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| We have clinching evidence: Govt |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi/Mumbai Nov 28, 2008, 00:35 IST |
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 Delhi knows how it happened. Armed with AK-47 rifles, machine guns and a stockpile of hand grenades, the Mumbai terrorists landed from the sea route at Sassoon docks, close to the Taj hotel.
According to M L Kumawat, special secretary in charge of internal security in the Ministry of Home Affairs, the terrorists opened fire first at Leopold Cafe at 9.21 pm and then moved on to the Oberoi Trident hotel, the Taj hotel, Colaba, the Times of India building, Bombay Municipal Corporation building, KAMA hospital, GT hospital, SBI branch and CST railway station in that order and fired the last shots at 12.32 am.
But Mumbai does not know how it happened: 24 hours after the event, the Maharashtra government continued to be in the dark about the identity of the group behind the attacks, how many terrorists had entered the city, how many hostages had been taken and how many casualties the attacks had caused. Speaking at a press conference, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy R R Patil said: “These are issues of investigations right now.”
However, it is still a mystery as to which group was behind the blast in a taxi in the western suburb of Vile-Parle or how within 30 minutes they could reach so deep inside the city.
According to Kumawat, the terrorists, who appeared to be moving in two or three groups, were fired at by a patrol party near the Metro police station in which one of them was killed and another injured. The badly injured terrorist, whose identity is being kept secret, is in J J Hospital and has given vital clues to the police.
“We have clinching evidence about the identity of the terrorists and from where they came,” said Kamawat in his highly guarded statement before the media. He said the “government was constrained in not revealing all the details since it would help the terrorists, who still have hostages in their captivity.” He, however, said “clinching evidence will be made public by tomorrow”.
Another important feature of the attack was the death of three senior police officials, including Anti Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and senior inspector — who was known as encounter specialist — Vijay Salskar. Another senior official, Additional Commissioner Sadanand Date, was injured.
According to Patil, Date was engaged in a gunbattle with terrorists outside the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters located near the CST station. Karkare, who was returning home after a meeting at Patil's house, heard about the attack on the wireless and decided to go to the spot, where he found his injured colleague and the terrorists fleeing using a police jeep. So he decided to chase them in Salaskar’s official jeep. He was joined by Kamte. All three received fatal injuries while chasing the terrorists’ vehicle during the exchange of fire.
Besides Karkare, Kamte and Salskar, 11 other policemen including two officials died in the attack. So far, nine persons have been arrested on suspicion. “Seven terrorists have been killed so far,” Patil said. Home ministry sources said: “Wireless intercepts of the terrorists, which were picked up by the security forces, gave away their identity as being from Pakistan.”
Sources said that the “Mumbai attack had striking similarities with the attack on Bali, Indonesia, in October 2002”. The Al Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the Bali attack.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil flew to Mumbai late last night and was back in the morning to brief the PM and the Union Cabinet on the crisis. The National Security Guard (NSG), Army, Coast Guard and Rapid Action Force (RAF) had joined the operations against the terrorists.
Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar held a meeting of heads of defence forces, paramilitary forces and the intelligence agencies to take stock of the situation.
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