Islamic terrorists target Mumbai Jewish center, kill rabbi, others

NOVEMBER 28, 2008, 9:18 P.M. ET

A Tragic End at Chabad House
Unlike Tightly Guarded Embassies, Mumbai Jewish Center Was a Soft TargetBy YAROSLAV TROFIMOV and SHEFALI ANAND

MUMBAI — Until a few days ago, the Chabad House in Mumbai’s Colaba district was known mainly to the city’s tiny Jewish community, and to the many Israeli backpackers who travel through town.

Now, it’s become a tragic symbol of the death and destruction wrought by Islamist militants on this Indian metropolis.

At the terrorists’ two other main targets, the Taj and Oberoi hotels, many hostages died but most either managed to escape or were eventually rescued by Indian commandos. By contrast, the news emerging from Chabad House is unremittingly bleak: As Indian soldiers battled their way into the building on Friday night, they found no survivors inside.

The Brooklyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch movement has confirmed the deaths of 29-year-old Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, and of his Israeli wife Rivka, 28, who jointly ran the center.

An Israeli official said that, in addition to the couple, the fatalities at Chabad House are believed to include two Israeli kosher ritual inspectors and a visiting Israeli woman who happened to be inside when Islamist militants seized the building Wednesday night.

Positive identification of the victims remained impossible because fighting raged in parts of the five-story structure late into Friday night, said Eli Belotserkovsky, Israel’s deputy chief of mission in India. “There is still no access to the house itself,” he said. “But unfortunately we have very strong evidence — at this stage it seems the five bodies are Israeli.” He said it wasn’t clear whether the five hostages were killed early on in the standoff, or died during the rescue attempt.

The couple’s 2-year-old son, Moshe, escaped the center Thursday, with the building’s cook, Sandra Samuel. The couple has a second son who wasn’t at the center at the time and is also safe, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky said Friday at a news conference at the movement’s world headquarters in Brooklyn.

Like similar Chabad Houses scattered throughout Asia, the Mumbai center focused on persuading Jews — especially the many young Israelis who backpack across India after their mandatory army service — to become more religiously observant. Established by the Holtzbergs two years ago, it provided kosher meals, a prayer hall, and Torah study, as well as a few guest rooms.

The Holtzbergs, who moved to Mumbai in 2003, “gave up the comforts of the West in order to spread Jewish pride in a corner of the world that was a frequent stop for throngs of Israeli tourists,” said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch.

Despite its tight connections with Israel, the Chabad House was a soft target — much easier to hit than tightly guarded Israeli diplomatic missions or the offices of Israel’s El Al airline. “Chabad has no official association with Israel, so they did not have any protection,” Mr. Belotserkovsky said. At the news conference in Brooklyn, Chabad representatives declined to discuss any security measures the organization is taking at its other centers in India. Rabbi Krinsky said, however, that the movement will continue its outreach work.

Shortly after the terrorist takeover of Chabad House, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak offered the Indian government assistance in dealing with the attacks and the subsequent investigation. India so far hasn’t responded to the offer, Mr. Belotserkovsky said. India and Israel have strong defense cooperation ties, and India has long been a major buyer of Israeli weapons.

The tragedy at Chabad House — which had become a key part of Jewish life in the city — has raised fears among India’s tiny Jewish community. “I’m concerned about the safety of our people,” said Jonathon Solomon, chairman of the Mumbai-based Indian Jewish Federation. “Jews are an easy target.”

Community leaders are clamoring for strong government measures to shelter them against similar outrages in the future. “The Indian government should give protection and security to the Jews, as it is a microscopic community,” said Symond Dighodkar, secretary of Beth-El Synagogue in Mumbai.

Chabad House, in a crowded residential neighborhood with a large Muslim population, has been surrounded since early Thursday by Indian security forces. From the top of the building, the terrorists fired into adjoining streets, killing at least three civilians in the area, some of them Muslim.

Hindus, Jews, and Jihad Terror in Mumbai – must read

Hindus, Jews, and Jihad Terror in Mumbai

The jihadist carnage in Mumbai, and some 12,327 other acts of jihad terrorism since 9/11/2001 — motivated by supremacist Islamic doctrine, and the atavistic hatred of Hindus, Jews, and other non-Muslims it inculcates

A must  read article by Andrew Bostom tracing islamic hatred for Hindus and Jews . Click  here

Islamists view Mumbai invasion as clear victory

Mumbai attacks: Jihadists see “invasion” as a triumph

In India, some already call it the “Invasion of Bombay” and their country’s 9/11 moment. This is no exaggeration. For, although the deadly raids on India’s economic capital did not claim as many lives as 9/11 did in New York, the psychological impact is likely to be as potent.

