Dear Daily Hate...'No Britons' Among Mumbai Killers

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

i.e. Mail, Express and Torygraph...

'No Britons' Among Mumbai Killers

A senior Indian official has said there is no evidence that any of the gunmen who killed 195 people in Mumbai were British.



Security services survey the burnt interior of the Taj hotel after the siege ended

Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra state's chief minister, was speaking as pictures emerged of the scorched interior of the five-star Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.


Police declared an end to the hostage crisis in Mumbai after commandos killed the last three gunmen who had been holed up in the hotel.
There has been speculation that some of the terrorists were Pakistanis of British origin, with some reports saying they came from Barnsley and Hartlepool.


But Mr Deshmukh told reporters:"There is no such authentic information, we totally deny this."


Intelligence sources say eight of the gunmen had been in the city preparing for the attacks for a month. Another 10 are thought to have come in by boat.


One Indian commando was also reportedly killed in the final exchanges at the five-star Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.


Mumbai police commissioner Hassan Gafoor said: "All operations are over. All the terrorists have been killed."


The last three militants and at least one trooper died after a running gun battle through a maze of corridors, rooms and halls, the country's commando chief, Jyoti Krishna Dutt, told a news conference.

Soldiers take up positions during the assault on the Taj hotel

He appealed to any guests still hiding in the hotel to come out, adding: "We are now going through each and every room to make sure it is safe."


The gunmen had set parts of the hotel ablaze as they played cat and mouse with scores of India's elite NSG commandos, known as the Black Cats.


The hotel was the final battleground after almost three days of fighting across the city of 18 million people.


A Mumbai police official said the death toll following the co-ordinated attacks stands at 195 and "still counting".


Authorities have said that 10 gunmen arrived in Mumbai by sea. An inflatable boat containing explosives was discovered.


A GPS satellite phone was recovered from the boat and could prove one of the best leads to discovering more about the terrorists and their movements.


Of the 10 who arrived in the city, nine have been killed and one captured, police said.


A larger boat, containing one dead body, has also been found off Mumbai. It is thought this may have been the launching point for the attack.

Mourners at the funeral of terror attack victim Harish Gohil

Sky News correspondent Lisa Holland, in Mumbai, described the end of the siege at the hotel. She said: "After 58hrs and 26 minutes the siege appears to have come to a conclusion and it does seem the situation is now under control."


She said that a fresh offensive, launched just after dawn, sparked "a series of dramatic explosions. The fire spread fairly dramatically from the first floor to a third floor ballroom."


Local journalist Mihir Joshi told Sky News that the fighting could still be heard.


"It's a strange scene right now ... armed forces are going all out," he said.
Heavy gunfire and explosions were heard from inside the hotel before the flames emerged.


Local television pictures located fire raging on the first floor at approximately 7.35am local time (about 2.05am UK time). Smoke was then seen billowing out of the building.


The Taj Mahal Palace hotel was targeted as gunmen struck in 10 incidents, all carried out in the space of two hours, leaving almost 200 dead and about 295 wounded.


Two other sieges - one at the Trident Oberoi hotel and another at a Jewish outreach centre - had already been concluded.

Moshe Holtzberg

Five hostages were found dead at the outreach centre, including a rabbi, Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, and his wife Rivkah. Their son Moshe, who turned two on Saturday, had been rescued by the family's nanny.


One Briton and five Americans are among at least 18 foreigners reported killed.


A number of Indian officials have suggested the militants were from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is notorious for a deadly attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 that almost pushed India and Pakistan into war.


:: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office says those concerned about their British friends and relatives should call +44 (0)20 700 800 00 and all Britons in Mumbai should stay indoors.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wor...ved_In_Attacks

!

[Nostalgia]

Wait a minute, that story comes from Sky News, one of media mogul Rupert Murdochs outlets who is probably some distant cousin to Conrad Black.
There must be an agenda here somewhere.

