"The plan was to kill 5,000 people"

By Emily Wax and Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 29, 2008; 2:02 PM

MUMBAI, Nov. 29 -- Indian officials said Saturday that they had killed or captured 10 gunmen responsible for the three-day assault on India's financial and cultural capital. Nearly 200 people died in the attacks that began Wednesday.

The violence ended Saturday morning when government security forces, methodically searching the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel here, killed the last four gunmen. Officials said that around the city, nine gunmen had died and one was captured.

The commandos recovered 22 bodies at the Taj Mahal hotel Saturday. Clean-up operations at the hotel continued through the day.

"Many unexploded hand grenades were lying on the corridors, we want to diffuse them and only then wanted to declare the building safe," said J. K. Dutt, the chief of the National Security Guard, India's specialized commando troops. "We checked the rooms to see if there are any small bombs, near the air conditioners or any other corner."

Authorities said that the death toll had risen to 195 as more bodies were discovered and that 295 people were wounded, in the attacks on two luxury hotels, the Jewish center and several other sites in Mumbai. Among the dead were two Americans from Virginia; the American rabbi who ran the city's Chabad-Lubavitch center and his Israeli wife; and three of their visitors, including an American man, an Israeli woman and a man with U.S. and Israeli citizenship. In all, at least 16 non-Indians have been reported killed.

The government used 350 security forces and 400 police officers to capture or kill the gunmen, officials announced at a news conference Saturday. On the basis of preliminary inquiry, we know that there were a total of 10 terrorists. Nine have been eliminated, one is caught," said Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. "They split into teams of two for action, and there were four at the Taj."

The National Security Guards are based in New Delhi and some Indian officials and residents in Mumbai questioned why it took those troops six hours to get to the attacks here.

M. L. Kumawat, special secretary of internal security, said at a press conference in New Delhi that it usually takes time for the commandos to reach the airport with all their equipment and board the plane. Upon landing in Mumbai after a two-hour flight, he said, "it took time to unload things and 45 minutes to reach the place of the incident in South Mumbai from the airport."
He added that the commandos had done a "splendid job."

Pakistani officials, responding to charges by Indian leaders that the attack was carried out by an organization with ties to Pakistan, initially said Friday that a senior intelligence officer would travel to India, in an apparent attempt to ease tensions between the two nuclear-armed states. On Saturday, Pakistan said that official would not go but that it remained committed to fighting extremism. Some news reports and Pakistani officials said another, lower-level intelligence official would be going to India.

Indian officials said they believe that at least some of the gunmen reached Mumbai by sea. After an interrogation of one of the attackers, Indian intelligence officials said they suspected that a Pakistani Islamist group, Lashkar-i-Taiba, was responsible. An Indian intelligence document from 2006 obtained by The Washington Post said members of the group had been trained in maritime assault.

Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra, denied that there was any final statement to make about the nationality of the slain gunmen. But he said that the government was only certain that the one in their custody had confessed to being from Pakistan. He said Indian officials had no specific intelligence about an impending attack.

"The information that we get is always general, not specific. Mumbai is always on the target, it is a commercial city, it is an international city," he said. "It is a sensitive place, there is no denying that. But this kind of attack, not just on Mumbai but also on the nation, is something we did not anticipate."

"Their plan was to kill 5,000 people, we recovered two big bombs, other than guns," said R. R. Patil, Maharashtra's deputy chief minister. "They were using mobile phones, GPS and satellite phones. We have many clues from these."

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Singh has called a meeting of all political parties on Sunday to discuss a roadmap for tackling terror and evolved a consensus for further political and diplomatic action.

Explosions from fighting at the Taj Mahal hotel could be heard outside the hotel early Saturday morning, and flames and thick, inky-black smoke were seen pouring from the first floor. Following that final operation, the security forces came out of the hotel at midday to a cheering crowd who walked up to shake hands, express gratitude and shout patriotic slogans. Before they climbed the bus, a few turned to look back at the imposing stone building and clicked pictures with their cell phone cameras. Many spectators queued up to get their photographs taken with the troops.

One commando spoke to TV reporters from the window of the bus and said that the slain gunmen were moving between the second and the third floor and had laid explosives near doorways to prevent entry. He also said that two gunmen were inside a room full of explosives when the commandos finally blasted their way in. During the night long operation, eight live grenades were diffused, and the commandos recovered assault rifles, grenades and ammunition. Every crisis has its defining images. In Mumbai, it was the elegant Taj engulfed in flames. "It hurts my heart. It's like India itself is on fire," said Sanjay Jadhu, 43, a firefighter at the landmark hotel who was covered in soot.

Freed hostages said that many of those trapped did not come face to face with the gunmen but hid after hearing explosions and gunfire and receiving text messages and calls from loved ones telling them what was happening.