By Amir Taheri
Last Updated: 9:39AM GMT 30 Nov 2008

The “invasion” showed that Islamic terror is capable of organising military-style operations against major urban centres in “infidel territory”.

Since 1993 when they first gathered in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to discuss global strategy, Islamic terrorists have come up with a number of theories on how to defeat the “infidel” and achieve world conquest.

Osama bin Laden had theorised that the “infidel”, led by the United States, would crumble after spectacular attacks designed to cripple its economy, just as the Meccan “infidel” government did when the Prophet Muhammad crushed its resistance with deadly raids, “Ghazwas”, against its trade routes.

However, 9/11 did not lead to an “infidel” retreat. On the contrary, the “Great Satan” hit back, destroying the structures created in Afghanistan to sustain global terror.

That persuaded some al Qaeda leaders that a new strategy was needed. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s number two, started advocating one in 2003, arguing that the Jihad should first target Muslim countries where it had a chance of toppling the “impious” regimes.

Three years later, another theoretician of Jihad, Sheikh Abu-Bakr Naji, proposed his new strategy. This suggests that low intensity war be extended to anywhere in the world with a significant Muslim presence. India, where Muslims account for more than 15 per cent of the population, and Bombay, where 25 per cent of the population is Muslim, are prime candidates for testing that theory.

Naji’s theories are spelled out in his book ‘Edarat al-Wahsh’ (Governance in the Wilderness). The idea is to render places not under “proper Islamic rule” into wildernesses in which no one is safe. The “infidel” and the “impious Muslim”, leaving their homes every morning, should be unsure whether they would return in the evening.

Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition beheadings, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the “infidel” and “impious Muslims”.

Whoever organised the “Invasion of Bombay” must have read Naji with care. For the operation amounted to smorgasbord of terror tactics served at the same banquet. Seizure of territory, holding of hostages, suicide attacks, regular military assaults, and exhibition killing were on show for more than 48 hours.

Islamists see the “Invasion of Bombay” as their victory. In their websites yesterday, many called it “Clear Victory” (Fath al-mobeen), a term used to designate the Prophet’s earliest victories.

The Jihadists have reason to feel triumphant.

They showed that they were still capable of hitting hard and on a grand scale, continuing the chain of their “triumphs” in New York, Madrid and London. They showed that they are able to change tactics and adapt to new circumstances. They made a mockery of the much advertised “counter-terrorism cooperation” between Washington and New Delhi by showing that Indians were not any safer as a result of their government’s alliance with the American ” Great Satan”.

The utter confusion of Indian counter-terrorist units, rushing about like headless chickens, seen live on TV by millions, must have been greeted by Jihadists with their usual war cry of “Allah Akbar!” (Allah is the Greatest).

Just a few weeks ago, Jihadism was in retreat.

It had lost its bases and safe havens in Afghanistan, was under attack in Pakistan’s tribal area, and all but abandoned by the new leadership in Islamabad under President Asif Ali Zardari. Appeals on Jihadist websites for money indicated a cash flow problem while denunciation of Jihadi methods by some leading Muslim theologians affected the flow of new “Volunteers for Martyrdom”. The “invasion” may help ease pressure on Jihadists nested in Pakistan’s tribal area by diverting public attention to India and the dispute over Kashmir.

More importantly, perhaps, the attacks showed the vulnerability of Indian democracy and economic growth which some Muslim intellectuals have been promoting as models for Islamic nations. The Jihadi response is categorical: Only Islam is the solution! (Al-Islam how-al hall).

The “invasion” is certain to persuade some former donors to resume disbursing “zakat” or religious tax that as pious Muslims they feel they should pay for Jihad. It may also attract new recruits, especially among young Muslims of Asian and North African origin in Western Europe.

If the attacks succeed in wrecking Zardari’s efforts at peacemaking while derailing rapprochement between Washington and New Delhi, the “invasion” could also produce an unexpected diplomatic fruit for the Jihadis.

