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Bombay attack: Several unanswered questions remain


fineleg

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From some folks in Rediff: How many terrorists were there? Did they number 20 as Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told a press conference on Thursday? Or did they number many more? If two or three terrorists attacked the CST, how many terrorists were present at the Taj and Trident? Did the CST terrorists drop a grenade/explosive device at Dockyard Road on the way to the station? Or was someone else responsible for that act of terror which claimed three lives? The terrorists are said to have set up control rooms at the Taj and Trident hotels, a Cabinet minister told PTI on Thursday. When were these bookings made? A detailed investigation into the bookings made at both hotels in the months, weeks and days before the attacks may reveal the names of suspicious guests who registered there. Military sources tell rediff.com that there was no way the terrorists could have carried so much ammunition with them when they assaulted the two hotels with their guns blazing. They believe the ammunition may have been stored earlier in rooms at both the hotels, perhaps on the higher floors. If some of the terrorists had registered at the hotels earlier, could these men/women have left along with the guests who were released? Did the police record the identities and addresses of the guests who were released from both hotels? Indian Hotels Chairman Ratan Tata indicated on Thursday that the terrorists had intimate knowledge of the Taj, its service corridors, its layout. Does this mean that they had a mole inside the Taj? Or more worrying, did a couple of them work there at some point of time? Did they have drawings of the layout of the two hotels? If the terrorists were Pakistani, how did they have such an intimate knowledge of the terrain? The two or three cowards who attacked the CST on Wednesday night made their way from the CST through a road on the left side of The Times of India building towards the Cama and Albess hospital/Azad Maidan police station, a route that is known only to true-blood Mumbaikars. Were they locals? Or did they conduct extensive reconnisance of the likely routes of escape? These same two or three men, who are said to have commandeered ATS Chief Hemant Karkare's [images] police Qualis after shooting him, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar, revealed similar familarity with the road outside the Esplanade Court, making an easy U-turn towards the Metro cinema junction rather than head on the road towards the CST. How did they know this if they were Pakistanis? How did those men, whose images have appeared all over the world, get to the CST from Colaba where they are said to have landed by boat? Did they take a taxi? Or did they have local transportation? Did they come by a suburban train, which could explain the firing on one of the suburban train platforms? Who left the grenade on the Gitanjali Express, which killed a Bengali mother? The terrorists are said to have done extensive reconnisance of the city. If they are Pakistanis, how did they get earlier entry to the city unnoticed? Did they come in by boat? Or did they use other routes to escape notice? Such an operation could not have been conducted without extensive training and preparation, possibly on models of the Taj and Trident or Chabad House/Nariman House. Could this have been achieved at the rudimentary training camps hosted by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan occupied Kashmir? Or was it a more systematised operation conducted by a State agency in a hostile country? How did they know Chabad House/Nariman House, which even long-time residents of Colaba -- the area in South Mumbai where the Taj, the Leopold Cafe [images] and Chabad/Nariman House are located -- are unfamiliar with? The choice of this target indicates precision thinking -- it is doubtful if the Lashkar strategists are capable of such deep strategy -- and again points the needle of suspicion at a government intelligence agency in a nation inimical to India or renegades within such a bureau. Early on Thursday morning, the television channels spoke about an exchange of fire between the terrorists and the police near the Liberty cinema (which is close to the Metro cinema/Cama hospital, but situated on an inner road). There was even fear expressed that these terrorists would enter the Bombay hospital, but nothing was heard about them thereafter. Where did they go? Were these two/three terrorists the same men who took over the police Qualis and shot at people near the Metro junction? Or have they escaped? The police say the two men, who took over the Qualis, grabbed the Skoda that was halted at a police road block near the Girgaum Chowpatty [images] beach. One of them was later killed by the police. Where did the other man go? Is he the Ismail, the Lashkar terrorist who is appparently singing like a canary to the police? Or is he someone else? If these are the two of the three terrorists who attacked the CST, what happened to the third man seen in photographs and video captures? Where did he vanish? Another terrorist is said to be in custody. Where was he captured? What has he told the police? The Times of India reported on Friday morning that wellknown food critic Sabina Sehgal-Saikia's cellular phone recorded activity in the Raigad area, which is located across the sea from the Taj, where she was staying on the night of the attacks? Nothing has been heard from Saikia for over a day, so how did her phone reach Raigad? Could one of the terrorists have escaped under the guise of a guest to the Raigad area? Could some of the terrorists have come by boat from the Alibag-Murud Janjira area in Maharashtra's Raigad district, rather than from Pakistan? Boats ply through the day from the Alibaug area to the Gateway of India, and it would be easy for terrorists to use this mode of transport rather than high-speed boats which would have attracted the Coast Guard's attention. If the attacks were restricted to South Mumbai for logistical reasons, who was responsible for the explosion on the taxi near the Santa Cruz airport in northwest Mumbai, which is located at least 25 km from Colaba?

