Mumbai attacks anniversary draws solemn tributes and new pressure on Pakistan
India marks tenth anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks
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MUMBAI: India on Monday marked the tenth anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks with ceremonies at sites across the city that became battlegrounds in the wave of violence that killed scores and dealt a critical blow to relations with neighbouring Pakistan.
Armed with AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades, ten militants killed 166 people and injured hundreds more in a three-day rampage through India’s financial capital, which started on Wednesday November 26, 2008.
Ten years on, the United States offered a new $5 million reward for the capture of the remaining attackers and called on Islamabad to cooperate with the hunt for the planners of the assault.
The attackers belonged to Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
While Mumbai staged its own solemn ceremonies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the attacks “gruesome” and said: “A grateful nation bows to our brave police and security forces who valiantly fought the terrorists during the Mumbai attacks.”
Played out on TV news channels around the world, the bloody events - widely known as 26/11 - have been compared in India to New York’s suffering on September 11, 2001.
The co-ordinated attacks on the city of nearly 20 million people hit luxury hotels, the main railway station, a restaurant popular with tourists and a Jewish centre.
Mumbai’s police remembered more than a dozen officers killed in the operation against the militants while relatives of the victims laid wreaths at a police memorial honouring the dead.
Wanted leader
Residents were also to pay respects at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station where Mohammed Kasab, the only gunman caught alive, and another attacker killed almost 60 people and wounded at least 100 others.
The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel will hold a private service to remember the 31 people who died there.
Over 60 hours, four attackers shot dead guests and hotel staff, detonated explosives and set ablaze parts of the building - including its famous dome.
Dramatic scenes of Indian commandos battling the heavily armed gunmen, and guests tried to escape from windows down bedsheet ropes were beamed around the world on live television.
Indian security forces only retook control of the hotel on the morning of November 29.
More than 30 people also died at the Oberoi and Trident hotels in a 42-hour siege involving shootings, explosions and hostage-taking.
Six hostages - including a rabbi and his pregnant wife - were killed at Nariman House, a Jewish cultural and religious centre.
The current rabbi is to unveil a new memorial at the centre to all those who died in the 26/11 attacks.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the gunman caught at the railway station, was executed by India in 2012 after being found guilty of charges including murder and waging war against India.
The LeT called Kasab “a hero” in a comment that highlighted the deep-rooted rivalry between India and Pakistan since their division in 1947.
Indian politicians and officials routinely condemn Pakistan for not taking action against LeT leader Hafez Saeed who remains free even though he is designated a terrorist by the United Nations. Pakistan says that evidence provided by India against Saeed is too vague.
Six Americans were among the Mumbai victims and the US State Department announced a $5 million prize for the capture of the remaining planners of the attacks.
The United States already has a $10 million bounty offered for Saeed and $2 million for Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, another senior group leader.
“It is an affront to the families of the victims that, after 10 years, those who planned the Mumbai attack have still not been convicted for their involvement,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
“We call upon all countries, particularly Pakistan, to uphold their UN Security Council obligations to implement sanctions against the terrorists responsible for this atrocity, including Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and its affiliates.”
Leader of group linked to Mumbai attack held
Pakistan police place Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed under house arrest after government directive
Lahore: Pakistan’s police have placed a firebrand cleric linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks under house arrest, an AFP reporter saw late Monday, after the government issued a directive following years of pressure to act.
Hafiz Saeed, who heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) group and has a $10 million (Dh36.7 million) US bounty on his head, is to be placed under “preventative detention”, according the order from the interior ministry.
Police took Saeed away from a mosque in Lahore late Monday and escorted him to his residence where they appear to be holding him under house arrest, an AFP reporter saw.
“My detention orders are unlawful and we will challenge them in the court,” Saeed told reporters before he was led away by police.
“These orders have come from Washington,” he said, alleging that Islamabad acted against him under pressure from Washington.
“Now more rallies and protests will be held on Kashmir issue,” Saeed said, adding: “our movement will continue till Kashmir’s independence.”
Pakistan and India both control part of Kashmir but claim the whole of the territory and have fought two of their three wars over it since independence from Britain in 1947.
India blames Pakistan for sending militant groups to foment unrest in the part of Kashmir controlled by New Delhi.
JuD, listed as a terror outfit by the United Nations, is considered by the US and India to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant group blamed for the attack on India’s financial capital.
The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world as commandos battled the heavily armed gunmen, who arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, 2008.
It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city and New Delhi has long said there is evidence that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack.
Islamabad denies the charge.
But for years JuD operated freely across the country, popular for its charity works especially in the wake of natural disasters, and testing Islamabad’s vow to tackle militancy.
Despite the bounty against him Saeed led a high-profile public life, regularly delivering fiery anti-India speeches.
‘Obliged to take action’
The detention order surfaced hours after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar hinted that a crackdown was imminent.
He told reporters in Islamabad earlier Monday that, given the group had been under observation for years and was blacklisted internationally, Pakistan is “under obligation to take some action”.
“The situation will be clear on this by tomorrow,” he said, without giving further details.
The order from the interior ministry placed JuD and a foundation tied to it on a watch list, and also ordered the “preventative detention” of four other members in various cities in Punjab.
India has long seethed at Pakistan’s failure either to hand over or prosecute those accused of planning and organising the Mumbai attacks, while Pakistan has alleged that India failed to give it crucial evidence.
Islamabad’s decision in 2015 to release an alleged mastermind of the attacks, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, was slammed as an “insult” by New Delhi.
