MUMBAI: A high-level team of terrorism experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) arrived in Mumbai yesterday and guided the Indian security forces fighting terrorists there, according to reliable sources in the state government.
The longest-ever battle against terror in the history of India continued yesterday. Commandos stormed the Nariman House, a Jewish center, and Trident-Oberoi hotel to retake them from militants on the third day of attacks on the Indian financial capital in which at least 230 people have died.
Earlier, the Saudi Consulate in Mumbai denied reports carried by some Indian media that two Saudis had died in the attacks.
“The consul general personally checked out five hospitals to find out whether any Saudis were injured or had died in the bloody encounters. He did not find any and called the reports baseless,” according to a statement by the consulate to the Saudi Press Agency.
Elite troops slid down ropes from helicopters to breach the Jewish center, killing two gunmen but failing to save the lives of five hostages, including a New York-based rabbi and his wife.
The commandos also cleared the Trident-Oberoi hotel and freed 143 hostages.
But at least one gunman was still holed up in the Taj Mahal hotel. Explosions and gunfire erupted regularly as he dodged the commandos through a maze of corridors and rooms.
The attackers have not precisely spelled out the reasons and aims for the assault. But it has raised new tension between India and Pakistan.
An Indian state minister said one of the militants arrested was a Pakistani national and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned of “a cost” if India’s neighbors did not take action to stop their territory being used to launch attacks.
Pakistani Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani, however, agreed to his Indian counterpart’s request to send a representative of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency to India to share information, a statement said, adding that the official would be a person who has been involved in counterterrorism.
Reportedly, a small army of young men armed with rifles and grenades, some of which arrived by sea, had fanned out across Mumbai on Wednesday night to attack sites popular with tourists and business executives.
The seizure of Nariman House ended just before dusk yesterday. “The operation has been successful,” force commander Jyoti Krishna Dutt told reporters afterward.
“On the second floor, we found three bodies of hostages. They had been killed long before. We found two terrorists on the fourth floor and neutralized them. We also found two bodies of hostages there,” he said.
One soldier was killed.
At the Trident-Oberoi hotel, commandos killed two militants and freed 143 guests, who emerged with harrowing stories of the bloodshed inside, earlier in the day. Foreigners and Indians, some dragging their suitcases, trickled out of the five-star hotel after their ordeal ended.
One hotel staff member held a baby in his arms.
Police said 24 bodies had been found inside the Taj hotel. But one militant, thought to be wounded, remained inside.
“He is moving in two floors. There is a dance floor area where, apparently, he has cut off all the lights,” Lt. Gen. N. Thamburaj told reporters.
It was possible that he had two hostages with him, he said.
The head of an elite commando unit, his face masked by a black scarf and sunglasses, said he had seen 50 bodies in the Taj.
At least 15 foreigners, including three Germans, three Americans, one Australian, a Briton, one Canadian, two French, an Italian, a Japanese, a Singaporean and a Thai, were among the dead, according to various governments.
Fear was palpable throughout the city of 18 million people.
“When you have a terrorist shooting down people in stations and on roads, how can anyone feel safe any more?” said shopkeeper Pankaj Angre.
In the afternoon, while the operations to flush out terrorists was continuing at Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House, rumors spread that there was firing at the Chatrapti Shivaji Terminus, RBI Towers, Marine Lines, and near the GT Hospital by the terrorists.
Unidentified callers informed the police that some terrorists were moving around in a white Ambassador car and firing indiscriminately.
The police cordoned off the CST and searched platform 8, 14, and 15, but nothing was found nor the traces of any terrorist activity.
The Additional Director General of the Railways, K.P. Raghuvanshi, told Arab News, “It is all rumors. We have the police all around the railway stations. There is no need to panic and the railway stations are safe and secure. He appealed that people should not fall victim to the rumors.”
The state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, along with Mumbai Congress Committee chief Kripa Shankar Singh and Cooperation Minister Patangrao Kadam, paid a visit to the terror spot at Taj, after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had visited the Taj and Oberoi. Modi made some remarks that were of political nature.
Deshmukh indirectly came down heavily on Modi and said that no one should exploit the situation for political reasons.
The Gujarat chief minister should not have come down and visited the terror-stricken spot, he said.
“Even I had requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi not to pay a visit at Taj and Oberoi at this juncture and they had abided by my request,” he said.
India’s main stock markets reopened yesterday after being closed on Thursday due to the attack, but the main share index closed up 0.73 percent.
— With input from agencies