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atleast for a while :(( Not that our commercial capital was safe before this brutal attack.But even they haven't witnessed an attack of this magnitude.
15 years ago - conservative estimates said 300 people died. That is bigger. What is different this time ? (a) high-profile, posh locations have been hit (b) the sheer volume of media coverage has grown a lot since 1993 © foreigners were caught in the mayhem, bringing it Western media attention (d) this is post-9/11/2001; Islamic terrorism is a much more high-profile topic world-over.
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exactly, so u can imagine the kind of people they targeted.. CEO's of major corporations, business tycoons, etc
True, mostly diplomats and people from corporate world. Even some international airline folks as well.
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A Canadian citizen that fled the scene shortly after the terrorist attacks was being interviewed on CNN a while ago. He said something along the lines of, "No matter what happens, i'd always encourage anyone to buy a ticket to Mumbai, they are incredible people and it's an incredible country". These muslim bastards will never break our sense of solidarity.

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A Canadian citizen that fled the scene shortly after the terrorist attacks was being interviewed on CNN a while ago. He said something along the lines of' date='[b'] "No matter what happens, i'd always encourage anyone to buy a ticket to Mumbai, they are incredible people and it's an incredible country".
:two_thumbs_up:
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A Canadian citizen that fled the scene shortly after the terrorist attacks was being interviewed on CNN a while ago. He said something along the lines of, "No matter what happens, i'd always encourage anyone to buy a ticket to Mumbai, they are incredible people and it's an incredible country". These muslim bastards will never break our sense of solidarity.
Good to hear that people didnt lose their frame of reference even after going through such a harrowing experience! Bravado apart, the security situation needs a serious fix or its goodbye to tourism/business.
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I want to know what the real people of mumbai think-THE POOR So many interviews with high class mumbai people. Actor, directors etc They are all outraged. Our country has been soaked with blood over last year from terrorists but not much mentioned. Now the rich and elite feel targeted they are all finally standing up. I would love to know the feelings of the poor of mumbai, what do they think? I heard one elitist say we should no go work in protest. Tell that to the poor, what will they eat then. NDTV interview the real people of mumbai as well not the elite all the time!

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The lives of the poor count for nothing in a third world country like India. People are calling this tragedy India's 9/11. The death count however, is still not as high as the train bombings which happened a few years ago. Mumbai lost 200+ people in those train bombings. The death count in these blasts don't compare, at least not yet. Yet nobody covered those train bombings with the level of interest as they covered these hotel blasts. Back then, no preemptive action was taken, no increase in level of security, which to some extent, explains why we had these blasts today. Even after the Mariott blasts in Islamabad, the security around Mumbai's hotels was beefed up but they still let their guard down a few months later. You see, Indians have a tendency to forget things because they don't value the lives of their citizens. The response to these attacks has been so overwhelming because foreigners and high profile people were involved. That's undeniable, at least for me. A train bombing which kills the common civilian doesn't get this kind of reaction and is brushed off in a matter of weeks. Why should one tragedy hurt more than the other ? Until Indians start valuing the lives of all their citizens, we will never see any real change.

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The lives of the poor count for nothing in a third world country like India. People are calling this tragedy India's 9/11. The death count however, is still not as high as the train bombings which happened a few years ago. Mumbai lost 200+ people in those train bombings. The death count in these blasts don't compare, at least not yet. Yet nobody covered those train bombings with the level of interest as they covered these hotel blasts. Back then, no preemptive action was taken, no increase in level of security, which to some extent, explains why we had these blasts today. Even after the Mariott blasts in Islamabad, the security around Mumbai's hotels was beefed up but they still let their guard down a few months later. You see, Indians have a tendency to forget things because they don't value the lives of their citizens. The response to these attacks has been so overwhelming because foreigners and high profile people were involved. That's undeniable, at least for me. A train bombing which kills the common civilian doesn't get this kind of reaction and is brushed off in a matter of weeks. Why should one tragedy hurt more than the other ? Until Indians start valuing the lives of all their citizens, we will never see any real change.
well said man
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see this time the attack is on different line.. train blast touched poor and middle class.. this attacked touched mainly the upper and high class people... if politicians listen only to rich people, then this time politicians may do something after all.. poor will go on work as usuall... and they should.. its the job of upper middle class and upper class to do the job this time to pressure politicians and other wings..

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see this time the attack is on different line.. train blast touched poor and middle class.. this attacked touched mainly the upper and high class people... if politicians listen only to rich people, then this time politicians may do something after all.. poor will go on work as usuall... and they should.. its the job of upper middle class and upper class to do the job this time to pressure politicians and other wings..
Exactly. This time, the type of victims/people affected has been very very different. Lots of movers and shakers in the business and entertainment world.
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see this time the attack is on different line.. train blast touched poor and middle class.. this attacked touched mainly the upper and high class people... if politicians listen only to rich people, then this time politicians may do something after all.. poor will go on work as usuall... and they should.. its the job of upper middle class and upper class to do the job this time to pressure politicians and other wings..
Actually I would argue this is not about rich and poor but the sheer modus-operandi. Earlier the terrorists would plant bombs, kill innocents and basically become traceless. People would be furious but it was like a quick slash that hurt and somehow we moved on. This time we were stabbed time and again, looked in the eye and stabbed again. This time we couldnt even cuss the terrorists as cowards who planted bombs in children toys and took off. This time we saw evil live and we saw how impotent our Administration is, how gallantly how Armed Forces faught to defend our dignity and basically fought against death without flinching. It wont be forgotten. I sincerely hope this inspires young generation to take to Armed Services hereon. Lord knows we need our very best to defend this great land in a total cess-pool that is otherwise called South Asia. xxx
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