Pakistan has long been accused of playing a “double game” with militants by supporting groups it thinks it can use for its own strategic ends, particularly in disputed Kashmir.
Memories fade: 10 years after 26/11 Mumbai terror mayhem
There’s barely evidence of public emotion over those harrowing 60 hours
Mumbai: Ten years after the dastardly Mumbai terror attacks, memories of the bloody mayhem seem to have faded in peoples minds like some horrible nightmare — but for survivors and families of victims the day still evokes dread.
Except for symbolic memorial services all over the city planned by VVIPs for photo-ops and the mandatory media coverage, there is barely any evidence of public emotion over those harrowing 60 hours which shook the nation’s soul.
Ten heavily-armed terrorists, sneaking in through the Arabian Sea, attacked multiple locations within a small geographical area, killing 166 persons — including Indian security personnel and 26 foreign nationals — and left another 300 injured, besides inflicting huge damage to public and private properties.
The toll on the nation’s collective social-political psyche was higher, but the scars have apparently healed.
“Whatever happened was very sad for the country. We remember the victims… But, all have moved ahead in life and think of a bright future,” said Rakesh Upadhyay, director at an ayurvedic pharmaceutical company.
He was among the millions worldwide who remained glued to the television during the November 26-28, 2008, terror attacks and watched the real-life drama live — and it unfolded like some unbelievable Hollywood disaster film.
Massive national tragedy
“It was a massive national tragedy, we still feel bad about what happened, especially for the innocent victims. Now, it feels like a bad dream. Everyone is busy tackling major problems of daily life,” shrugged a middle-class housewife, Minakshi Baikar, adding how her son Atharva was a then a year-old toddler and is now 11.
However, Sharda Bhosale, 60-year-old widow of martyred policeman Balasaheb Bhosale (he was in the team that helped nab Kasab at Chowpatty) has yet to come to terms with his death, her son, traffic policeman Deepak Bhosale, said.
“Each year, on November 26, she invariably falls ill over my father’s painful death and his memory ... She remains like that for at least 5-6 days. The entire family shudders every time the calendar changes to November,” Deepak told IANS.
As the day looms closer, dark memories of the attacks flicker alive, reminding people of how the extremists unobtrusively entered Mumbai to execute their sinister plans on a cold evening.
Alighting from a hijacked dinghy at a small fishing bay near Colaba, they divided themselves into groups of 2-3 and systematically went after their surgically-planned targets, catching everyone unawares.
So well-prepared were they with inputs and reconnaissance carried out by various accomplices, including Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, that they melted into the crowds and walked around in a familiar manner in south Mumbai, reaching their destinations precisely.
They targeted the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Hotel Trident, Nariman House, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, Wadi Bunder — all within a radius of barely 4-5km — while a bomb exploded at suburban Vile Parle in one of the taxis they had earlier hired.
Nine of the terrorists were gunned down in the combined security operations that included Mumbai police, army and naval commandos, and other paramilitary forces who battled them for 60 hours as the city waited with bated breath.
Kasab’s capture
In the wee hours of November 27, barely six hours after the mayhem started, one of the terrorists, Ajmal Amir Kasab (22), was caught alive following a fierce gun battle with the police near Chowpatty Beach, proving to be a significant achievement.
Kasab and his accomplice were speeding in a hijacked car towards Malabar Hill, where the Governor’s residence Raj Bhavan and the Chief Minister’s official residence — besides those of other VVIPs — are located.
An aggressive Mumbai police unit interrogated Kasab, investigated the matter thoroughly, and identified and named 35 accused directly or indirectly responsible for the 26/11 terror attacks. With the top police brass personally directing investigations, an air-tight case was made against Kasab — the sole terrorist nabbed alive.
Making doubly sure he would be convicted, the prosecution was handed over to a top criminal lawyer, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. With his rich experience in the case relating to the March 12, 1993, Mumbai serial blasts, he successfully directed the trial right from the Special Court in Mumbai to the Bombay High Court and finally the Supreme Court.
During the trial, in January 2010, the then Maharashtra Home Minister, R.R. Patil (now deceased), took the bold decision to order the covert burial of the nine slain terrorists. The location is still a mystery.
Collective sigh of relief
Finally, two years after the 26/11 carnage, on May 6, 2010, Kasab was awarded the death sentence, and the nation heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Exploiting the legal privileges granted in a democracy like India, Kasab challenged the verdict right up to the Supreme Court but was dismissed at every level. Even the President of India rejected his mercy petition.
Terming it as the “greatest challenge of his legal career”, Nikam said “full justice has still not been done” to the innocent victims as the main conspirators remain under the protection of Pakistan. Even as the trial continues there, Islamabad remains furtive and argumentative and doesn’t give credence to the evidence submitted to it by India.
“As long as extremists like Hafeez M. Saeed and Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi are not punished, neither Pakistan nor India can be considered free of terror. On the Indian side, the 26/11 trial continues with Abu Jindal and the deposition of Headley,” Nikam told IANS.
Later, on the quiet and cool morning of November 21, 2012, Kasab was hanged inside Pune’s Yerawada Central Jail and his body disposed somewhere on the jail campus. The exact location remains unknown.
Not surprisingly, all the legally tenable actions post-26/11 by India, including the disposal of the terrorists’ bodies, Kasab’s hanging and his last rites, evoked no international opposition, barring some stray murmurs in Pakistan.
With the experience of 26/11 as a grim lesson, security was boosted on all fronts — terrestrial, coastal and maritime — and the outcome is that Mumbai is scarred but safer.
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