M A I N   N E W S

Oberoi cleared, battle on at Taj
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service

A man holds his child as he comes out after being rescued from Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai on Friday. — PTI

Mumbai, November 28
After a siege that lasted nearly 42 hours, commandos of the National Security Guard rescued the last batch of 148 guests, including several foreigners, holed up at the Trident Hotel of the Oberoi group at the downtown Mumbai’s Nariman Point area this afternoon.

The last of the group of terrorists, who had taken the hotel at around 9.15 pm on Wednesday, was killed by the commandos some time after 1 pm and soon the property was declared sanitised by the security forces. Commandos, police officials and members of the hotel staff then went around the hotel to enumerate guests still holed up in the hotel before they were herded on to waiting buses and moved to alternative accommodations nearby.

Police officials later said several bodies had been found in the hotel and the process of identifying them was on. Hotel employees, Indian and foreign guests and people who were dining at the Trident’s restaurants on the ill-fated night were among the casualties.

“We have taken complete control of the Trident-Oberoi Hotel,” Jyoti Krishan Dutt, chief of the NSG told reporters later this afternoon. He added that six bodies were recovered from the hotel. “We have recovered two AK-47 assault rifles, one pistol and grenades, some unexploded, from the terrorists,” he said. Representatives from a number of consulates were present outside the Oberoi to extend assistance to the foreigners.

Foreigners walk towards a bus after being evacuated from the besieged Trident-Oberoi Hotel. — Reuters

Pitched battles were continuing at the Taj Palace and Hotel near the famed Gateway of India which was also taken by terrorists around the same time as the Trident-Oberoi. More than 400 commandos of the NSG and the Marine Commandos are conducting combing operations in both buildings where pitched battles are being fought with terrorists.

The exact number of terrorists are still not clear to security officials.

More than 45 small explosions were heard from the Taj till evening as commandos and terrorists traded fire. Fire had broken out from the first floor of the hotel where pitched battles were being fought.

At one point terrorists opened fire at mediapersons assembled outside the Taj Hotel injuring two of them and another bystander.

According to data released by the Union Home Ministry early evening today, eight foreign nationals were dead and 22 injured in the terror attack, increasing the toll to 13.

A hostage, held back by a co-hostage, peeks from a window of the Trident Hotel before being rescued. — Reuters

Mumbai police commissioner Hassan Gafoor said the number of dead has been pegged at 143 while 337 persons have been injured in the series of terror attacks on Wednesday. The dead foreigners include one Australian, a Briton, a Canadian, an Italian and a Japanese national. The rest haven’t been identified.

Also among the dead were two commandos of the NSG including Maj Sandeep Unnikrishnan who led one of the teams that conducted the raids at the Taj. The number of policemen who died since Wednesday has been pegged at 17.

Seven terrorists have been killed so far and the commandos have taken a number of them alive. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil told reporters that interrogation of the terrorists revealed that some of them were Pakistani nationals and had entered India via Karachi.

The number of dead and injured will be revised upwards as NSG commandos who stormed the three premises speak of a large number of dead and injured. One of them from the Marine Commandos (MarCos) said he counted at least 50 bodies with 15 persons dead in just one of the rooms in the Taj.

The MarCos commander clad in black mask and sunglasses to hide his identity told reporters at the headquarters of the Western India naval command that the terrorists had with them international currency and credit cards from several prominent banks apart from dry fruits and ammunition for a long holdout. Also recovered were grenades from China. He added that the commandos also recovered 400 rounds of ammunition and plastic explosives from the Taj.

The commando said the terrorists had very good knowledge about the layout of the Taj Hotel and had even planned their escape after carrying out the attack. All the terrorists were young men below the age of 30 and very well trained, the leader of the commandos said. He added that the commandos had to take help from the hotel staff about the property’s layout while conducting combing operations.

Nariman secured, five hostages killed

The security agencies finally cleared the Nariman House of the terrorists this evening after a pitched battle lasting more than 46 hours. Four terrorists were killed in the operation, sources from the security agencies said and added that they could not save the lives of five hostages.

Five hostages in the Nariman House where the Chabad Centre, a meeting place for Israelis, is located have been killed. It is still not clear whether they were killed by terrorists or hit in a crossfire between commandos and the gunmen.

Reports say the victims included the centre’s director, Gavriel Holzman, a rabbi, and his wife Rivka. Both were shot on Wednesday night. The couple's two-year-old son Moshe and the family's maid along with another employee ran out of the premises on Thursday.