinagar in Kashmir, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata. They supplied the SIM cards, one in Calcutta, and the other in New Delhi.
Type 86 Grenades made by China's state-owned Norinco
Norinco
The China North Industries Corporation , official English name Norinco, manufactures vehicles , machinery, optical-electronic products, oil field equipment, chemicals, light industrial products, explosives and blast materials, civil and military firearms and ammunition, etc...
were used in the attacks.
Blood tests on the attackers indicate that they had taken cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
and LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
during the attacks, to sustain their energy and stay awake for 50 hours. Police say that they found syringes on the scenes of the attacks. There were also indications that they had been taking steroids. The gunman who survived said that the attackers had used Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
to familiarise themselves with the locations of buildings used in the attacks.
There were ten gunmen, nine of whom were subsequently shot dead and one captured by security forces. Witnesses reported that they looked to be in their early twenties, wore black t-shirts and jeans, and that they smiled and looked happy as they shot their victims.
It was initially reported that some of the attackers were British citizens, but the Indian government later stated that there was no evidence to confirm this. Similarly, early reports of twelve gunmen were also later shown to be incorrect.
On 9 December, the ten attackers were identified by Mumbai police, along with their home towns in Pakistan: Ajmal Amir from Faridkot
Faridkot, Okara
Faridkot is a village in Depalpur Tehsil in the Okara District of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located at with an altitude of 167 metres and lies about 5 km north-east from the centre of the town of Depalpur, and about 25 km south-east of the district capital Okara.- Mohammad...
, Abu Ismail Dera Ismail Khan from Dera Ismail Khan
Dera Ismail Khan
Dera Ismail Khan is a city in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is situated on the west bank of the Indus River, west of Lahore and northwest of Multan. The city is the capital of the district and tehsil of the same name. In Pakistan, its name is often abbreviated to D. I...
, Hafiz Arshad and Babr Imran from Multan
Multan
Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...
, Javed from Okara
Okara, Pakistan
Okara is the capital city of Okara District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The name Okara is derived from Okaan, a name of a tree, the city is located south-west to the city of Lahore and is famous for its agriculture-based economy and cotton mills...
, Shoaib from Narowal
Narowal
Narowal is a city in the northeast of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The city is the capital of Narowal District and tehsil. It is situated on the banks of Ravi River about 4–5 km from the Indian border.-Etymology:...
, Nazih and Nasr from Faisalabad
Faisalabad
Faisalabad , formerly known as Lyallpur, is the third largest metropolis in Pakistan, the second largest in the province of Punjab after Lahore, and a major industrial center in the heart of Pakistan. Before the foundation of the city in 1880, the area was very thinly populated. The population has...
, Abdul Rahman from Arifwalla, and Fahad Ullah from Dipalpur Taluka. Dera Ismail Khan is in the North-West Frontier Province
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
; the rest of the towns are in Pakistani Punjab
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
.
On 6 April 2010, the Home minister of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
State, which includes Mumbai, informed the assembly that the bodies of the nine killed Pakistani gunmen from the 2008 attack on Mumbai were buried in a secret location in January 2010. The bodies had been in the mortuary of a Mumbai hospital after Muslim clerics in the city refused to let them be buried on their grounds.
Arrests
Ajmal Kasab was the only attacker arrested alive by police and is currently under arrest. Much of the information about the attackers' preparation, travel, and movements comes from his confessions to the Mumbai police.On 12 February 2009 Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Pakistani national Javed Iqbal, who acquired VoIP phones in Spain for the Mumbai attackers, and Hamad Ameen Sadiq, who had facilitated money transfer for the attack, had been arrested. Two other men known as Khan and Riaz, but whose full names were not given, were also arrested.
Two Pakistanis were arrested in Brescia
Brescia
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
, Italy (north-west of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
), on 21 November 2009, after being accused of providing logistical support to the attacks and transferring over US$200 to internet accounts using a false ID. They had Red Corner Notices issued against them by Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
for their suspected involvement and it was issued after the last year's strikes.
In October 2009, two Chicago men were arrested and charged by the FBI for involvement in terrorism abroad, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana
Tahawwur Hussain Rana
Tahawwur Hussain Rana is a Pakistani Canadian resident of Chicago, USA who was convicted of providing support to banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and plotting an attack on Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten....
