Thanksgiving in Mumbai
Wow, what a Thanksgiving break.It was good to get a week off of classes and relax. However, for those in Mumbai, India, relaxation is the last thing on their minds. At about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday (November 26th) shooting begins at Chhatrapati Shivaji rail station, one of the world’s busiest, handling thousands of passengers each day. Within the hour, other attacks occur at four other locations: the Nariman House, home of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch; Leopold’s restaurant, a landmark popular with foreigners; the Oberoi hotel, a five-star landmark; the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, a landmark of Mumbai luxury since 1903. At 10:50 p.m. shooting breaks out near Times of India newspaper offices in southern part of the city, quickly followed by attacks near the Bombay Municipal Corporation, the civic body that governs Mumbai, and the Cama hospital in southern Mumbai and the GT hospital in the city center. Just after midnight gunman attack the Vidhan Sabha, the legislative assembly, the lower house of state legislature in India. Around 3 a.m. Thursday, large fire breaks out at the Taj hotel and an hour later authorities begin escorting people out of the Taj hotel. At 9:15 a.m. Indian security forces are brought in to try to retake the Taj Mahal Palace hotel and the Oberoi hotel. About 10:30 a.m., members of the National Security Guard start doing room-to-room searches at the Taj hotel and within the hour surround the Nariman House and local media shows people being rescued from the Oberoi hotel. But we will stop there, around noon on Thursday, halfway through. Media report says little-known group Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for Mumbai terror attacks. However, a U.S. counterterrorism official said the attack might be tied to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (Army of the Pure), an Islamic extremist group that has carried out previous attacks in India.
LeT, as the group is known, is thought to have been responsible for a string of bombs that ripped through packed Mumbai commuter trains and platforms in July 2006, killing more than 200 people.
The group denied involvement in the attacks Thursday.
“The LeT has no links with Deccan Mujahideen,” a caller identifying himself as Abdulla Ghaznavi, an LeT spokesman, told CNN. He said the group condemns the Mumbai attacks and demands an international inquiry into them.
In numerous reports, some survivors shared their stories.
“We were at dinner when we heard shots fired. There was gunfire and explosions. We stayed on the floor, many were lying under tables, under furniture, and the hotel staff told us to be quiet,” said Cheryl Robinson, a British tourist who was trapped inside Mumbai’s Taj Mahal hotel with two friends. “The hotel staff were stupendous. They locked the doors and warned us to sit tight.”
She said restaurants and rooms were flooded with water after a pipe burst in the chaos of the gunshots and blasts. “We lay down in the water. We could hear the sound of people running outside. It was terrifying.”
Seven long hours later, a barefoot Robinson shivered as she stood outside the burning but still majestic stone-columned hotel that belched out black smoke from shattered windows. Soldiers and firefighters helped her and several others to climb down ladders and escape the blazing edifice as the firing continued inside.
A clutch of weeping tourists from Spain, Italy and Britain, also barefoot, huddled together holding bottles of water and haversacks. They waved away journalists eager for news.
At another Mumbai landmark, the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, Nasim Inam’s hands shook as he spoke of seeing commuters mowed down while walking to catch the late trains home.
Four young men carrying big guns and wearing black T-shirts and blue jeans rushed in, Inam said. “They just fired randomly at people and then ran away. In seconds, people fell to the ground.”
Sobbing and shaking his head, he said the attackers were 25 years old at the most.
“They were so young. They were young boys,” said Inam. “I was standing behind. I was just behind. If they had turned around, it would have been me.”
Just a few miles (kilometers) away, eyewitnesses said gunmen hijacked a police van then opened fire on crowds that had collected near two hospitals close to the police headquarters.
“We felt the ground shake and heard the explosions,” said Manish Tripathi, at a police cordon near one of the hospitals. “We heard a car speed up behind us, it was a police van, but the men inside were firing at us.”
He said in seconds people around him were shot at. “Men were screaming that they had lost their fingers. There was blood all over,” said Tripathi who escaped unhurt. “Some were shot in the leg, some on the shoulder or hand. I feel they are still screaming.”
Inside the two Mumbai hotels and the railway station, green uniformed soldiers in helmets took over from the khaki-uniformed police who moved out to patrol the streets and warned residents to stay indoors.
