Mumbai Terror Attacks by Lata Jagtiani

Author:Lata Jagtiani [Jagtiani, Lata]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rupa & Co.
Published: 2009-01-31T21:00:00+00:00

Full casualty and injured lists courtesy the Crime Branch, Mumbai Police.

SECTION – III

THE KILLERS

THE TEN TERRORISTS

Unhi ke sheesa-e-dil choor-choor ho ke rahey

Taras rahey they jo, duniya ki dosti ke liye.’

– Makhmoor

It was their own glass hearts that were broken into smithereens

And they were the ones who longed for the world’s friendship.

At least ten men attacked the city of Mumbai for three days, beginning on the night of 26 November 2008, laying siege to the city for fifty-nine punishing and agonising hours. All of them were masquerading as Indian Hindus while they were actually Pakistani Muslims.

Pakistan, described these days as the ‘international migraine1’ and ‘the home and cottage industry of hate,’2 finally admitted that the ten men, between twenty and twenty-eight years were, Pakistanis. However, contrary to Indian evidence, Pakistan stated that nine, not ten men had left Karachi for Mumbai on the morning of 22 November 2008. They didn’t bother to acknowledge the missing tenth man or did expand on how this tenth Pakistani entered the Indian city.

Whether this person was already holed up at Nariman House or Taj Mahal Hotel, only time and investigations can tell. In the duty-log recovered from the Kuber, the name of Imran Babar (the terrorist who attacked Nariman House) is absent. Kasab explained that he was exempted because he had kitchen duties. It may have just as well been one any of the others, since Nasir, Nazeer and Ismail Khan had participated in terror missions earlier.3

Each one of these terrorists travelled with Hindu names on their bogus ID cards. The ID card details have been provided here on the basis of the copy of the charge-sheet filed in the court.

The masterminds behind the operation wanted them to initially pass off as Indians which is why both the ID cards, and the saffron and red wrist-bands were used. They also ensured that the terrorists wore trendy attires so that they would seem to be well-to-do Indian Hindu students from a Hyderabad college. Of course, once they occupied vantage positions, each of them was supposed to don another false persona – of angry and disgruntled Indian Muslims. Under no circumstances, was the truth of their Pakistani origin was to emerge.

Kasab’s interrogation revealed that amongst their various demands was the release of the twenty members of the Indian Mujahideen who are captive in various prisons in India, including the Arthur Road Jail.4 As luck would have it, Ismail Khan, failed to locate a vantage point at CST. Matters worsened for him when some members of the railway police bravely responded to their firing, and then they deteriorated further when his SIM card refused to activate. Ismail Khan was desperately trying to contact Chaccha but he failed to do so due to the SIM’s fortuitous malfunction.5 His failure to receive step-by-step guidance handicapped the duo who were counting on being remote-controlled throughout the mission.

The last thing the Pakistani handlers could have wanted was to see one of these trained and armed mercenary foot-soldiers being caught alive – that was exactly what happened.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.