This was a bad week for opponents of Islamic terror. India, Pakistan and other governments concerned should do nothing to make it worse.

*Amir Taheri is author of ‘Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism’. His new book, ‘The Persian Night’, will be published next month.

Islamic terrorists planned to kill 5,000 kafirs, blow up Taj hotel

Terrorists planned to blow up Taj hotel, kill 5,000

NDTV Correspondent
Saturday, November 29, 2008 8:50 PM (Mumbai)
Terrorists who held to ransom the city of Mumbai for over two days and led siege of iconic Taj hotel planned to blow it up like the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, the hotel sources, quoting intelligence agencies told NDTV.

Terrorists who attacked Mumbai wanted an Indian equivalent of the 9/11 attacks on the United States and were also inspired by the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Pakistan.

“So much of ammunition was found in their possession that it is evident they had plans to kill 5,000 people,” Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil told reporters today after the 60-hour siege ended.

The number of terrorists involved in the coordinated attacks is still unclear. According to reports, eight militants have been killed and one suspected attacker has been arrested.

At least 183 people have been killed and over 300 others injured in attacks at 10 sites across the Maximum City, including luxury hotels Taj and Oberoi.

Hotel sources, quoting intelligence agencies, told NDTV that a captured terrorist has confessed to booking rooms in Taj.

The terrorists had reportedly been staying at the iconic hotel from where huge amounts of explosives was found. Sources also said that one of the terrorists had worked at the Oberoi in the past.

Centre govt bid to amend Muslim laws falls flat as no Muslim organization interested

Centre bid to amend Muslim laws falls flat

BY NITIN MAHAJAN

New Delhi

Nov. 25: The Union government’s attempt at making changes in prevailing Muslim laws and its proper implementation in the country has failed to take off. The report of the Law Commission of India recommending the same, which was forwarded to Muslim organisations seeking their opinion last month, has failed to elicit a response.

Law Commission of India member Tahir Mahmood confirmed that the panel was yet to receive a reply from even a single minority institution on the recommendations.

The report was forwarded to the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, All-India Milli Council, All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, to seek an opinion from the community leaders, last month. Apart from the minority institutions, the report was also sent to National Commission for Minorities and Delhi Commission for Minorities.

“In fact, far from receiving a response from any of these organisations, we have just received an acknowledgement from two organisations, the Delhi Commission for Minorities and All-India Milli Council, that they have received the report,” Mr Mehmood added.

Sources stated that the less than forthcoming attitude of the minority institutions means that the process of completion of report by the Law Commission may get delayed.

The move had been described as the Centre’s attempts at appeasing its minority vote bank. Sources claimed that the report was forwarded to these organisations in an effort to avoid any controversy that could erupt by the sensitive subject.

Terrorists free Turkish couple for being Muslims, but kill the non Muslims

Turkish couple let off by terrorists for being Muslims
28 Nov 2008, 0237 hrs IST, Clara Lewis & Anahita Mukherji, TNN

MUMBAI: When faced with a volley of gunshots, while sipping coffee at the Oberoi Hotel on Wednesday night, Ali Arpaciouglu, a Turkish citizen on a  business trip to Mumbai, chose to escape through the hotel kitchen and down a flight of stairs that opened onto the road outside.

This was probably one of the best decisions he took. On the other hand, his business partner, Meltem Muezzinoglu, and her husband, Seyfi, both Turks, when faced with the same situation, decided to dash out of the restaurant and head upstairs instead. When terrorists laid siege to the hotel, the Muezzinoglus were held hostage.

“I was in the Indian restaurant at the Oberoi on Wednesday night, when we heard a couple of gunshots. This was followed by another round of shots,” said Arpaciouglu. Diners ducked under their seats in panic. “One of the hotel staff, a lady whose hand had been wounded in the firing, led a group of us to safety. Though she was bleeding, she took charge of the situation, and led us out of the restaurant, to safety.”

The Muezzinoglus, however, found themselves in a hostage situation, along with a group of foreigners. That night, they shared a room with three foreigners – all women. Two machine-gun-wielding terrorists stood guard over them the whole night.

All the hostages were asked to reveal their religion. When the Muezzinoglus said they were Muslims, their captors told them that they would not be harmed. The other three Caucasian women were removed from the room next day, and the terrorists informed the Muezzinoglus that they had been shot.