Originally Posted by Nostalgia

Wait a minute, that story comes from Sky News, one of media mogul Rupert Murdochs outlets who is probably some distant cousin to Conrad Black.
There must be an agenda here somewhere.

They were the first to break the news. 13hours before this appeared http://www.rinf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5472

[Nostalgia]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

They were the first to break the news. 13hours before this appeared http://www.rinf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5472

So which is the accurate account, the early one here from Rupert Murdoch's Sky News, or the late one from the left wing newspaper the Daily Record?
I guess we'll just have to dig a little deeper.

Originally Posted by Nostalgia

So which is the accurate account, the early one here from Rupert Murdoch's Sky News, or the late one from the left wing newspaper the Daily Record?
I guess we'll just have to dig a little deeper.

Clue; THERE IS NO EVIDENCE! WE'RE ONLY TALKING ABOUT IT BECAUSE SOME 'PERSON' WITH NO EVIDENCE SUGGESTED IT. WHY DID THEY SUGGEST IT WITH NO EVIDENCE? I CAN ONLY THINK THEY WANTED TO USE IT TO SUIT THEIR OWN AGENDA- I.E. TO ENCOURAGE DISTRUST OF BRITISH MUSLIMS- I.E. IN THE BNP HANDBOOK - BRITISH PEOPLE OF PAKISTANI ORIGIN. CLUE2- THE MAIL'S WEEKLY CAMPAIGN AGAINST MOSQUES AND MUSLIMS. THEY'RE MAKING MARIONETTES OF US! PULLING OUR STRINGS! SHEESH.

PS,
I'm saying here now, don't be fooled. THE WORKERS HAVE NO COUNTRY. YOU CANNOT TAKE FROM THEM WHAT THEY HAVE NOT GOT!

[Regina]

Unregistered, two things....please remember internet etiquette and don't shout at us! If you are the same unregistered who posted on the other thread, can I remind that both threads do not contain articles from the Mail!

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Unreg is me. BBC just said the attackers were all Pakistani nationals.

This started in the mail. That was the match. Not in this forum, no, but in the real world they were the first to run with the lies.

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/eve.../id/D94PCCE80/

Published Sunday, November 30, 2008
Police: Pakistani militant group with links to Kashmir behind Mumbai attacks

