Mumbai terror op nearly over, says general
An Indian army general said today anti-terrorist operations against the gunmen who killed at least 119 people in Mumbai should be over within a few hours.
The comments by Lt Gen N Thamburaj came shortly after teams of commandos dropped from helicopters on to the roof of the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group, and as foreign hostages were being escorted from the luxury Oberoi hotel.
Both places had been attacked by the gunmen on Wednesday.
At the Oberoi, at least 25 captives were rushed out and loaded into waiting cars, buses and ambulances.
The group, many clutching passports, included at least two Americans, a Briton, two Japanese and several Indians.
Two women were dressed in black abayas, traditional Muslim women’s garments.
“I didn’t see anything. I just heard loud blasts,” said a man who smiled and waved to reporters.
He said he was British, but declined to identify himself. “I was in my room. I didn’t get out till an hour ago.”
The emergency began when suspected Islamic militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai.
Hundreds of people had been held captive in the Oberoi and the Taj luxury hotels, many locking themselves in their rooms or trying to hide as the gunmen roamed the buildings.
One victim was British-Cypriot Andreas Dionysiou Liveras, 73, the owner of a luxury yacht business.
Mr Liveras, who was attending a conference, had spoken to the BBC from a locked room inside the Taj Hotel before he was killed.
“As we sat at the table we heard the machine gun fire outside in the corridor. We hid under the table and then they switched all the lights off. ... All we know is the bombs are next door and the hotel is shaking every time a bomb goes off,” he said.
At the headquarters of ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, a commando assault began shortly after dawn, following a tense night in which six trucks of soldiers had been brought in to surround the building.
Snipers stationed in buildings opposite the centre began the attack, with sustained fire on the building as at least nine commandos lowered themselves by rope on to the roof from a circling Indian air force helicopter.
Hundreds of onlookers, many with binoculars, crowded on to the roofs and in narrow alleys of southern Mumbai, trying to catch a glimpse of the dramatic assault.
It was not immediately clear whether there were hostages in the building or their fate.
Yesterday, two workers and a child escaped from the building, the only people to emerge so far.
The child was identified as Moshe Holtzberg, two, the son of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the main representative at Chabad house. The child was unharmed, but his clothes were soaked in blood.
The well-co-ordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen that started on Wednesday left the city shellshocked, but the sporadic gunfire and explosions at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels dwindled overnight, indicating the sieges there might be winding down.
Security forces searched room by room at the hotels – two of the top gathering spots for the Mumbai elite – but there were no gun battles or blasts. Commandos had spent much of yesterday bringing out hostages, trapped guests and corpses from the hotels in small groups while firefighters battled flames that erupted. The fires were out by today.
The Maharashtra state home ministry said dozens of hostages had been freed from the Oberoi and dozens more were still trapped inside. More than 400 people were brought out of the Taj Mahal yesterday.
Authorities said they had killed three gunmen at the Taj. However, army commanders said they believed there were still two or three more militants in the Taj and about 15 civilians. “We need to get them out of the rooms they have locked themselves into,” said Brigadier Bobby Mathews.
State authorities said 119 people had died and 288 were injured in the attacks.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh blamed “external forces” for the violence – a phrase sometimes used to refer to Pakistani militants, on whom Indian authorities often blame attacks.
The gunmen were well-prepared, even carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy during the fight. Their main targets appeared to be Americans, Britons and Jews, though most of the dead seemed to be Indians and foreign tourists caught in the random gunfire.
The gunmen – some of whom strode casually through their targets in khakis and T-shirts – clearly came ready for a siege.
“They have AK-47s and grenades. They have bags full of grenades and have come fully prepared,” said Maj Gen RK Hooda.
Ratan Tata, who runs the company that owns the elegant Taj Mahal, said they had detailed knowledge of the layout of the hotels.
The attacks began at about 9.20pm on Wednesday with the gunmen spraying bullets across the Chhatrapati Shivaji station, one of the world’s busiest terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes – the Jewish centre, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. There were 10 targets in all.
Indian media reports said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility in emails to several media outlets. The Deccan is a region in southern India that was traditionally ruled by Muslim kings.