Arpaciouglu kept in touch with his friends all through the hostage crisis, up until the time they were released the next day. While the hostages allowed the couple to make one phone call to Arpaciouglu at 3am, for the rest of the day, they relied on text messages. The couples’ final messages read: `Soldiers are here now. Soldiers found us’.

Arpaciouglu said, “I hope I’ll never have to relive this experience.”

Mumbai Islamic terrorists line up and kill 5 chefs: Islam in action

Also click Terrorist asked for water, said thank you with a bullet
They shot 5 chefs after getting their sandwiches
Saturday, November 29, 2008
From Devika Sequeira,DH News Service,Panaji:

It is a moment Kevin Rego will never forget. At 4.30 am on Thursday, he heard his brother Boris dying gasps over the cell-phone after he was gunned down in the Taj Hotel kitchen by the terrorists.

“All he could do was whisper my name twice, and then call out to my dad, before the phone went completely silent at his end,” Kevin told Deccan Herald. Boris Mario, 23, was among the chefs at the Taj Hotel, cold-bloodedly gunned down by the militants. “They forced them into the kitchen sometime after 4.00 am (Friday) and ordered them to make sandwiches
.
“As soon as the chefs had finished, they lined up five of them, including my brother, and shot them down,” Kevin said. Boris’ father Urbano is the top chef for the Taj group in Goa.

Boris had been sneaking telephone calls to his brother and father in Goa, even as the terror-drama unfolded Thursday night, Kevin added.

Tragic note

His 37 years’ loyalty to the company and desire to see his son succeed him has struck a tragic note. Boris often told his father he was going to better him at the job.

The family was in touch with the young chef soon as they heard the news of the terror attack on Wednesday. Till 4.00 am on Thursday, they hung on to the sliver of hope that he would be somehow delivered from the endless nightmare.

“He called us at 4.00 am to say they were in the basement and ready to be evacuated in the next 15 minutes. When we didn’t hear from him we called up at 4.30, but his voice was already faint by then,” Kevin said.
Boris’ body was flown to Goa on Friday. His funeral will take place on Saturday at his village home on the island of Divar.

Hyderabad chef

Meanwhile, Vijay Rao Bhanja, 48, an executive chef at the Taj Hotel, was gunned down by terrorists in the early hours of Thursday. One of his colleagues, who luckily escaped, informed the family about the tragedy, according to agencies. Bhanja’s house at Sainikpuri in Hyderabad plunged into gloom as the family received the shocking news.

He is survived by his wife and a son.

He spoke to his wife late Wednesday night to inform her that he, along with others, was holed up in the hotel but was safe, only to be gunned down a few hours later.

Bhanja’s family was to join him in a few days for a family function in Mumbai.

Muslim terrorist reveals stunning details of Mumbai terror operations

I want to live: Captured terrorist Azam
29 Nov 2008, 0959 hrs IST, MUMBAI MIRROR

MUMBAI: His swaggering image as he walked around Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus dispensing death was captured by Mumbai Mirror photo editor Sebastian D’ souza, and was the first glimpse of the terrorists who have held Mumbai hostage over the last 48 hours.

Now we can also tell you who this man is and how he has become the vital link for investigating agencies to crack the terror plot.

His name is Azam Amir Kasav, he is 21 years old, speaks fluent English, hails from tehsil Gipalpura in Faridkot in Pakistan, and is the only terrorist from this audacious operation to have been captured alive.

An ATS spokesperson confirmed that the man captured was indeed the one photographed by us.

On the night of Wednesday-Thursday Azam and his colleague opened fire at CST before creating havoc at Metro and then moving on to Girgaum Chowpatty in a stolen Skoda, and where they were intercepted by a team from the Gamdevi police station . Azam shot dead assistant police inspector Tukaram Umbale.

But in that encounter Azam’s colleague was killed and he himself was injured in the hand. He pretended to be dead giving rise to the news that two terrorists had been killed. However as the ‘bodies’ were being taken to Nair Hospital, the accompanying cops figured that one of the men was breathing.

According to sources, the casualty ward of Nair hospital was evacuated and the Anti-Terror Squad moved in to interrogate him. Azam who was tight-lipped initially, cracked upon seeing the mutilated body of his colleague and pleaded with the medical staff at Nair to save his life. “I do not want to die,” he reportedly said. “Please put me on saline.”

