The dead toll rose to 101 in the terror attack that struck Mumbai in yet another series of synchronised mayhem that was unleashed in the financial capital of India around midnight on Wednesday. At least 287 people were also injured in India's most audacious terror attack.
Fresh gunshots rang out on Thursday morning at the Taj and Oberoi hotels where security forces battled terrorists holding hostages after a night of horror. As soldiers, police and elite commandos fanned out across the country's commercial capital to rescue hostages and kill terrorists who stormed the city at night and struck at seven sites in the business hub of south Mumbai, one of the terrorists claimed that the attack was to avenge the "persecution" of Muslims in India.
The otherwise bustling city - home to Bollywood - was still on edge after a large but unknown number of terrorists armed with automatic rifles and grenades sneaked into Mumbai by the sea, a clear indication that they must be foreigners.
Desperate to cope with a situation they had never encountered before, the authorities declared a holiday in Mumbai on Thursday. The Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange were ordered closed for the day.
"This is a most audacious attack. It is a very serious situation and gun battles are still on in at least three places," said Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh as leaders around the world denounced the well-planned terrorist operation.
The terrorists began targeting high profile landmarks close to the sea and popular with Western tourists from between 10.15 and 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday. The targets included Hotel Taj, Hotel Oberoi-Trident, Metro Theatre and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station. A grenade was also hurled at a taxi in Vile Parle, destroying it and killing its occupants, and one more attack took place at Mazgaon, a Mumbai suburb. A police van was hijacked.
Panic set in quickly all over the city, which has seen several terror attacks in the past. The outwitted police took them on but suffered losses initially. Among the first to die was Hemant Karkare, the highly regarded Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief heading the controversial probe into bomb attacks in Maharashtra blamed on Hindu radicals.
Among his four colleagues who were also believed to be killed were Additional Police Commissioners Ashok Kamte and Sadanand Date and Mumbai Police officer Vijay Salaskar who was known as "encounter specialist" for killing gangsters.
As police reinforcements rushed to the attack sites, backed by the hurriedly summoned paramilitary and Indian soldiers, 200 commandos of the National Security Guards (NSG) were flown from New Delhi. The NSG is trained to take on terrorists. The security forces killed two terrorists and caught nine. But within a short time, a huge blast was heard on the top floor of the Taj Hotel and a raging fire erupted. Smoke billowed from there even on Thursday.
The situation appeared to be somewhat under control Thursday, with police officers herding several tourists from the two hotels into ambulances and police vehicles to move them to safety. Yet there was no word on how many foreigners were dead but one Western woman - her nationality not known - was reportedly killed at Hotel Taj.
Maharashtra Director General of Police A.N. Roy said: "The terrorists have fired indiscriminately."
Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Ghafoor said AK-47 and AK-56 as well as semi-automatic rifles besides grenades were used in the "coordinated terrorist acts". On Thursday, a five-kilometre radius in south Mumbai, which covers business districts such as Colaba, Cuff Parade, Nariman Point and Churchgate, was cordoned off.
A nationwide alert was sounded following the synchronised attacks that came less than a month after over 50 people died in serial terror bombings in the northeastern state of Assam. |