Mumbai Terrorist Attacks, Shootings Kill 80 People, Injure 240

[Update: Mumbai terror attacks news update see here]

The New York Times reports that an uknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen said it had carried out the attacks. It was not known who the group is or whether the claim was real.

The Washington Post meanwhile quoted American officials that said they do not know who is behind the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India]

As many as 100 people were killed and 240 injured in the Indian city of Mumbai in grenade and gun attacks late yesterday, with five-star hotels among the sites targeted, officials said. Mumbai police said several senior officers were killed in the gun battles Wednesday night, including the head of the Anti-Terrorism Squad.

The Indian home minister, Shivraj Patil, said shortly after 1:30 a.m. that two suspected attackers had been killed.

New York Times reports:

Mumbai police control room said at least 75 people had died and 240 injured, according to preliminary reports.

Around midnight, more than two hours into the serial attacks, television images from near the Metro Cinema showed journalists and spectators ducking for cover as gunshots rang out. A fire raged inside the posh Oberoi Hotel, according to police. Television footage showed the charred shell of a car in front of Victoria Terminus railway station. A nearby gas station was blown up. The landmark Leopold’s Café, a favorite tourist haunt, was attacked.

Who did it?

“Al Qaeda obviously,” says an American terrorism expert interviewed by CNN, judging from the coordinated attacks which was a typical of Al Qaeda signature. However, as far as terrorism attack in India is concerned, many armed resistant groups could be suspected incuding but not limited to freedom fighters of Kashmir independence movement and some other separatist groups.

If Kashmir separatist is to blame, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LoT) is the likeliest perpetrator as this is the most radical group within the Kashmir separatist movement. There is a possibility also that LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) a Sri Lankan separatist group that has a strong support base in India which was involved in the assassination of India’s PM Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

Mohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert and author of Inside Al Qaeda, who’s interviewed by CNN said that the perpetrator could have been a local terrorists who are inspired by Al Qaeda type of attack.

Picture of Mumbai terror attack 27 November 2008 by BBCNews

Watch Live Video Streaming from CNN-IBN – a sister channel of CNN in India– here.

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Tags: al qaeda, india, kashmir, lashkar-e-taiba, lashkar-e-taibe, let, ltte, mumbai, mumbai terror, pakistan, terrorism

This entry was posted on November 26, 2008 at November 26, 2008 and is filed under Blogger Indonesia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Fans Bola
January 7, 2009 at 2:08 pm

waduh, paling males kalo ada aksi teror mengatasnamakan agama. Bikin nyesek

sekmen batola
March 5, 2009 at 4:37 am

Janganlah selalu Islam yang dipojokkan setiap kali ada perbuatan teror seperti itu. Contohnya di Indonesia yg mayoritas Islam, justru toleransinya tinggi. Namun di suatu negeri apabila islamnya minoritas terkadang sering jadi bulan-bulanan. Semoga islam di sana selalu diberi ketabahan dan kesabaran.