. Headley, a Pakistani-American, was charged in November 2009 with scouting locations for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Headley is reported to have posed as an American Jew and is believed to have links with militant Islamist groups based in Bangladesh. On 18 March 2010, Headley pled guilty to a dozen charges against him thereby avoiding going to trial.
In December 2009, the FBI charged Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani army, for planning the terror attacks in association with Headley.
On 15 January 2010, in a successful snatch operation R&AW agents nabbed Sheikh Abdul Khwaja, one of the handlers of the 26/11 attacks, chief of HuJI
HUJI
Huji or HUJI may refer to:*Hebrew University of Jerusalem, university in Israel*Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Islamic fundamentalist organization*Hukou system , household registration system in mainland China and the Republic of China...
India operations and a most wanted terror suspect in India, from Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
, Sri Lanka, and brought him over to Hyderabad, India for formal arrest.
Casualties and compensation
At least 166 victims (civilians and security personnel) and nine attackers were killed in the attacks. Among the dead were 28 foreign nationals from 10 countries. One attacker was captured. The bodies of many of the dead hostages showed signs of torture or disfigurement. A number of those killed were notable figures in business, media, and security services.The government of Maharashtra
Government of Maharashtra
Government of Maharashtra is the government for the state of Maharashtra in Western India.It is an elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the legislative assembly for a 5 year term.-Ministers:...
announced about as compensation to the kin of each of those killed in the terror attacks and about to the seriously injured. In August 2009, Indian Hotels Company and the Oberoi Group received about $28 million USD as part-payment of the insurance claims, on account of the attacks on Taj Mahal and Trident, from General Insurance Corporation of India.
Aftermath
The attacks are sometimes referred to in India as "26/11", after the date in 2008 that they began and the nomenclature behind the 9/11 attacks (akin to that of the 3/11 attack in Madrid). The Pradhan Inquiry CommissionPradhan Inquiry Commission
Officially known as the High-Level Enquiry Committee on 26/11, the Pradhan Inquiry Commission was appointed by the Maharashtra Government on December 30, 2008, to probe the response to the 2008 Mumbai attacks....
, appointed by the Maharashtra government, produced a report that was tabled before the legislative assembly
Vidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the provincial legislature in the different states of India. The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the union territories, Delhi and Pondicherry...
over one year after the events. The report said the "war-like" attack was beyond the capacity of any police force, but it also found fault with the Mumbai Police Commissionaer Hasan Gafoor
Hasan Gafoor
Hasan Gafoor was the Director General of Police of Maharashtra . Previously he was the Director General of Police of Maharashtra and managing director of the Maharashtra Police Housing & Welfare Corporation. He was the Police Commissioner of Mumbai, but was promoted as an aftermath of the November...
's lack of leadership during the crisis.
The Maharashtra government planned to buy 36 speed boats to patrol the coastal areas and several helicopters for the same purpose. It also planned to create an anti-terror force called "Force One" and upgrade all the weapons that Mumbai police currently have. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
on an all-party conference declared that legal framework would be strengthened in the battle against terrorism and a federal anti-terrorist intelligence and investigation agency, like the FBI, will be set up soon to coordinate action against terrorism. The government strengthened anti-terror laws with UAPA 2008, and the federal National Investigation Agency
National Investigation Agency
National Investigation Agency is a federal agency approved by the Indian Government to combat terror in India. The agency is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states. The National Investigation Agency Bill 2008 to create the agency was...
was formed.
The attacks further strained India's slowly recovering relationship with Pakistan. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current Lok Sabha.Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India,...
declared that India may indulge in military strikes against terror camps in Pakistan to protect its territorial integrity. There were also after-effects on the United States's relationships with both countries, the US-led NATO war in Afghanistan, and on the Global War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. FBI chief Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III is the 6th and current Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Early life:...
praised the "unprecedented cooperation" between American and Indian intelligence agencies over Mumbai terror attack probe. Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
secretary general Ronald Noble
Ronald Noble
Ronald Kenneth Noble is an American law enforcement officer, and the current Secretary General of INTERPOL.-Biography:...
indicated Indian intelligence agencies did not share any information with them.
