 • November 2003: A bomb explodes at the Mohammadiya Masjid in Parbhani, Maharashtra. Several injured. • August 2004: Bomb blast at the Quadriya Masjid in Jalna, Maharashtra. Several injured. • August 2004: Bomb blast at Merag-ul-Uloom Madrassa in Purna, Maharashtra. Several injured. • April 2006: Two Bajrang Dal activists die while making a pipe bomb in Nanded, Maharashtra. Investigations reveal that the house belongs to a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) worker. • January 2008: Bombs explode at Gadkari Auditorium, Thane, Maharashtra. Perpetrators turn out to be members of the Sanatan Sanstha, which is linked to the Hindu Jan Jagran Samiti, a well-known extremist organisation in Maharashtra. • September 2008: A bomb explodes at Bhikhu Chowk in the largely Muslim-populated town of Malegaon in Maharashtra. Five people die and 89 suffer injuries. more |
Saturday, November 29, 2008
TERRORISM: saffron variety
Mumbai Terror: Intelligence warnings could not be made useful
NYT Photo Journal: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/28/world/20081128-Mumbai/index.html
Pointed intelligence warnings preceded attacks
| Weaknesses in police infrastructure facilitated the terror strike, government sources say |
The body of Amarsinh Solanki, captain of the fishing boat ‘Kuber.’
MUMBAI: India’s intelligence services had delivered at least three precise warnings that a major terrorist attack on Mumbai was imminent, highly-placed government sources have told The Hindu.
However, weaknesses in police manpower and training allowed the attacks to proceed, the sources said.
On November 18, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intercepted a satellite phone conversation, in which a so-far unidentified caller notified his handlers that he was heading for Mumbai along with a certain cargo.
RAW analysts, however, rapidly determined that the apparently innocuous call was made to a Lahore phone number known to be used by the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s main military commander for operations targeting India, who is known only by the code-names ‘Muzammil’ and ‘Abu Hurrera.’
Mumbai Police investigators have determined that the call was made from a satellite phone that was eventually found abandoned on the Porbandar-based fishing boat Kuber, hijacked by the terrorists mid-ocean, most likely on November 19. The satellite phone also contains records of several other calls to Lashkar handlers in Pakistan. more
Mumbai Terror
e-mail came from Pakistan
MUMBAI: Forensic experts have determined that an e-mail claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s terror attacks issued by an until-now unknown terror group was first generated on a computer located in Pakistan. Issued by a group calling itself the ‘Deccan Mujahideen,’ the e-mail was sent out to TV newsrooms, minutes after the attacks in Mumbai.
Based on studies of the internet protocol addresses used to send the mail, computer specialists at India’s RAW found that the Russia-based e-mail address used to send the document was opened early on Wednesday. This e-mail account was opened by a computer user based in Pakistan.
Government sources said RAW experts have determined, using specialised analytical software, that the document was generated using a voice-recognition software which allowed dictated text to be typed in the Devnagari font.
Modelled on a series of English-language manifesto issued by the Indian Mujahideen after the terror group bombed New Delhi in September, the similarities in content and style between the two documents raised the possibility that their authors could be linked. source
Mumbai terror
30 Nov 2008, 0508 hrs IST, TNN | |||||||
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NEW DELHI: The terrorists strike Mumbai at 9.30pm. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is in Kerala. He is briefed about the attack on the city’s prime locations. By the time Deshmukh grasps the enormity of the situation, 90 minutes have gone by. He rings Union home minister Shivraj Patil at 11pm and asks for NSG commandos. "How many men?" Patil asks. "200," says the CM. Patil calls NSG chief J K Dutt and tells him to send 200 battle-ready commandos to Mumbai. Most of the NSG men have to be roused from sleep. They don their uniforms, strap on safety gear, collect ammo and firearms. It is discovered that the only plane that can take 200 men, the IL 76, is not in Delhi but Chandigarh. Precious minutes are ticking by. The IL 76 pilot is woken, the plane refuelled. It reaches Delhi at 2am. By the time the commandos get in and the plane takes off, four-and-a-half hours have elapsed. Experts say that unless a response is mounted within 30 minutes of an attack, the enemy can assume key defensive positions. It takes the aircraft almost three hours to land at Mumbai airport. Unlike the Boeing and Airbus, IL 76 is a slow plane. By the time the NSG commandos board the waiting buses it is 5.25am. more |
Friday, November 28, 2008
Mumbai Terrorist attacks: Time line
Police declare Mumbai siege over |
The attacks in Mumbai began during the evening of 26 November. Reports say the militants arrived on dinghies, possibly launched from an outlying vessel. Here is a list of subsequent events with approximate timings. WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2120 local time (1550 GMT): Gunfire starts at the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station when at least two gunmen storm the crowded terminal, firing indiscriminately. Many of the deaths and injuries occurred in this attack.