The Associated Press - MUMBAI, India
A senior Mumbai police official says the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the terrorist attacks that left at least 174 people dead.
Joint Crime Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria told reporters Sunday that the attackers were from "a hardcore group in the LeT."
The group has long been seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India in disputed Kashmir.
Earlier a U.S. counterterrorism official had said some "signatures of the attack" were consistent with Lashkar and another group that has operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al-Qaida.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
MUMBAI, India (AP) _ With corpses still being pulled from a once-besieged hotel, India's top security official resigned Sunday as the government struggled under growing accusations of security failures following terror attacks that killed 174 people.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who has become highly unpopular during a long series of terror attacks across India, submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who accepted it, according to the president's office.
The Cabinet reshuffle comes as a chorus of criticism about the government's handling of the Mumbai attacks grows louder.
"Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die," read a headline Sunday in the Times of India newspaper.
A day after the siege ended, authorities were still removing victims bodies from the ritzy Taj Mahal hotel, where three suspected Muslim militants made a last stand before Indian commandos killed them in a blaze of gunfire and explosions.
On Sunday, the waterfront landmark, popular among foreign tourists and Indian high society, was surrounded by metal barricades, its shattered windows boarded over. At the iconic Gateway of India basalt arch nearby, a shrine of candles, flowers and messages commemorated victims.
"We have been to two funerals already," Mumbai resident Karin Dutta said as she placed a small bouquet of white flowers for several friends killed in the hotel. "We're going to another one now."
The rampage was carried out by gunmen at 10 sites across Mumbai starting Wednesday night. At least 239 were wounded.
One site, the Cafe Leopold, a famous tourist restaurant and the scene of one of the first attacks, opened Sunday for the first time since the mayhem _ but police asked it to close just minutes later because they said the eatery needed permission first.
Mirrors, doors and paneling were riddled with bullet holes from the assault that killed seven people there.
"I want them (the attackers) to feel we have won, they have lost," restaurant manager Farzad Jehani said of the symbolic opening. "We're back in action."
The death toll was revised down Sunday from 195 after authorities said some bodies were counted twice, but they said it could rise again as areas of the Taj Mahal were still being searched. Among the dead were 18 foreigners, including six Americans. Nine gunmen were killed.
The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.
A previously unknown Muslim group called Deccan Mujahideen _ a name suggesting origins inside India _ has claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed more than 170 people. But Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman, now in custody, was from Pakistan and voiced suspicions of their neighbor.
Pakistan denied it was involved and demanded evidence.
Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, reiterated in an interview broadcast on ABC on Sunday that Pakistan stands ready to support India.
"Pakistan is a victim of terrorism. India is a victim of terrorism. The victims need to get together. Forget about our bitter history," he said.
But the assaults have raised fears among U.S. officials about a possible surge in violence between Pakistan and India. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars against each other, two over the disputed region of Kashmir.
Prime Minister Singh called a rare meeting of leaders from the country's main political parties to discuss the situation Sunday.
"In the face of this national threat and in the aftermath of this national tragedy, all of us from different political parties must rise above narrow political considerations and stand united," he said.
He added that authorities were strengthening maritime and air security and looking to create a new federal investigative agency. The attackers are believed to have landed in Mumbai by boat.
As officials pointed the finger at "elements in Pakistan," public ire over the government's actions widened.
"People are worried, but the key difference is anger," said Rajesh Jain, chief executive officer at a brokerage firm, Pranav Securities. "Does the government have the will, the ability to tackle the dangers we face?"
But J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite commandos, brushed off criticism that his unit, which had to fly from New Delhi to Mumbai, was slow to respond to the attacks.
"There was no delay," he told reporters Sunday.
But Patil, the former home minister, succumbed to the mounting criticism of the government's inability to prevent repeated terrorist attacks. To replace him, Singh tapped Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, a Harvard-educated lawyer who has been one of the most prominent faces in the administration.
Chidambaram, 63, served as Minister of Internal Security in the 1980s under slain Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Authorities say the gunmen may have arrived in Mumbai on a trawler that was found abandoned and drifting off the coast with a bound corpse aboard a day after the attacks started.
The government suspects they then transferred to a dinghy and docked at a fishermen's colony near the two hotels and Jewish center targeted in the assaults.
Local fishermen were suspicious of the group of young men, police inspector Dattatray Rajbhog said.
"The fishermen shouted at them and asked who they were and where they had come from. But they abused them and fled," he said.
Suspicions in Indian media quickly settled on the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India in disputed Kashmir.
A U.S. counterterrorism official said some "signatures of the attack" were consistent with Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed, another group that has operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al-Qaida.
President George W. Bush pledged full U.S. support for the investigation, saying the killers "will not have the final word." FBI agents were sent to India to help with the probe.
It was the country's deadliest terrorist act since 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai killed 257 people.
___
Associated Press writers Ravi Nessman, Ramola Talwar Badam, Erika Kinetz and Anita Chang contributed to this report from Mumbai, and Foster Klug and Lara Jakes Jordan contributed from Washington.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

[Nostalgia]

Did the independant get their story from the Mail too?

Four Mumbai terrorists 'had links with Britain'

According to one report, four of the terrorists, two of them dead, had connections with Britain. The Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told Associated Press that two British-born Pakistanis were among the eight gunmen arrested by Indian authorities.
However, British officials stressed they had not yet received "hard" evidence that the men were British nationals. "There is a hell of a lot going on at the minute and it is not just a matter of citizenship – that's a bit of a red herring," said one source. "We are trying to establish whether any of these men had been in this country and who they lived with, who they associated with, but it is very early days."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...n-1040233.html