Nine die in India's first big attack since Mumbai

A bomb ripped through a restaurant popular with tourists in the western Indian city of Pune late on Saturday, killing nine people and casting a shadow over the resumption of Indo-Pakistan peace talks. Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai said earlier reports that a foreigner was among the dead had yet to be confirmed, but added that four Iranians, two Sudanese, one Taiwanese, one German and two Nepalese were among 57 people injured. It was the first major attack on Indian soil since the November 2008 Mumbai massacre -- blamed on the banned, Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba -- which prompted New Delhi to suspend dialogue with Islamabad.

The South Asian rivals had agreed just last week to resume talks, and the Pune blast triggered immediate opposition calls for that decision to be reviewed. "What was being targeted was a soft target where both foreigners and Indians, especially young people, congregate," India's Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters on Sunday after visiting the blast site and the wounded in hospital. The bomb, apparently left under a table in a backpack, went off in the German Bakery -- a popular eatery in the Koregaon Park area of the city -- at about 7.30 pm local time (2pm GMT). An unnamed waiter, injured in the blast, told the NDTV 24x7 news channel from his hospital bed that he alerted his manager after seeing an unaccompanied red and black bag. "My employer told me to go find out who it belonged to. While I was on my way, someone outside asked for water. It was while I was getting the bottles that the bomb went off," he said. "The men and women sitting there all died," he added.

Another eyewitness described a scene of carnage, with body parts littered around the immediate site of the blast. "There is no German Bakery anymore," he said. "There were bodies everywhere. We tried to help carry them into the ambulances." All Indian states have been put on high alert, while the Telegraph newspaper in the eastern city of Kolkata said security would be increased for Sunday's India-South Africa Test match. Pune, a key education hub with a growing IT industry, is about 100km south-east of Mumbai and the blast carried echoes of the deadly 2008 attack on India's financial capital by 10 Islamist gunmen, in which 166 people were killed. The German Bakery is only 183m from an ashram, or religious retreat, specialising in meditation courses run by a Swiss-based firm Osho International.

David Headley, a United States-Pakistani national awaiting trial in the United States for allegedly scouting out possible targets in the Mumbai attacks, is believed to have stayed in the ashram on a trip to Pune, the government said. Headley (49) has pleaded not guilty to 12 terrorism-related charges and remains in custody in Chicago. The bakery was also close to Chabad House, a Jewish cultural and religious centre run by the orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement whose members were targeted in the Mumbai attacks. "Chabad House was surveyed by David Headley," said Chidambaram. "It's premature to say whether this particular incident is related to that. "We will have to wait for the investigation to find out who was behind it ... We are ruling out nothing. We are ruling in nothing."

Prakash Jawadekar, a spokesperson for the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, said the government should now reconsider the resumption of talks with Pakistan, which has been scheduled for February 25. "Terror and talks cannot go together" Jawadekar told reporters after visiting the blast site in Pune.

Chronology of attacks

2003
March: Eleven people killed in a bomb attack aboard a commuter train in Mumbai.

2004
August: Six people killed in two car bomb blasts in Mumbai.

2005
October: Three powerful bombs explode in busy New Delhi markets a day before an annual Hindu festival, killing 62 shoppers and leaving hundreds injured.

2006
March: Blasts in a train station and a temple in Varanasi, Hinduism's holiest city, leave 20 people dead, mostly devotees.
July: A series of seven high-powered blasts on suburban trains in India's business capital Mumbai kill 187 commuters and leave 800 injured. The attacks prompt India to freeze peace talks with Pakistan.
September: Thirty-eight people killed and more than 100 injured in three nearly simultaneous blasts, including one in a mosque, in the town of Malegaon in Maharashtra state.