Ammunition, a satellite phone and a layout plan of CST was recovered from him. According to sources the young terrorist has given theinvestigators vital leads including how the chief planner of the Mumbai terror plot had come to the city a month ago, took picture and filmed strategic locations and trained their group and instructed them to “kill till the last breath.” Every man was given six to seven magazines with fifty bullets each, eight hand grenades per terrorist with one AK-57 , an automaticloading revolver and a supply of dry fruits.

Azam reportedly disclosed that the group left Karachi in one boat and upon reaching Gujarat they hoisted a white flag on their boat and were intercepted by two officers of the coast guard near Porbandar and while they were being questioned one of the terrorists grappled with one of the officers slit his throat and threw the body in the boat. The other officer was told to help the group reach Mumbai. When they were four nautical miles away from Mumbai there were three speedboats waiting for them where the other coastguard officer was killed. All the ammo was then shifted into these three spedboats they reached Colaba jetty on Wednesday night and the ten men broke up into groups of two each. Four of these men went to the Taj Mahal hotel, two of them to the Trident hotel, two towards Nariman House at Colaba and two of which Azam was one moved to CST.

Azam, who was at Nair hospital for nearly four hours, was taken away by the intelligence agencies in the early hours of Thursday to an unknown location after the hospital authorities had removed the bullet from his hand and declared that his condition stable. But it seems the police grilling was so intense that before he left the hospital for an undisclosed location he pleaded with the police and the medical staff to kill him. “Now , I don’t want to live,” he said.
Arrested terrorist says gang hoped to get away
29 Nov 2008, 0515 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI: The gang of terrorists who wreaked mayhem in Mumbai for three days were made to believe by their Lashkar bosses that they were not being sent on a suicide mission and that they would be coming back alive.

In a sensational disclosure made by Ajmal, the jihadi nabbed alive by Mumbai cops, the group had planned to sail out on Thursday. Their recruiters had even charted out the return route for them and stored it on the GPS device which they had used to navigate their way to the Mumbai shoreline.

This suggests that the terrorists were willing to undertake a mission which they knew would be very risky, but not necessarily suicidal.

Sources said that the bait of safe return must have been used by the recruiters to convince the wavering among the group to join the audacious plot against Mumbai.

Ajmal made another important disclosure: that all terrorists were trained in marine warfare along with the special course Daura-e-Shifa conducted by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in what at once transforms the nature of the planning from a routine terror strike and into a specialized raid by commandos.

Battle-hardened ATS officials are surprised by the details of the training the terrorists were put through before being despatched for the macabre mission. This was very different from a terrorist attack, and amounted to an offensive from the seam, said a source.

Ajmal has revealed the name of his fellow jihadis all Pakistani citizens as Abu Ali, Fahad, Omar, Shoaib, Umer, Abu Akasha, Ismail, Abdul Rahman (Bara) and Abdul Rahman (Chhota).

The account of Ajmal also strengthens the doubt of the complicity of powerful elements in the Pakistani establishment. According to him, the group set off on November 21 from an isolated creek near Karachi without the deadly cargo of arms and ammunition they were to use against the innocents in Mumbai. The group received arms and ammunition on board a large Pakistani vessel which picked them up the following day. The vessel, whose ownership is now the subject of an international probe, had four Pakistanis apart from the crew.

A day later, they came across an Indian-owned trawler, Kuber, which was promptly commandeered on the seas. Four of the fishermen who were on the trawler were killed, but its skipper, or tandel in fishermen lingo, Amarjit Singh, was forced to proceed towards India. Amarjit was killed the next day, and Ismail the terrorist who was killed at Girgaum Chowpaty took the wheel.

A trained sailor, Ismail used the GPS to reach Mumbai coast on November 26. The group, however, slowed down its advance as they had reached during the day time while the landing was planned after dusk. The group shifted to inflatable boats, before disembarking at Badhwar Park in Cuffe Parade.

From there, they mandated to kill indiscriminately, particularly white foreign tourists, and spare Muslims split up into five batches. Two of them Ismail and Ajmal took a taxi to Victoria Terminus. Three other batches of two each headed for Oberoi Hotel, Cafe Leopold and Nariman House. The remaining four went to Taj Hotel. End
How attack on Mumbai was planned

November 29, 2008

Investigators working on the Mumbai terror attack have unearthed vital information about how the terrorists managed to enter Mumbai.