2120-2200: Gunmen raid the Cama and Albless Hospital, shooting indiscriminately. Two attackers later killed and two captured. 2120-2200: Gunmen seize control of the Nariman House business and residential complex. Police surround the complex, which houses the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch outreach centre. 2120-2200: Gunmen storm the Cafe Leopold and open fire on diners, causing numerous causalities. 2120-0100: Gunmen storm the Oberoi-Trident hotel, where about 380 people are staying. 2120-0100: At least seven gunmen enter the lobby of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where about 450 people are staying, and begin firing. Large fire reported. 2250: Gunfire reported at Times of India offices. more |
Siege of Mumbai
MUMBAI, India — As Prasan Dhanur prepared his 13-foot boat on Wednesday evening for a hard night of fishing, he saw something strange.
A black inflatable lifeboat equipped with a brand new Yamaha outboard motor threaded its way among the small, wooden fishing boats at anchor and pulled up to the slum’s concrete pier.
Ten men, all apparently in their early 20s, jumped out. They stripped off orange windbreakers to reveal T-shirts and blue jeans. Then they began hoisting large, heavy backpacks out of the boat and onto their shoulders, each taking care to claim the pack assigned to him.
Mr. Dhanur flipped his boat light toward the men, and Kashinath Patil, a 72-year-old harbor official on duty nearby, asked the men what they were doing.
“I said: ‘Where are you going? What’s in your bags?’ “ Mr. Patil recalled. “They said: ‘We don’t want any attention. Don’t bother us.’ “
Thus began a crucial phase of one of the deadliest terrorist assaults in Indian history, one that seemed from the start to be coordinated meticulously to cause maximum fear and chaos.
The details are still fragmentary; Indian officials are saying little publicly. But from interviews with witnesses and survivors, it seems clear that the men on the boat were joining a larger terrorist force, which included some attackers who, unconfirmed local news reports say, had embedded themselves in Mumbai days before the attacks. Their synchronized assaults suggested a high level of training and preparation.
Mr. Dhanur and Mr. Patil said in interviews that they did not see the guns hidden in the backpacks, and did not call the police as they watched the 10 men walk into town on Wednesday, leaving their boat and windbreakers at the dock. Not long afterward, fanning out across South Mumbai, as other attackers spread out after landing in other boats, the men began unleashing deadly assaults everywhere they went. more
China official daily says don't rule out Hindu radicals in the Mumbai terror strikes
China official daily says don't rule out Hindu radicals
Thursday, November 27, 2008
V. P. Singh dead
Last Updated: November 27, 2008 16:25 IST
Former Prime Minister V P Singh[Images], who formed a non-Congress coalition government at the Centre dethroning Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress in the 1989 elections, died in New Delhi[Images] on Thursday after prolonged illness.
Battling blood cancer since 1991 and suffering from renal failure, 77-year-old Singh, also known as 'Raja of Manda', breathed his last at the Apollo Hospital in Delhi in the afternoon, his close associate Wasim Ahmad said.
"The end came at 1445 hrs," an Apollo Hospital spokesperson said.
Singh is survived by his wife Sita Kumari and two sons Ajeya Singh and Abhay Singh. source
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Times Of India editorial Political Leader's comments on ATS: Mind Your Words
The ATS probe is far from complete and political parties must not try to scuttle it. If the conclusions of the probe are unconvincing, they can be challenged in courts. Any other method to influence or disrupt the investigation is simply unacceptable. The nation expects senior politicians, like L K Advani and Rajnath Singh, to respect the sanctity of the institutional process and not cast aspersions on investigators. Both Advani and Rajnath have politicised the stray case of an errant army officer by claiming to speak on behalf of army personnel. As we have argued in these columns, the armed forces have an exemplary record as an apolitical institution. Political parties must respect that record. The threat to subvert terror probes will appeal to sangh parivar activists but such talk by leaders of the country's largest opposition party may seriously hurt public institutions.