2007
February: Attackers fire-bomb the Pakistan-bound Friendship Express passenger train, killing 66 passengers, mostly Pakistanis.
May: Eleven killed, 15 injured in blast at 17th century Mecca mosque in Hyderabad. Five more die when police fire at Muslim protesters.
August: At least 40 people killed and more than 50 others injured as two bombs rock a crowded outdoor auditorium and a popular eatery in the southern city of Hyderabad.
October: Two die in a low-intensity explosion in the Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan in the northern town of Ajmer. The Islamic shrine is equally popular among Hindus and Muslims of India and Pakistan.
November: At least 13 people die in bombings outside court buildings in three cities in the north state of Uttar Pradesh.

2008
May: Eight serial blasts tear through the northern Indian tourist city of Jaipur, killing 65 and injuring 150. A group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen" claims responsibility.
July 26: Eight bombs go off in the high-tech southern Indian city of Bangalore, leaving one dead and seven wounded. Indian Mujahideen claims to have struck again.
July 27: A string of 16 or more bombs hit the communally-tense western city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, killing 45 and injuring over 160. Indian Mujahideen sent a claim before the blasts.
September 13: A series of bomb blasts rock New Delhi, killing 22 and injuring 98 in busy, upmarket shopping areas of the Indian capital. Indian Mujahideen again claims responsibility.
October 30: A dozen bomb blasts rip through Guwahati, the main city of north-eastern Assam state, killing at least 71 people and injuring more than 300.
November 26-29: Ten gunmen, armed with explosive devices, launch a coordinated attack on various high-profile targets in Mumbai, killing 166 people. India blames the attack on Pakistan-based militants and suspends peace talks with Islamabad

Source: Mail & Guardian

Mumbai accused says he was framed

The man alleged to be the sole surviving gunman in last year's Mumbai attacks, Mohammad Qasab, has retracted a confession that he took part. Giving evidence in his defence, Mr Qasab, a Pakistani national, said he had been forced by police to confess after being repeatedly beaten up. He said he was not the man seen in pictures wielding an assault rifle during the attacks. Mr Qasab faces 86 charges, including waging war on India and murder. The November 2008 attacks left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen, and strained ties between India and Pakistan.

The BBC's Prachi Pinglay said Mr Qasab looked calm in court as he repeatedly denied having anything to do with the attacks, insisting he had been framed by the police. A special court in Mumbai (Bombay) is prosecuting him and a verdict in the case is expected early next year. Giving evidence in court, Mr Qasab said that all previous confessions he had given in relation to the attacks were false and made under duress. He said that an identity parade in which he took part had been "manipulated" by police.He said that he had never been to any of the locations where the attacks took place and prior to his appearance in court had never even seen an AK-47 assault rifle. He said that numerous eyewitness accounts of his role in the attacks were "completely wrong".

Mr Qasab said that Mumbai police had arrested him 20 days before the attacks on a beach in the state of Maharashtra and later went on to frame him. He said he was in custody when the attacks took place. He told the court that the man widely photographed as the sole surviving gunman in the attacks "was not me, but someone who resembles me". In what our correspondent says was an apparent sign of his lack of belief that he will receive a fair trial, Mr Qasab urged the judge in the case to send him to jail as soon as possible.

On Wednesday the prosecution concluded its case in the trial. In all, 610 witnesses have testified since the case began in March. Our correspondent says that Mr Qasab's latest comments mean that the main defence argument is one of identity. Mr Qasab originally denied the charges against him but in July, in a dramatic outburst in court, he admitted his role and asked to be hanged. His plea was not accepted and the trial continued.

Following the attacks, India suspended peace talks with Pakistan. After initial denials, Pakistan acknowledged that Mr Qasab was one of its citizens and that the attacks had been partially planned on its territory. Last month, a court in Pakistan charged seven people in connection with the attacks, including the suspected mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is the alleged head of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Source: BBC

Pak anti-terror court declares Lakhvi as 26/11 mastermind

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court formally charged seven suspects, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, on Wednesday with planning and helping execute the Mumbai attacks, an action that came a day before the first anniversary of the brazen assault. The court also declared 16 people, including Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist, as "proclaimed offenders". The crew members of the two boats that ferried the 10 attackers to Mumbai are among them, sources said. Anti-terrorism court Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan, who is conducting the trial at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for security reasons, framed the chargesheet against Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum.