Movement of troops
Pakistan moved troops towards the border with India border voicing concerns about the Indian government's possible plans to launch attacks on Pakistani soil if it did not cooperate. After days of talks, the Pakistan government, however, decided to start moving troops away from the border.Reactions
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
commented on its front page that "Our politicians fiddle as innocents die." Political reactions in Mumbai and India included a range of resignations and political changes, including the resignations of Minister for Home Affairs
Minister for Home Affairs (India)
The Home Minister, or more properly the Minister for Home Affairs, is a position in the Indian Cabinet, at both State and Union levels. The Home Ministry is one of the most important, powerful and high profile ministry after the Prime Minister...
Shivraj Patil
Shivraj Patil
Shivraj Vishwanath Patil is an Indian politician and current state Punjab governor and the Administrator of Union Territory of Chandigarh. Previously he had been the Speaker of the 11th Lok Sabha and served the Manmohan Singh cabinet as the Union Minister of Home Affairs...
, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh
Vilasrao Deshmukh
Vilasrao Dagadojirao Deshmukh , popularly known as Vilasrao is the current Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences....
and Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil
R. R. Patil
Raosaheb Ramrao Patil, better known as R. R. Patil , is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He is a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party. He became Home Minister of Maharashtra for the second time after the 2009 Maharashtra assembly election victory of the Congress-NCP alliance...
for controversial reactions to the attack including taking the former's son and Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
director Ram Gopal Verma to tour the damaged Taj Mahal and the latters remarks that the attacks were not a big deal in such a large city. Prominent Muslim personalities such as Bollywood actor Aamir Khan
Aamir Khan
Aamir Hussain Khan is an Indian film actor, director and producer who has established himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema....
appealed to their community members in the country to observe Eid al-Adha as a day of mourning on 9 December. The business establishment also reacted, with changes to transport, and requests for an increase in self-defense capabilities. The attacks also triggered a chain of citizens' movements across India such as the India Today Group's
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
"War Against Terror" campaign. There were vigils held across all of India with candles and placards commemorating the victims of the attacks. The NSG commandos based in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
were delayed by more than 6 hours due to the lack of adequate emergency transport facility and detailed maps and took almost 10 hours to reach the 3 sites under attack.
International reaction for the attacks was widespread, with many countries and international organisations condemning the attacks and expressing their condolences to the civilian victims. Many important personalities around the world also condemned the attacks.
Media coverage highlighted the use of new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
and Internet social networking tools, including Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
, in spreading information about the attacks. In addition, many Indian bloggers and Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
offered live textual coverage of the attacks. A map of the attacks was set up by a web journalist using Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, in July 2009, described the event as "what may be the most well-documented terrorist attack anywhere."
In November 2010, families of American victims of the attacks filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn, New York, naming Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, chief of the I.S.I., as being complicit in the Mumbai attacks. On September 22, 2011, the attack on the American Embassy in Afghanistan, was attributed to Pakistan via cell phone records identical to the attacks in Mumbai, also linked to Pakistan. The investigation continues.
Kasab's trial
Kasab's trial was delayed due to legal issues, as many Indian lawyers were unwilling to represent him. A Mumbai Bar Association passed a resolution proclaiming that none of its members would represent Kasab. However, the Chief Justice of India stated that Kasab needed a lawyer for a fair trial. A lawyer for Kasab was eventually found, but was replaced due to a conflict of interest. On 25 February 2009, Indian investigators filed an 11,000-page chargesheetChargesheet
A Chargesheet is a formal document of accusation prepared by a law-enforcement agency in India. It is distinct from the First Information Report , usually refers to one or more FIRs, and charges an individual or organization for the crimes specified in those FIR...
, formally charging Kasab with murder, conspiracy, and waging war against India among other charges.
Kasab's trial began on 6 May 2009. He initially pleaded not guilty, but later admitted his guilt on 20 July 2009. He initially apologized for the attacks and claimed that he deserved the death penalty for his crimes, but later retracted these claims, saying that he had been tortured by police to force his confession, and that he had been arrested while roaming the beach. The court had accepted his plea, but due to the lack of completeness within his admittance, the judge had deemed that many of the 86 charges were not addressed and therefore the trial continued.