Extremists in the sangh parivar have already upped the ante by attributing communal undertones to the terror probe. A meet of sadhus in Panipat last Sunday decided to launch a mass movement against the "vilification of Hindu monks and army personnel". The talk of civil war by the likes of Rajnath to stop possible arrests of sangh parivar activists can give political legitimacy to such blatant communal mobilisation. India can't afford such an outcome.
Countries ravaged by civil war surround India. This country too could have gone their way but for a relatively responsible political leadership — including the BJP's thus far — that to a large extent respected the independence of public institutions. And the armed forces, unlike in our neighbourhood, always shunned politics and took orders from the executive. Surely, leaders like Advani and Rajnath would want this state of affairs to continue. They, therefore, must ask themselves whether loose talk will do any good to this nation. A strong state is one that has mature politicians. Mature politicians think before they speak. more
Monday, November 10, 2008
'No Democracy, No Nationalism, No Secularism' SIMI Leader -Yasin Patel
‘Islam will make India progress’
Former SIMI president Yasin Patel was arrested under POTA and is considered anti-national. SHOMA CHAUDHURY explores this allegation
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‘Democracy’, ‘secularism’, ‘nationalism’ are all man-made ideas imported from the west. They were largely born out of the war with Christianity. In the medieval ages, the Church which emphasized blind faith dominated every aspect of life, and its excesses became associated with the idea of god itself. But the Dark Ages of Europe was the best and most enlightened time of Islam. When this world came into contact with Islam in medieval Spain, it learned a lot. Science, invention, medicine and the pursuit of knowledge flourished in Islamic Spain. There was the renowned philosopher Avicenna and the inventor of algebra, Al-Khwarizmi. Knowledge -- uloom – is highly valued in Islam. We believe God is all-knowing, so to increase knowledge of the world is to increase knowledge of Him. This flood of uloom touched the Christian world and triggered the Enlightenment which countered religion based on blind faith. But there was a big adverse impact on Islamic Spain – the stories of the Inquisition make one’s hair stand. (There were lots of reasons why the Church had become like that – one reason was that Christ’s teachings were not in writing. There is no existing Bible in the language he spoke so one has to rely on translations.) The point I am making is, the impact of Spain on Christianity was that a conflict with the Church and by extension, God Himself, was born in the western world. The French Revolution was another big event which fashioned the ideas of democracy and secularism. Nationalism? Hitler had a big hand in that. Two World Wars were fought in the name of nationalism – everyone of the same religion, all white, but they devastated each other for nationalism. All these concepts fundamentally deny God and His role in our collective lives. They only sanction his role in our personal life. Then the question arises – who has the moral right to make laws for our collective life? Every individual. But this is obviously not practical, so we are back to square one. Choose your representatives, go to Parliament, debate, resolve, make laws. But in such societies, you can have many debates, many laws, and still get the opposite effect. To give you an example, America had no ban against drinking, yet seeing its ills, they had to bring in Prohibition in the 1920s. But instead of reducing the evil, things got so bad, in 1933, they had to lift the ban. See bans are not enough, there has to be a motivation as well. Who is making the rule? Is it an undisputed moral authority that a society subscribes to with its heart and mind? The problem with democracy as it is practiced is that it makes the individual the sovereign. So it is not democratic debate and discussion, not just the most informed or educated or convincing voice whose opinion carries weight, it is sheer numbers that is given emphasis. People are not counted but weighed. Look at India itself – many of the ills we face today is because of electoral politics – the game of numbers that passes for democracy. And India is being torn apart by sub-nationalisms. This is why we say 'No Democracy, No Nationalism, No Secularism'.86-year-old woman pleads for pension
Saturday, November 8, 2008
India may be the world’s largest democracy, but America is the world’s greatest democracy
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