The state government has ordered schools and colleges closed Thursday.
Opposite the multistory Oberoi hotel, a tense college student Preet Desai paced on a deserted promenade as dawn broke. He said a friend’s father was inside the hotel at a business meeting when shots were fired.
“My friend is shattered. His dad is not answering his cell. What do we do?” said Desai. “Do you know anyone in the hotel who can give us information, any information?”
Above from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081127/ap_on_re_as/as_india_shooting_scene
Conservative MEP Sajjad Karim was part of a European Parliament trade delegation staying at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in India’s financial capital when the gunmen burst in.
He told BBC radio: “I walked out of the front doors, then all of a sudden there was gunshots that we could hear from outside the main grounds of the hotel.
“We were directed back into the hotel. At a guess at least one managed to get past security.
“(There were) a lot of people then all of a sudden (we) started running towards the rear exit.
“As we got to the rear exit another gunman came in who was carrying an automatic machine gun type of weapon and he just started firing that, quite indiscriminately really.”
Karim, MEP for northwest England, said: “Nothing was being said. There was a lot of shouting and screaming and panic amongst people in the main lobby area.
“We managed to get away, get around a corner and into a nearby kitchen area.
“The gunmen then made their way into the main area of the hotel and through to the rooms… (they) made their way along the corridors, and they were entering rooms and firing and security guards were exchanging fire with them.”
Karim had said earlier that he had taken refuge in a restaurant basement with other guests and they had barricaded the doors.
Another member of the delegation, Syed Kamall, a Conservative MEP for London, told the Times newspaper he feared for the safety of his colleagues after losing contact with them.
“We have heard that at least three staff from the hotel were shot dead,” he said.
Above from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081127/wl_uk_afp/indiaattacksbritaineuhotel
Pakistan and the US have both condemned the attacks, and Australia has offered Counter-Terrorism police. So, what has Obama said on this event? Technically, nothing…
“These coordinated attacks on innocent civilians demonstrate the grave and urgent threat of terrorism,” she (Obama’s aide) said. “The United States must continue to strengthen our partnerships with India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks.
“We stand with the people of India.”
The White House also denounced the attacks, which targeted sites frequented by Western tourists, and said it was seeking further information.
President George W. Bush, who left earlier to spend this week’s Thanksgiving holiday at the presidential retreat at Camp David, was briefed on developments in Mumbai, the White House said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was closely monitoring the situation, a State Department official said.
The Secretary will be reaching out to officials at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and at the consulate in Mumbai. She will be reaching out to Indian government officials as well. The situation on the ground is extremely fluid,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the government “stands ready to support the Indian authorities as they deal with this horrific set of attacks.” He said at this point, the State Department was not aware of any U.S. casualties.
Above from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081126/india_nm/india367221
“He continues to monitor the situation closely and appreciates the cooperation and information sharing from the (George W. Bush) administration,” the aide said.
Above from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081127/ts_alt_afp/indiaattacksusobama
Luckily now, according to this report,
A 60-hour terror rampage across India’s financial capital ended Saturday when commandos killed the last three gunmen holed up in a luxury hotel engulfed in flames. At least 195 people died.
Above from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_re_as/as_india_shooting
Something really amazing about this event was how Twitter was used to spread news. Check out this page, http://search.twitter.com/search?max_id=1026687565&page=1&q=%23mumbai, and get live news as reported by those in the attacked areas. For those of you who believe the media is corrupt, this Twitter page gives you un-biased reporting from people like you and me. Also, check out this Google Doc, http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p_esnE-3Z3p-HehX1YOZIaw, to get updates on the dead and injured. This can be monitored by friends and families in real time. This is a really good idea. Something like this was needed desperately after 9/11 when people flocked to the city after in hopes of finding missing loved ones.
These attacks made the worry about the threats on the New York City Subways disappear.
Police bolstered security in subways and trains Wednesday after the government warned that al-Qaida suicide bombers were contemplating an attack on New York’s mass-transit systems during the holiday season. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.
The internal bulletin says al-Qaida terrorists “in late September may have discussed targeting transit systems in and around New York City. These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems,” according to the document.
I guess they should have paid more attention to those Mumbai reports…
