Mumbai Bleeds

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• At least 20 terrorists came via sea from Karachi
• At least 10 places attacked with AK 47s, grenades
• Toll crosses 100, many more injured
• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST, earlier known as Victoria Terminus or VT), the Oberoi (and Trident) and the heritage Taj Mahal Palace hotels and Metro cinema among targets of attack
• Attacks/gunbattles also confirmed at: Nariman House, Wadi Bunder, Cama hospital, GT hospital, Bootleggers pub and Girgaum.
• NSG commandos begin operations at Trident (Oberoi) hotel and Nariman House to flush out terrorists
• At least six foreigners being held hostage in Trident
• Taj Colaba, a heritage building, housing some of India's finest paintings, damaged by a raging fire
• Police claim all hostages released from Taj
• At least five terrorists killed. Nine terrorists arrested
• A total of 14 policemen, including five officers, killed
• Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare killed
• Gun battle outside Metro cinema hall -- Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar killed
• A little known outfit calling itself "Deccan Mujahideen" claimed responsibility for attacks.
• Colaba: BP Petrol Pump blown up. 10 killed
• Taxi blown up in Vile Parle
• Foreigners targeted for maximum impact
• Bombay stock exchange, schools to remain closed

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The nightmare returned.

Much before the city had gone to sleep.

ATS chief Hemant Karkare, two senior police officers and at least 98 others were killed when terrorists struck with impunity in Mumbai in coordinated multiple blasts and gunfire in at least 10 places including iconic landmarks Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST, earlier known as Victoria Terminus or VT), the Oberoi (and Trident) and the heritage Taj Mahal Palace hotels and Metro cinema. The other places where attacks/gunbattles have been confirmed are: Nariman House, Wadi Bunder, Cama hospital, GT hospital, Bootleggers pub and Girgaum.

Karkare (54), who was also in charge of the Malegaon blasts case, was gunned down when he was leading an operation at Taj Mahal hotel against terrorists who had taken 15 people, including seven foreigners, as hostages. He was hit in his chest by three bullets.

Ashok Marutirao Kamte, a 1989 batch IPS officer, along with encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was killed while fighting terrorists at the Metro cinema. A total of eleven policemen, including five officers, have been killed so far in the flush-out operations so far.

Army commandoes moved into the Trident and the Taj Mahal hotels to flush out terrorists holed up many hours after an unspecified number of heavily armed gunmen had taken some foreigners hostage.

Four suspected terrorists were killed in two separate incidents overnight. Two died during a gun battle at the Taj hotel, police said. Two suspected terrorists escaping in a Skoda car were gunned down after an encounter with police in the Girgaum area. Several live bombs were also defused.

Besides army commandoes, naval commandoes and Rapid Action force personnel joined in the operations to rescue those stranded in the two hotels. Five columns of Army and 200 NSG commandoes have been rushed.

Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister R R Patil said nine suspected terrorists have been arrested. Schools and colleges were ordered to be closed. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the terrorists probably came by boats with their explosives and started firing indiscriminately. He said their number was not immediately known.

No official statement has yet been made about the identities of the terrorists, but eyewitnesses said they were in the age-group of 20-25, some of them spoke Arabic, and they included Nigerian or Somali mercenaries.

Eyewitnesses said the gunmen had targeted foreigners as they kept shouting, "who has U.S. or U.K. passports?" at Taj and Oberoi. There was a serious hostages situation at the Trident and Nariman House.

There was just no respite from the night of terror.

The first attack was reported at Leopold restaurant in Colaba area at about 9.15 PM on Wednesday November 26. AK-47s and grenades were used. Initial reports were mistaken and took the attacks to be a gang-war. Police and eyewitnesses said AK-47s, rifles and hand grenades were used at will by an unspecified number of terrorists.

And they left a bloody toll.

Police said 60 bodies were brought to St George's hospital. JJ hospital, GT hospital, Bombay and Cooper hospital reported 7,6,4 and 3 deaths respectively. A Bombay hospital official said that one Japanese was among the dead.

Much later the police were to reconstruct the sequence of events. 

It was India's 9/11 moment. Global terror had well and truly arrived. The police says it was a group of at least 20 terrorists that entered Mumbai from Gujarat on one of the many Gujarat Fisheries boats that come into Sasoon Dock. The police claimed that they used an inflatable raft from Sasoon Dock to enter Mumbai shores via Gateway of India. That is where they got off and dispersed in different directions. As many as five of them came to the first stop at Leopold restaurant in Colaba at 9:15.

9:20 pm, it was the turn of Nariman House, near the Bootleggers Pub in Colaba. 

Two men on a scooter hurled a grenade at a petrol pump in Colaba which, fortunately, missed the petrol reservoir but destroyed the facade of the petrol pump. The two terrorists ran into the nearby Nariman House building behind the petrol pump. Nariman House is the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Jews. The terrorists kept a low profile there till the morning of Thursday, November 27, before commencing the hostage drama which continues as we write this update at 4 PM of the same day.

9:24 pm: Another group of two gunmen meanwhile attacked the passenger hall of the CST with AK-47s and grenades. As many as ten lives were lost there. Hordes of media persons could be seen jostling for space as the area was cordoned off with no media being allowed near it even as an encounter went on inside. Hundreds of commuters were stranded as trains were cancelled. The train service would only resume on Thursday, Nov 27 morning.

9:30 pm: Terrorists stormed the Taj hotel and opened fire and hurled grenades at the people. Evacuation and rescue operation continued through the night.Blood soaked guests could be seen carried out into the waiting ambulances. Bellboys could be seen rushing the injured out on luggage trolleys

9:35 pm: It was next the turn of Trident hotel. Some cars were blown up high in the air and other vehicles were also damaged in the blast which followed the firing in the hotels. Windshields of cars parked nearby lay shattered in tiny smithereens, even as fire could be seen raging out of the lobby.

9.55 pm: A taxi blast rocked Vile Parle leaving three dead.

10.15 pm: Terrorists came in a hijacked Skoda outside the Cama & Albless hospital and fired randomly, both inside and outside the hospital, leaving five people dead in their wake, including one police Inspector, two Constables and two watchmen.

10.30 pm: Attack outside the Metro cinema

10.45 pm: There was a blast in a taxi in Wadi Bunder in which the driver of the taxi died.

10:50 pm: The police confronted the two Skoda-driving terrorists at the Girgaum Chowpatty area, and shot them dead.

But that was not the end of Mumbai's -- or India's -- ordeal. Mumbai's long nightmare of terror was to continue through the night and the day of November 27. For it was then that the real intent of the fidayeen strikes became clear: high profile hostages at high profile places. It took the entire afternoon of Thursday November 27 before the trapped guests could be evacuated from the Taj. As army joined the battle to flush out the terrorists, a raging fire broke out in the dome of the old, heritage portion of the hotel, while the terrorists exchanged gunfire with the security forces. The fire spread as the fire brigade could only be deployed once the firing subsided a bit. While rescue operations were mounted to help the trapped residents and visitors after the fire-brigade was called out, the terrorists lobbed some grenades at the fire-brigade as well. The fire broke out all over again and terrorists remained at large while the hotel was rocked by five to six blasts and enormous clouds of black smoke rose from the century-old edifice on Mumbai's waterfront.