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Early on Friday morning, sporadic gunfire and explosions continued at a Jewish centre where at least 10 Israelis were trapped or being held hostage.
Police said militants were also still holed up at the Taj Mahal hotel and the nearby Oberoi-Trident hotel along with an unknown number of hostages.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pinned blame for the attacks on militant groups based in India's neighbours, usually an allusion to Pakistan, raising prospects of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.
He warned of "a cost" if these nations did not take action to stop their territory being used to launch such attacks.
An estimated 25 men armed with assault rifles and grenades -- at least some of whom arrived by sea -- fanned out across Mumbai on Wednesday night to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including the city's top two luxury hotels.
Police said at least seven of the attackers were killed and nine suspects had been taken into custody. They said 12 policemen were killed, including Hemant Karkare, chief of the police anti-terrorist squad in Mumbai.
At least six foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national, were killed. Scores of others were trapped in the fighting or were being held hostage.
More than 300 people were wounded.
Commandos battled the militants through Thursday, often room to room in the hotels, to rescue people, police said. Flames billowed out of the buildings and loud explosions were heard during the fighting.
Mumbai, a city of nearly 18 million people that is the nerve-centre of India's growing economic prowess and home to the "Bollywood" film industry, was virtually shut down on Thursday as the battles raged.
But in a reflection of the poverty that sits cheek-by-jowl with the upmarket shops and restaurants in the city, hundreds of people were stretched out asleep on pavements and handcarts near the scenes of fighting.
The sea-facing Marine Drive in front of the Oberoi-Trident is a favoured spot for early morning walks, and some regulars came out for their constitutional despite the tension.
"I hear they (the security forces) have relaxed the rules a little so I came for my morning walk but I did not see any of the regulars," said Raja Ram Patil, 54, a local businessman.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the attack would be met with a "vigorous response".
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama condemned the incident. Obama, who favours a regional solution to the war in Afghanistan and is encouraging Pakistan and India to make peace over Kashmir, was monitoring the situation closely, an aide said. [nLR502129]
The Times of India published a photograph of one of the attackers, dressed in a black T-shirt and holding an assault rifle with a backpack over his shoulder.
At least some of them had come ashore in what police said was a rubber dinghy. They commandeered a vehicle and sprayed passersby with bullets, and fired indiscriminately in a train station, hospitals and a popular tourist cafe.
ANTI-TERRORIST COP
"The situation is still not under control and we are trying to flush out any more terrorists hiding inside the two hotels," said Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Maharashtra.
The death toll was only an estimate in an attack which brought the biggest chaos to the city since serial bombings in 1993 killed 260 people and injured hundreds.
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Licence fisher man and other vessals in sea and teach them stand procedures to follow during emergency. ID all citizens and nobody gets nothing without citizen Photo ID. Map the family tree so that we can track relativies and possible links. Seize property connected to an terrorist. Country which supports software to world dont have a good system. Dont they have any good intellegence agencies. Shame..
Kill them, dont put them in jail. Those who choose violence as their choice dont deserve to live. Shoot any one enters India illegally (drown ships without permit in indian waters), I mean anyone. Never negotiate with terrorist. Define rules for cowed areas of india and standard procedure to follow during emergency. If INDIA can learn from this will not happen again. Else sorry guys...
India first need to think to solve all the disputes with its neighbours i.e China, pakistan and b'desh then secondly introduce a poltical representation to Muslims in country and third then crackdown all the terrorist elements within the country.All these decisions need a poltical will which lacks in india because may not suit the presently dominated poltical parties. If indian politician were really sincere towards people then they would have done it long back. Hope the day will come when this will be reality and peace will prevail in region.
This is the time for all politicians to come together and show maturity in devising means to respond to such terrorism through multiple mechansims, in-terms of prevention,quick-response when an event occurs and post-event teams end to end. All teams dealing with these elements will need to be integrated in one unit under a military head (4th wing of our military establishment). All terrorist activities (and rioting) to be treated as a treason aginst the country and tried through special laws and special courts with severest punishments and with no re-appeals/trials.
Its a shame that this puppet govt. do not care about our guest (foreign delegates or tourist). The prestn puppet govt. only cares about terrorist to get their vote bank
"I could not sleep yesterday night thinking of the plight of the boys who came from Karachi for a visit to Mumbai Taj Hotel. The mumbai police guys mercilessly kept them busy through out the night, not even allowing them to go for a pee..." 1. B Obama2. Osama3. MM Singh4. Asif Zardari
Some people asking why Hemant Karkare was killed. He was killed because he knew too much about the involvement of Congress politicians in the fabrication of charges against innocent Sadhi Pragya, army officer Purohit etc. He appears to have been eliminated at the behest of some Congress politicians, who probably aided these terrorists.
There is no surprise these attacks happened. Sonia Gandhi’s UPA were more keen to prove Hindus (who are actually victims) as ‘terrorists’ in order to hide their failure in dealing with real terrorists. The entire Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) was busy in framing some Hindu monks – who had renounced this world and were doing peaceful meditation - in terrorism cases through some extraordinary fabrication of stories! No wonder the terrorists had a field day – there was no one watching them from the ATS. A patriot army officer, who was doing intelligence work on these terrorists, was locked up and tortured by the UPA politicians. No wonder we had no intelligence on these attacks – the UPA hindered intelligence officers. To say I am outraged is an understatement. Try all UPA goons under treason charges.