Kasab was convicted of all 86 charges on 3 May 2010. He was found guilty of murder for directly killing seven people, conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of the 166 people killed in the three-day terror siege, waging war against India, causing terror, and of conspiracy to murder two high-ranking police officers. On 6 May 2010, he was sentenced to death by hanging.
However, he appealed his sentence at high court.On 21 February 2011, the Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court at Mumbai, Maharashtra, is the High Court of India with jurisdiction over the states of Maharashtra & Goa, and, the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli...
upheld the death sentence of Kasab, dismissing his appeal.
Trials in Pakistan
Indian and Pakistani police have exchanged DNA evidence, photographs and items found with the attackers to piece together a detailed portrait of the Mumbai plot. Police in Pakistan have arrested seven people, including Hammad Amin Sadiq, a homeopathic pharmacist, who arranged bank accounts and secured supplies. Sadiq and six others begin their formal trial on 3 October 2009 in Pakistan, though Indian authorities say the prosecution stops well short of top Lashkar leaders. In November 2009, Indian Prime MinisterPrime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
said that Pakistan has not done enough to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice.
On the eve of the first anniversary of 26/11, a Pakistani anti-terror court formally charged seven accused, including LeT operations commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi
Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi
Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, sometimes referred to as Abdullah Azam or Zaki ur Rehman Lakhwi, is a founding member of Lashkar-e-Taiba and currently serves as Supreme Commander of operations in Kashmir and as a member of LeT's General Council....
.
Trials in U.S.A.
The LeT operative David HeadleyDavid Headley
David Coleman Headley, formerly known as Daood Sayed Gilani, is a Chicago-based Pakistani American,who conspired with Lashkar-e-Taibaand, he claims, Pakistani military officers...
in his testimony before a Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
federal court during co-accused Tahawwur Rana's trial revealed that Mumbai Chabad House
Chabad house
A Chabad house is a centre for disseminating Orthodox Judaism by the Chabad movement. Chabad Houses are run by the local Shaliach , who was sent to that place by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who founded all Chabad Houses...
was added to the list of targets for surveillance given by his Inter Services Intelligence handler Major Iqbal, though the Oberoi hotel, one of the sites attacked, was not originally on the list.
On June 10, 2011, Tahawwur Rana was acquitted of plotting the 2008 Mumbai attacks, but was held guilty on two other charges.
Locations
All the incidents except the explosion at Vile ParleVile Parle
Vile Parle , also known as "Parla", is a suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle is also the name of the railway station in this suburb, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. The name "Vile Parle" has...
took place in downtown South Mumbai
South Mumbai
South Mumbai , sometimes incorrectly referred to by English Media as "SoBo" , the southern-most precinct of the city of Mumbai, India, comprises the city's main business localities and its adjoining areas...
.
- Oberoi TridentOberoi TridentThe Oberoi and Trident are two brands of five star hotels operated and sometimes owned by the Oberoi Hotels & Resorts located in several cities in India and across the world...
at Nariman PointNariman PointNariman Point is Mumbai's premier business district and country's first central business district. It was named after Khursheed Framji Nariman, a Parsi visionary. The area is situated on land reclaimed from the sea. It had the distinction of having the highest commercial real estate rental space...
; 18.927118°N 72.820618°W - Taj Mahal Palace & TowerTaj Mahal Palace & TowerThe Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is a five-star hotel located in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, next to the Gateway of India. Part of the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, this building is considered the flagship property of the group and contains 565 rooms...
near the Gateway of IndiaGateway of IndiaIts design is a combination of both Hindu and Muslim architectural styles, the arch is in Muslim style while the decorations are in Hindu style. The Gateway is built from yellow basalt and reinforced concrete. The stone was locally obtained, and the perforated screens were brought from Gwalior.The...
; 18.921739°N 72.83331°W - Leopold CafeLeopold CafeThe Leopold Cafe is a large and popular restaurant and bar on Colaba Causeway, in the Fort area of Mumbai, India, located across from the Colaba Police station.It was one of the first sites attacked during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks...
, a popular tourist restaurant in ColabaColabaColaba is a part of the city of Mumbai, India, and also a Lok Sabha constituency. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Candil...
