The Taj and Oberoi hotels, instantly recognisable buildings to anyone who’s visited Mumbai/Bombay, are on fire- police are fighting a gun battle in one and the army is entering the other.
As many as a dozen coordinated attacks have been reported across the city, mostly in Colaba (the financial district).
A small terrorist group called the Deccan Mujaheddin is reportedly involved.
Fuck.
India? Could be just about anyone for just about any reason.
The army is being called in.
Deccan Mujahedeen? I had no idea that Decca Records has a militant extemist faction.
This is probably retaliation for signing Morrissey.
Nadar’s With Attitude.
Oh god. Earlier today, I was in the grad student lounge at my school with a couple of friends, one of whom is Indian. I was really tired, so I lay down on the sofa to take a nap. (Sleeping in public is kinda weird, I guess, but if you are or have ever been a grad student, you’ll understand.) At one point, I woke up to hear my Indian friend exclaiming something about terrorism. I have a foggy memory about India being attacked, but…I was hoping that was part of a dream.
Well, this is not good. Who the hell are the Deccan Mujahadin anyway?
Mumbai rocked by deadly attacks.
So far: 80 dead, 250 injured. 4 suspected terrorists killed, 9 arrested.
In the Pit already? What if they are GOOD terrorists, and evil hostages? Do you have to be so judgemental about gangs of armed mass murderers?
According to what I’ve heard on NPR, this is the first anyone has heard of them.
This area of Mumbai is the only place I felt nervous in India. Leopold’s felt like a target when I ate there.
We have/had at least one poster who lives in that part of the world, anybody know if they’re okay? (Not to mention a couple of posters who used to live there and might still have family in the area.)
Yeah, it seems like they were a small group, not really on anyone’s radar. But the scale, coordination and effectiveness of these attacks suggest some brilliant, evil psychopath knows his stuff.
Right now, wiki is saying 101 dead, +300 injured and 9 separate locations/incidents. Among the dead is Mumbai’s anti-terrorism chief. If this were strictly academic I would be impressed, but naturally I’m just horrified.
My thoughts go out to the families of victims of these unspeakable acts.
May I pity Spanish TV stations because 90% of the reporting on this has focused on “OMG, the president of Madrid” (think Governor, if Madrid was a US State) “and a bunch of politicians were in one of those hotels!”
The Indians dead and wounded? Pchsa, who cares, they don’t have relatives in Spain, do they? :smack:
Just checking in to say that gouda’s and my families are safe. Thanks.
Some of my friends were at the scene of the attacks. And even those that weren’t are still completely shaken. The fighting is still on in at least 3 locations. The army has moved in, and the city looks like it’s at war.
These are all places that I frequented all the time when I was in Bombay.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ for local updates.
The headline I saw this morning when I woke up was “Simultaneous Terrorist Attacks in India. 2 Japanese dead/injured.”
Wow! And people call Americans self-centered. I’ve not heard an estimate of how many Americans might have beem killed, only a total number of dead.
Whoa, just found out that my best mate was due to be staying at the hotel next door when this happened but the project he was working on was moved forward three weeks. I can’t imagine what I’d be thinking right now if he was over there.
I have to say that I do find it disgusting when the news reports focus heavily on the people from their countries plight rather than the general horror of the whole thing, usually in Britain we are pretty good about this and say something along the lines of ‘120 dead including two Britons’ or similar but it’s not always the case.
I think the whole thing is basically unbelievable, total madness.
Probably only because the local bureau chiefs for the American news organizations didn’t bribe the right police bigwigs.
There was a flow chart in America: The Book about the newsworthiness of international crises, which went something like:
xash, glad to hear you and yours are well. My family is all in Dadar so they’re well away from the affected areas.
Indian goverment refused to negotiate with these terrorrists. I say that is a very good sign ,considering the Indian AIrlines hijack some years back and the swapping of terrorists for passengers.
Whoa. I guess I didn’t hear about this when it happened. Details? Link, perhaps?
Back in 1999 or 2000, an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked by 5 Pakistani militants. They demanded refuelling from the Indian government. That didn’t happen, for who knows what reasons. Some commandos who were trying to get to the plane actually got stuck in traffic and the plane took off before anything could be done. As retribution, the hijackers stabbed one man who bled to death while they forced the pilots to destination-hop.
At Lahore, in Pakistan, the Pakistani government refused to allow the plane to land by switching off all runway and airport lights. I think a crisis - the plane almost crashed in the dark or something - and international backlash changed the Pakistani government’s mind and they were finally allowed to land and refuel. The plane was then taken to Dubai where some hostages were released. It finally ended up in Afghanistan, where the Taleban refused to let Indian and Afghani commandos board the plane forcibly.
The Indian government finally capitulated to the hijackers’ demands and released 3 known terrorists. Post-release, one of them has started a terrorist organisation anew. Another beheaded Daniel Pearl.
Fun.
RNATB, that flowchart of yours is very accurate.