The interrogations of the two arrested terrorists, Abu Ismail and Ajmal Kamal, have revealed that 20 men were involved in the terror attack. While eight terrorists set up base in Hotel Trident and Taj Mahal Hotel [Images], 12 others came to Mumbai in a boat.

Intelligence Bureau officials are trying to verify if the terrorists came in through the Persian Gulf.

The arrested terrorists have revealed that they hijacked two fishing boats and used them to come to Mumbai, armed with guns and ammunition.

He further stated that while one of the boats landed at Cuffe Parade near the fishermen’s colony, the other landed at Sassoon dock.

The terrorists had initially planned to send in only one team to carry out the attacks and the other team was to be kept on stand-by.

However, the plan changed at the last minute, and the terrorists decided to execute the terror attacks together, Ismail reportedly told the police.

According to the officials of the Intelligence Bureau, the attacks had been planned in February, and this fact was confirmed by an arrested accused in the CRPF camp attack case. The accused had revealed that a Fidayeen attack had been ordered by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the target was Mumbai.

The accused had told the police that the LeT planned to attack the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Bombay Stock Exchange.

During his interrogation, Ismail admitted that he and his associates had undergone rigourous training for this operation, which had been planned meticulously.

Investigating officials are not ruling out the possibility of local elements providing logistical support to the terrorists.

Ismail further told the investigators that the terrorists had undergone extensive training in using AK-47 and grenades at a camp in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

During the training programme, they were shown the detailed layout of the Taj Mahal Hotel, in order to acquaint them with the topography of the places they would have to attack. After the training at PoK was complete, the entire team was shifted to Karachi, where they received training in sailing as their plan included entering India through the sea route.

Mumbai terror marks of a classic Islamic fidayeen attack

ONE TAJ TERRORIST WAS WORKING AS CHEF

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2008
Who is responsible for Mumbai attacks?
Sandeep Unnithan
New Delhi, November 28, 2008

A A AOver a decade ago, security forces in the Kashmir Valley began battling a new, pernicious form of suicide terrorism—fidayeen (suicide attacker).

This wasn’t someone who walked in with an explosive vest but someone armed with assault rifles, grenades and a fierce motivation to go down fighting, usually holed up inside a building after taking hostages. Such attacks were repeated in assaults on parliament in 2001 and attacks on the Ram Janambhoomi / Babri Masjid Shrine in 2005.

Nearly all the fidayeen attackers were of Pakistani or Afghan origin and belonged to groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Wednesday’s attack on a totally unprepared financial capital bore all the marks of a classic fidayeen attack. “Well trained, highly motivated, determined and certainly not your average terrorist, “ is how Vice Admiral J.S. Bedi, flag officer commanding western naval command described the terrorists holed up inside the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels. He should know.

For over eight hours the terrorists held out against his Marine Commandos—India’s equivalent of the Navy Seals—at bay. They engaged the commandos in a ferocious firefight with military-like precision, without yielding.

The traits that the admiral mentioned are not usually found in home grown terrorists like say the Batla House boys who had to be motivated enough only plant IEDs and sidle away. An operation of this complexity and magnitude—combining aspects from IED attacks to full scale urban assault—could not have been put together by a home-grown terror organisation. This combined with the fact that terrorists chose the sea to infiltrate the city, only adds to the sheer burden of circumstantial evidence against Pakistan-based terrorist organisations like the JeM and LeT, say intelligence analysts.

One of the terrorists insisted that he belonged to an unheard of Deccan Mujahideen, suggesting Indian origin and local grouses—atrocities against Muslims and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. But his accent, which suggested Pakistan origin, and reports that the attackers conversed in Punjabi— were dead giveaways.
ONE TAJ TERRORIST WAS WORKING AS CHEF

India’s Anti- terror Errors — Years of caving to Islamic militants has made the problem worse

“In sum, the Indian approach to terrorism has been consistently
haphazard and weak-kneed. When faced with fundamentalist demands,
India’s democratically elected leaders have regularly preferred
caving to confrontation on a point of principle. The country’s
institutions and culture have abetted a widespread sense of Muslim
separateness from the national mainstream. The country’s diplomats
and soldiers have failed to stabilize the neighborhood. The ongoing
drama in Mumbai underscores the price both Indians and non-Indians
caught unawares must now pay.”
India’s Anti- terror Errors
Years of caving to militants has made the problem worse.
By SADANAND DHUME
From today’s Wall Street Journal Asia

NEW DELHI

As the story of the carnage in Mumbai unfolds, it is tempting to
dismiss it as merely another sorry episode in India’s flailing effort
to combat terrorism. Over the past four years, Islamist groups have
struck in New Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, among other
places. The death toll from terrorism — not counting the 101 killed
in Mumbai on Wednesday and Thursday — stands at over 4,000, which
gives India the dubious distinction of suffering more casualties
since 2004 than any country except Iraq.