; 18.922272°N 72.831566°W - Chhatrapati Shivaji TerminusChhatrapati Shivaji TerminusThe Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
(CST) railway station; 18.940631°N 72.836426°W (express train terminus), 18.94061°N 72.835343°W (suburban terminus) - Badruddin Tayabji Lane behind the Times of India building.18.942117°N 72.833734°W
- Near St. Xavier's College 18.943919°N 72.831942°W.
- Cama and Albless HospitalCama HospitalThe Cama & Albless Hospital is a major hospital for women and children in the city of Mumbai, India, with 367 beds.-History:It was attacked during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. It appears that the situation at Cama Hospital has been resolved as of Thursday morning; however, it is unknown whether the...
; 18.94266°N 72.832993°W - Nariman HouseNariman HouseThe Nariman House , renamed as Chabad House , is a five-story landmark in the Colaba area in southern Mumbai, India. The building was home to a Chabad house, a Jewish outreach center run by Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, and they have owned the Building since around 2006. The center had an...
(Chabad HouseChabad houseA Chabad house is a centre for disseminating Orthodox Judaism by the Chabad movement. Chabad Houses are run by the local Shaliach , who was sent to that place by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who founded all Chabad Houses...
) Jewish outreach center; 18.916517°N 72.827682°W - Metro Cinema 18.943178°N 72.829474°W
- MazagaonMazagaonMazagaon, also spelled Mazgaon and Mazagon , and pronounced by the Catholics as 'Mazgon' or 'Maz-a-gon' and the Marathi-speakers as Mazhgav. It is one of the seven islands of Mumbai. It is part of South Mumbai and can be reached by Byculla Station on the Central railway line and Dockyard Road...
docks in Mumbai's port area; - Vile ParleVile ParleVile Parle , also known as "Parla", is a suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle is also the name of the railway station in this suburb, on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Western Railway railway line. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. The name "Vile Parle" has...
near the airport
Memorials
- On the first anniversary of the event, the state paid homage to the victims of the attack. Force OneForce OneThe Force One is an elite commando force, which is a specialised counter terrorism unit to guard the Mumbai metropolitan area, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, formed by Government of Maharashtra on the lines of National Security Guards...
—a new security force created by the Maharashtra government—staged a parade from Nariman Point to Chowpatty. Other memorials and candlelight vigilCandlelight vigilA candlelight vigil is an outdoor assembly of people carrying candles, held after sunset. Such events are typically held either to protest the suffering of some marginalized group of people, or in memory of lives lost to some disease, disaster, massacre or other tragedy. In the latter case, the...
s were also organised at the various locations where the attacks occurred.
- On the second anniversary of the event, homage was again paid to the victims. Security forces were also displayed from Nariman Point.
- On the day following third anniversary, flash mobFlash mobA flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, artistic expression...
was held at at Chhatrapati Shivaji TerminusChhatrapati Shivaji TerminusThe Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
. The mob saw group of 200 dancers were seen grooving to the Rang De BasantiRang De BasantiRang De Basanti is a 2006 Indian drama film written and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. It features an ensemble cast comprising Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth Narayan, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni and British actress Alice Patten in the lead roles...
title track. The group wanted to pay tribute to the people who lost their lives in attacks.
See also
- Survivor registrySurvivor registryA survivor registry is a list of survivors of a disaster. This assists families and acquaintances in re-establishing contact, after they have been separatedby the disruption caused by the disaster.-Holocaust:...
- 2011 Mumbai Bombings2011 Mumbai bombingsThe 2011 Mumbai bombings were a series of three coordinated bomb explosions at different locations in Mumbai, India, on 13 July 2011 between 18:54 and 19:06 IST...
External links
- Channel 4 documentary by Dan Reed – 'Terror in Mumbai'
- Video showing the way in which Indian authorities fought back against the attackers. – CNN-IBN (some Hindi, but mostly English).
- Dossier of evidence collected by investigating agencies of India
- List of Blogs & Bloggers who were live blogging during the attacks
- If Each Of Us Had A Gun We Could Help Combat Terrorism – Journalist Richard Munday talks about the horrific terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India