Gunmen attack hotels, train station in deadly Mumbai wave of terror
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Thursday, November 27th 2008, 2:48 AM
Terrorists took over Mumbai Wednesday, attacking up to a dozen locations, killing at least 101 people and spreading chaos across the rich island city dubbed the "New York of India."
Foreign tourists were taken hostage at three five-star hotels by terrorists so young witnesses took them for boys.
"The whole city is being held hostage," terrorism expert Sajjan Gohel told CNN after talking to friends who were huddled inside one of the hotels.
The terrorists stalked luxurious lobbies and banquet halls looking for anyone with an American or British passport.
Outside, cops and machine gun-toting terrorists waged pitched battles in the streets of the former Bombay, the world's fifth-largest metropolis.
Two gunmen in a stolen police van drove around shooting randomly at pedestrians and flinging grenades.
At one point, the upper floors of the Taj Mahal Palace, a 1903 landmark and one of the world's most famous hotels, were engulfed in flames as hostages were still being held inside.
Screams and gunfire could be heard from inside.
As dawn broke, police with loudspeakers called for a curfew around the hotel and ambulances pulled up to its ornate entrance.
NDTV quoted a witness who saw a Taj stairwell "full of dead bodies."
Officials said they killed four gunmen and arrested nine. An unknown number of others were still at large.
A little-known group calling itself Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility.
On Sept. 15, a group called the Indian Mujahedeen e-mailed a threat of attacks on Mumbai to retaliate for the city's police harassing Muslims.
The attacks came one day after Interpol reportedly arrested Rahil Sheikh, a mastermind of the Mumbai subway bombings carried out by the Student Islamic Movement of India that killed 187 people in July 2006.
A man who identified himself as Sahadullah told India TV he was among seven militants holding hostages inside the luxury Oberoi Hotel.
"We want all mujahedeens held in India released and only after that we will release the people. Release all the mujahedeens, and Muslims living in India should not be troubled," he said.
Wednesday's coordinated attacks began at 9:30 p.m. local time - 11:30 a.m. in New York.
Terrorists opened fire at random with AK-47s and grenades inside the city's central train station, at three luxury hotels, at Leopold Caf??© - the city's most famous tourist hangout - and at a children's hospital, among other places.
"Bodies starting falling down. I saw people crying, in pain. Bullets. Bloodshed. Everything," said one shell-shocked witness who saw masked gunmen open fire in the Taj lobby.
"At least six foreigners have been killed and the death figure has gone up to 101 now," Ramesh Tayde, a senior police officer, told Reuters from Mumbai's control room, adding that 287 people were injured.
The city's most famous cop, crusading "encounter specialist" Vijay Salaskar, was killed in a gunfight. So was Hemant Karkare, the high-profile head of the anti-terror unit.
Condemnation and offers of help poured in from everywhere.
"We stand with the people of India, whose democracy will prove far more resilient than the hateful ideology that led to these attacks," President-elect Barack Obama said in a statement.
The first shots appear to have been fired at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Station, the city's Grand Central, where many bodies were littered.
Gunmen sprayed bullets in the main concourse. After panicked straphangers fled, leaving behind the dead, two gunmen reportedly took a position on a train and staged a gun battle with police commandos.
Among those trapped in the Taj hotel were captains of industry and three members of Parliament who had been dining in the hotel's swanky restaurant.
Businessman Rakesh Patel told Indian TV he and a friend were captured - but escaped.
"We were having dinner when two young boys came to the restaurant. They took us up to the 18th floor. I think they were trying to get to the roof. Me and my friend escaped down the fire exit," he said.
"They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts," said Patel, his face smudged with smoke.
Briton Sajjad Karim, 38, a member of the European Parliament, spoke to Sky News by cell phone from a barricaded basement room in the Taj, where a large number of guests were hiding.
He described terrorists opening fire at random in the gracious lobby.
"Some of us split one way and some another. A gunman just stood there spraying bullets around, right next to me.
"I saw a number of people go down, but I was fortunate enough to get away," he said. "I ran into the hotel kitchen... We are now in the dark in this room and we have barricaded all the doors. It's really bad."
Then his phone died.
The nearby Oberoi hotel was evacuated after a huge explosion set fire to the building.
Soldiers could be seen escorting chambermaids, children and executives out of the hotel. Injured guests were rushed out on makeshift stretchers: shiny brass hotel luggage carts.
British businessman Alex Chamberlain told Sky News he escaped from his captors at the Oberoi by posing as a foreigner.
"They told everybody to stop and put their hands up and asked if there were any British or Americans. My friend said to me, 'Don't be a hero; don't say you are British,'" he said.
At the Trident hotel, explosions could be heard for several hours after the initial attack.
Businessman Alan Jones told the BBC of his elevator doors opening onto the lobby slaughter.
"We heard bangs as the door opened," he said. "A Japanese man, one of four men in the lift, was shot and wounded at that precise moment. I frantically pressed the 'close door' button but had to move the shot man's foot for the doors to close."
hkennedy@nydailynews.com
