Facts about the November 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks
Dates
The attacks began around 9:40 p.m. on Wednesday, November 26, 2008.
The last of the attacks was declared at an end on the following Saturday morning, November 29.
The Targets
There were multiple, coordinated attacks on targets across Mumbai, India’s largest city, financial capital, and home to the Bollywood film industry.
The most notable targets were:
1. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus – formerly known as Victoria Station
2. The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel
3. Leopold Café
4. The Trident-Oberoi Hotel
5. Nariman House, a Jewish community center
6. Cama Hospital
There were also shootings in the streets and strikes on many other locations.
The Gunmen
Just 10 gunmen, Indian authorities say, were responsible for the attacks. Many people dispute this figure, arguing that help from others must have been necessary to gain access and carry out the attacks.
They came by boat from Pakistan and on landing in Mumbai Harbour, split up into pairs and spread out across the city.
They were from Jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure). Despite their proclaimed Islamist agenda, there were scores of Muslims amongst their victims. The bodies of the nine gunmen who were killed remain unclaimed, in Mumbai’s morgue: the Indian Islamic Council has declined to give them an Islamic burial.
The lone surviving gunman, 21-year old, Azam Amir Kasab is currently on trial in India, on a host of charges ranging from making war on India to fare evasion at Victoria Station.
The Course of the Attacks
The attacks were mounted within minutes of each other. Some were straight out attacks, such as the strike on Victoria Station and the Leopold Café. At The Taj Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House, there were multiple killings as the gunmen entered the buildings and then a state of siege developed. In both hotels, the gunmen went from floor to floor and room to room seeking out targets. They also lit fires and threw grenades. Many people perished in the smoke.
Hundreds of people caught up in the attacks later reported that their mobile phones had been critical to their survival. The ability to access information literally meant the difference between life and death. News reports gathered instantly from all over the world informed those suddenly caught up in the terror, that this was not a hit and run attack, that the gunmen were still in the building and to stay in hiding until they were told it was safe to leave.
Shockingly, the same media coverage and consumer communications technology used by the victims were also used by the terrorists to hunt down their victims and further their mission.
Casualties
172 people were killed in the attacks.
These included many local Mumbaikars, as well as visitors from all over the world. At both hotels, many staff died or were wounded as they attempted to protect their guests.
Stories and Incidents
1. Debra Bayne’s daughter Deirdre, was on the other side of the world in British Columbia. She was doing research in a remote village with indigenous communities, but still saw news of the attacks on her hotel TV. When news of the attack broke, the chief insisted on collecting Deirdre from her hotel and Deirdre watched the rest of the siege unfold on TV from his home, surrounded by his family. At one stage Debra was able to reassure Deirdre that she was a long way from the fighting, high up on the 19th floor, while all the gunfire was downstairs in the lobby. Not long after, news reports showed that the gunmen had moved up through the Oberoi Hotel – the floor they had dug in on? The 19th.
2. Michael and Anjali Pollack were married in the Taj Hotel. They were back having dinner with friends when the attacks began. Before dinner, Anjali went to buy a book in the bookshop on the other side of the hotel. If she had stayed only a few more minutes, she would have been caught in the opening gunfire in the lobby.
3. Meltem Müezzino?lu’s telephone was seized by the gunmen and used to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan over the next days. Meltem’s husband Seyfi says they later got a bill many times the normal amount.
4. Anthony Rose credits his mobile phone with saving his life in the Taj hotel – being connected to information from all over the world instantly gave him the best possible options to survive. Within an hour of escaping from the siege, and giving a quick interview to news cameras, he’d become part of the news cycle too: immortalized by a young man in Texas who saw the interview and uploaded to YouTube a song he wrote on the spot: The Ballad Of Anthony Rose.
I am very moved by the accounts of this tragedy. I have also watched the “Terror in Mumbai” on HBO and didn’t come away with as strong a sense of the humanity of the survivors. I was impressed with the selfless behavior of members of the staff at the Taj Mahal Hotel and the forgiveness of several who survived the ordeal.
I lost one of my best friends at the Taj last year. He was a good and decent man with a wife and children. He is greatly missed, as I am sure are all other victims of this tragedy.
I pray for a world of peace and respect for all.
This is a good companion program to the one on HBO because it covers many different details about the incident and additional testimonies that leave us with a better idea of what happened. That and the realization that the potential is great that there may be enough enough raw material available to make several more programs like it.
What is surprising though and left me very curious to know, is the recordings of the cell phone communications between the gunmen and their controllers in pakistan were completely different from what was heard on the HBO program. One specific transcript left me wondering if that was actual recordings or voice overs? That was when pakistan told the gunmen to kill their hostages. The instruction was almost the same wording but the controler’s voice was different. There was also background static on the audio, while the HBO version had none. Were those different phones and cell conversations with other gunmen, than those heard on HBO?
Being ex-military, as I watched, I kept thinking of what I would do in that situation. Ways to escape, or overcome the gunmen kept coming up in my thoughts. If I knew that I was going to die anyway, would I have done anything. I guess I would have to be there to really know. Like many of us war veterans, those poor folks involved will suffer the memory of that experience all their lives.
I understand that India has strict gun-control laws. These poor folks were lambs for the slaughter.
This is not the last time India’s neighbour has sent terrorists across the border. As an Indian I blame my government for not going after the Pakistan inspite of ample evidence. Instead the weak Indian politicians depend on the world to pressurise Pakistan to give up terrorism. Would the US sit by and do nothing if terrorists from Mexico or Canada were to carry out such an attack inside the US?
This is a very tragic event for all the victims. My family was in India at the time and actually would have stayed at the Taj when then were planning to visit the following week this happened. I watched last year in horror as this news unfolded. The countless victims and their families that will have to live with the memories for the rest of the their lives.
I agree with the narriator of the HBO special… these kids were the pawns for the real terriorists… and the instead of the glory of dying to get to heaven this way, the emphasis should be on living rather than dying.
But, it keeps coming to my mind… that do these young guys who do these acts, know that killing innocent people is wrong, no matter which religion one believes in.
God Bless all those impacted by this senseless event…
- one last thing – I hope the lone surivor get’s life in prision and not a death sentence. It will show those who might consider doing this in the future that there is no honor in killing innocent people in the name of your religion.
The story is horrific. We live in an age that some called WW III. If only the world would turn from hate and power over to dialogue, love, and selflessness we would not be living through this age of international terrorism. There are root causes that go back centuries as to why this is happening, but of course no one likes to look at root causes since it will ask us to look at what we have done as individuals, groups, governments, nations, religious sects, and empires. We will be living many more years in this state of anxiety until one day, one way or another it will all end as all things end.
Its been an year since the Massacre of the Innocents in Mumbai. What has changed in this world except that it gets vicious every day. Countries that have and are supporting the terrorists are seeing Frankensteins turning on them, but they dont learn.
I keep thinking those handlers in pakistan are the modern devils, they are the guns and those 10 terrorists the bullets.
I for one would reject as poison even my religion if it teaches that you go to heaven if you kill women, children and men.
As an Indian I request everyone not to ignore this attack as some isolated incident in a far off place, thats what people in the US have done before 9/11.
Evil anywhere/everywhere is EVIL, Period.
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