Terror arrived in a dinghy; attackers well-equipped and knew layout of targets well
By
Ravi Velloor, South Asia Bureau Chief
The daring attack on India's commercial capital took at least two months to prepare, Indian official sources said. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
MUMBAI: The young men stepping out of the inflatable dinghy at the famed Gateway of India jetty wore jeans and jackets and carried rucksacks.
As Mr Bharat Tamore, an assistant supervisor at the Taj Mahal Hotel, peered through the dim light of late evening, eight men got off the boat, jumping off in pairs.
Splitting up after arriving so self-assuredly on the seafront, two of the men headed for Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. An alert guard who saw them enter with automatic rifles sounded an alarm, helping to reduce the crowds on the main platform.
Militants visited hotels before
NEW DELHI - SEVERAL of the Islamist militants who attacked Mumbai this week visited the city a few months ago and lived there for a while pretending to be students, the Times of India reported on Saturday.
Quoting from interrogation reports of one of the militants taken into custody, the newspaper said nine militants rented an apartment in the Colaba area of downtown Mumbai, near where the attacks were carried out.
When he approached to inquire, they were quick to respond: 'Students hai.' (We are students.) The boat revved its motor and sped away.
Fifteen minutes later, Mr Tamore heard the rattle of gunshots near the Shamiana restaurant, the Taj's coffee shop, and instantly connected it to the fair-skinned 'students' he had seen disembark from the boat.
Terror arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday night through a landmark gateway that had been built by British colonialists to commemorate King George V's visit to India in 1911.
Less than half an hour later, at the Oberoi-Trident Hotel a few kilometres away, Singaporean banker Jai Arya and his wife Rohini were dining at the Kandahar restaurant. Their guests were a prominent Mumbai banker and his wife, who had lived in Singapore before.
Suddenly, the sounds of what appeared to be firecrackers exploding could be heard from the lobby below. Mr Arya, executive vice-president of Bank of New York, said they initially felt no alarm.
But not for long. A grenade went off as the terrorists made their way towards the restaurant on the first floor. Mr Arya and the others fled through the kitchens, making their way to the top floors.
But then firing began from above them and they scrambled downstairs again, slipping into a broom cupboard on a middle floor.
There, trembling, they stood with three others in a room, bodies pressed against each other and unable to even sit down. For the next 14 hours they stood there with bombs regularly going off in their hearing, punctuated by frequent screaming.
A terrorist taking cover nearby blew out the lights, robbing the tiny space of the little illumination it got through the door. Water began flooding in as the firefight outside triggered fire alarms.
When security forces rescued them after noon the following day, 'the stairs were strewn with BlackBerrys, glass shards, handbags', said Mr Arya.
The daring attack on India's commercial capital took at least two months to prepare, Indian official sources said. They are looking at information that several suspicious men rented rooms in an apartment block in South Mumbai weeks before the attack. Keeping largely to themselves, they would often receive visitors who gave the appearance of being camera-toting tourists.
Days before the attack these people disappeared. Investigators surmise they may have gone to say goodbye to their families.
Some of the men involved - police are checking whether they were the local component that helped the main attack unit - may have even taken employment in one of the attacked hotels.
'The terrorists were clued in about the layout of the Taj,' said the leader of the marine commando unit that stormed the hotel.
They were also very well-prepared, carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy and stocking up on large amounts of ammunition.
'It's obvious they were trained somewhere...Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that,' the commando chief said.
One rucksack they found had 400 rounds of ammunition inside.
Splitting up after arriving so self-assuredly on the seafront, two of the men headed for Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, as Mumbai's main commuter rail station is known.
An alert guard who saw them enter with automatic rifles sounded an alarm, helping to reduce the crowds on the main platform. Even so, the terrorists unleashed a hail of bullets that felled dozens of people. Outgunned Railway Protection Force personnel ran for cover, but more police contingents soon arrived and the two were cut down.
Mumbai's death toll may well have been worse except for a fortuitous incident involving a hijacked taxi that had been loaded with explosives.
The gunman in the back-seat ordered the taxi driver, identified as Mr Muhamed Umer, to jump a red light as he headed for the airport. The traffic behind him stopped for the light, however.
The bomb went off prematurely in the back of the car just as it was midway through the crossing, blowing to bits the vehicle and its two occupants.
Had the following traffic been closer, it is anybody's guess how many more would have died.