Very UNFORTUNATE. I think the attack of such a HUGE magnitude raises questions on the capability
It indeed is a tragic event and no religion or society on earth does allow such crimes. It is a crime and the criminals should be punished, but dont you people think that its too early to say that the terrorists had come via sea from Karachi?? Infact, our own Indian so called "politicians" can go any limit and can cross any lines in order to ripen their vote banks and in order to deviate attention of the innocent public from their own bloody mischiefs. I am sure that the attack was not foreign but from our own black dirty sheep. Keep patience and wait and watch. God will ultimately bring their dirty faces out.
This time our country ... mother land ( mother ) especially innocent sisters and brothers killed by bloody terrorist attach . still people are there to divide the mind Hindu and musillman. this is time to protect ,act , nation from the bloody terrorist people, today onwards we all are one, there is no politics no religion get ready to protect our mother land .
Tomorrow we will wake up in the morning and start our day a-normal. "We are resilient !!", we will exclaim ! "Mumbaikars are resilient to terror attacks !" Media will praise... We are back to normal, these terrorists can not keep us under terror by such acts..... some minister will comment. Is it enough to be resilient. Will we keep on claiming and affirming that we are resilient, to the world and to ourselves. If this happen this time around, I will feel that we are eunuch to be resilient..... We as a nation have faced this strike, its strike on our pride, it is strike on our sovereignity, are we still going to sing songs of human rights for these terrorists?
Why ATS chief HEMENT KARKARE and his team was killed. Terrorist came in boats and killed our best police officer, what a nonsence.............. can any one belive this. Any terror attack on Indian soil is a tragedy for country but its a delight for BJP and RSS family. they get Vote on this innocent blood. Advai need ATS chief removed (or Killed) and ATS go for narco analysis Wake up India before its too late.
Dear Mr. Raj your Mumbai is under threat...Please send YOUR MNS PEOPLE to fight back with TERORIST...please do not beat our brothers BHAIYAS and NORTH INDIAN
A very sad incident has taken place in Mumbai, more than 100 people lost their lives. These people are someones son,daughters, brothers and sisters. Those who carried out this attack are cowards, because they use the name of God to kill his creation.I send signals of shame to these sorts, and i also send signals of shame to theAl-qaida,Simi, RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal likes, because these types of junglee people should be made to like in jungles and not among civilised people.These kind of people belongs to the zoo and not in civilisation.I would not even spit on such people, because they are not people but worse than animals. Every person should throw such elements out of their house into the dustbins.
very sad news, very bad act,
I THINK THE ATTACK IS CONWORTING THE CASE ENQUIRY IN MALLAGAVE FOR OTHER ROUT
No doubt, the event taken place is horrible and is not justifiable at all. In this situation, we people from India should be calm and patient. Police and other systems are doing their work effectively. We should co-operate them. At last they are also men. This is not the proper time to think who are terrorists and who is mistaken. After normalisation of the situation, we have much time to react upon. We must help Govt. now, they are taking proper measures to rescue the people in trouble. At this stage, we can say that terrorism is not the way to demand anything from Govt., due to it, innocent people has to pay irrecoverable cost. India is union in difference.
Indian media is spreading the news, that the terrorists came from karachi via sea, i have one question, does that mean the INS is busy protecting gulf shipping lanes from pirates to leave India exposed on its water fronts. Its laughable how the Indian Media and Government with its inapptitude to protect the countrys people, blames others for its failure.
its shame on thoughts of huminity.. God realy will not give any place to them anywhere.. Wat they want?? There is no any point in pointing towards each others, instead, we should come together nd fight against this all bldy nonsense...
Once again citizens of Mumbai are called upon to muster all the courage and patience to deal with this man-made tragedy. Indian citizens need to elect and re-elect Congress governments so that molly-coddling of Islamic terrorists continue while Congress governments divert people’s attention away from Islamic terrorists by creating a façade of Hindu terrorists. India needs to thank Mahatma Gandhi for installing an infinite reservoir of tolerance to bear not just hundreds or thousands but millions of such terrorist attacks for all time to come.
Mumbai police and Maharashtraian people is paying for their sin committed during last 2 months in the torture of north Indians and torture of the hindu sadhu and sants See all those ATS bosses are now killed Anybody who will touch sadhus will pay like this -
Govt must impliment a strong terrorist eradication progrma to wipe out this devils. Must declare emergency in India and be very cruel to the terrorists
These terrorists should not be killed. They will not feel the pain. Both their hands and legs should be chopped off and should be left alone. They will feel the pain for the rest of their life.
hey guys!!!! why are you mentioning hind terrorists and muslim terrorists? Are they any different from each other? The all are terrorists and deserve no pity. Isn't terming them hindu and muslim terrorists divides them into two equally evils?