But though the attacks highlight India’s particular vulnerability to
terrorist violence, they are also a warning to any country that
values what the city symbolizes for Indians: pluralism, enterprise
and an open society. Put simply, India’s failure to protect its
premier city offers a textbook example for fellow democracies on how
not to deal with militant Islam.

The litany of errors is long. Unlike their counterparts in the West,
or in East Asia, India’s perpetually squabbling leaders have failed
to put national security above partisan politics. The country’s
antiterrorism effort is reactive and episodic rather than proactive
and sustained. Its public discourse on Islam oscillates between crude
anti-Muslim bigotry and mindless sympathy for largely unjustified
Muslim grievance-mongering. Its failure to either charm or cow its
Islamist-friendly neighbors — Pakistan and Bangladesh — reveals a
limited grasp of statecraft. Finally, an inability to modernize a 150-
million strong Muslim population, the second largest after
Indonesia’s, has spawned a community ill-equipped to seize new
economic opportunities and susceptible to militant Islam’s faith-
based appeal.

To be sure, not all of India’s problems are of its own making. In
Pakistan, it has a neighbor founded on the basis of religion, whose
government — along with those of Iran and Saudi Arabia — has long
been one of the world’s principal exporters of militant Islamic
fervor. Bangladesh too hosts a panoply of jihadist groups. As in
Pakistan, public sympathy with the militant Islamic worldview
forestalls any meaningful effort against those who regularly use the
country as a sanctuary to plan mayhem in India. America’s
unsuccessful Pakistan policy — too many carrots and too few sticks —
has also contributed to a fundamentally unstable neighborhood.

Nonetheless, the reflexive Indian response to most every act of
terrorism is to apportion blame rather than to seek a solution that
will prevent, or at least minimize, its recurrence. Even Indonesia —
a still-poor Muslim-majority nation where sympathy for militants runs
deeper than it does in India — has done an infinitely better job of
recognizing that the protection of citizens’ lives is any
government’s first responsibility. A superbly trained federal
antiterrorism force called Detachment 88 has ensured that country has
not suffered a terrorist attack in more than three years.

By contrast, India’s leaders — who invariably swan around with armed
guards paid for by the taxpayer — can’t even agree on a legal
framework to keep the country safe. On taking office in 2004, one of
the first acts of the ruling Congress party was to scrap a federal
antiterrorism law that strengthened witness protection and enhanced
police powers. The Congress party has stalled similar state-level
legislation in the opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party-ruled state of Gujarat. And it was a Congress government that
kowtowed to fundamentalist pressure and made India the first country
to ban Mumbai-born Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” in 1988.

The BJP hasn’t exactly distinguished itself either. In 1999, the
hijacking of an Indian aircraft to then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan led
a BJP government to release three hardened militants, including Omar
Sheikh Saeed, the former London School of Economics student who would
go on to murder Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. More
recently, the BJP, driven by tribal religious solidarity and a
penchant for conspiracy theories, has failed to demand the same tough
treatment for alleged Hindu terrorists as it does for Muslims. Minor
parties, especially those dependent on the Muslim vote, compete to
earn fundamentalists’ favor.

In sum, the Indian approach to terrorism has been consistently
haphazard and weak-kneed. When faced with fundamentalist demands,
India’s democratically elected leaders have regularly preferred
caving to confrontation on a point of principle. The country’s
institutions and culture have abetted a widespread sense of Muslim
separateness from the national mainstream. The country’s diplomats
and soldiers have failed to stabilize the neighborhood. The ongoing
drama in Mumbai underscores the price both Indians and non-Indians
caught unawares must now pay.

Mr. Dhume is a Washington-based writer and the author of “My Friend
the Fanatic: Travels with an Indonesian Islamist” (Text Publishing,
2008).