The court also rejected the bail pleas of some of the accused. The suspects protested as charges against them under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Pakistan Penal Code were read out, sources said. All seven pleaded not guilty, their lawyers said. The chargesheets came after an agonising spell of delays with India accusing Pakistan of not being serious in bringing to book the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks. Shahbaz Rajput, one of the defence lawyers, said that the accused had pleaded not guilty as the charges against them were not backed up by evidence.

Lakhvi and the six other suspects were charged with providing accommodation and training facilities to the attackers as they prepared for the assault, the sources said. Kasab and nine others reached Mumbai through sea route on November 26, 2008 and targeted several places, including Taj Mahal Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, killing 166 people, including foreigners. The accused were also charged with arranging transportation, including boats, and communication equipment, including mobile phone sets and internet-based communication gear, for the terrorists, the sources said.

The court scheduled the next hearing of the case for December 5. At the last hearing of the case on Monday, the defence lawyers had contended that Kasab should be brought to Pakistan to face trial with the other accused. They had said that since Kasab is the lone surviving attacker and his confession to Indian authorities formed a crucial part of the case built by Pakistani authorities against their clients, he should be brought to Pakistan to face trial. Reporters are barred from covering the in-camera proceedings of the anti-terror court and there was no official word on today's proceedings. The indictment of the suspects had been expected for some time as the Federal Investigation Agency, which probed Pakistani links to the attacks, had drawn up its first chargesheet as far back as May. Since then, the judge has been changed twice.

The trial also became mired in confusion and controversy after the accused claimed the court had tried to indict them in the absence of their lawyers. They filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, which said the anti-terror court could proceed with the indictment only after addressing the grievances of the accused.

Source: BBC

Dozens still held hostage in Mumbai after night of terror attacks

Dozens of people were being kept hostage by gunmen in India's financial capital Mumbai today, more than 12 hours after coordinated attacks on luxury hotels, popular restaurants, a rail terminus and an ultra-orthodox Jewish centre. The Maharashtra state police chief, AN Roy, said the hostage situation had ended at the Taj Mahal hotel but there were still apparently hostages in the Oberoi hotel.

The death toll has risen to 101 with more than 300 people injured. Police and gunmen exchanged heavy gunfire early this morning. Several people managed to flee the Taj hotel, the roof of which was destroyed after heavy fires raged through the night. "People who were held up there [Taj hotel], they have all been rescued," Roy told the NDTV news channel. "But there are guests in the rooms, we don't know how many." "That is why the operation is being conducted more sensitively to ensure there are no casualties of innocent people."

At noon local time (6.30am GMT) two bodies covered with white sheets were wheeled out of the Taj hotel entrance and put in ambulances. During the night a series of explosions had rocked the building. At the nearby Oberoi hotel, soldiers could be seen on the roof of neighboring buildings. A banner hanging out of one window read "Save us. We did not know anything, we just heard gunshots. It was a long night for us," said Nasim Desai, a South African visiting her family in India.

Indian television reported that a Singaporean woman had called her embassy and asked Indian security forces not to attack the Oberoi or the terrorists would kill her. Officials at Bombay hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a Japanese man had died there and nine Europeans had been admitted, three of them in a critical condition with gunshot wounds. All had come from the Taj Mahal hotel, the officials said.

Gunmen seized the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group, Chabad Lubavitch. Indian commandos surrounded the building this morning and witnesses said gunfire could be heard from inside. A spokesman for the Lubavitch movement in New York, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, said attackers "stormed the Chabad house" in Mumbai. "It seems that the terrorists commandeered a police vehicle which allowed them easy access to the area of the Chabad house and threw a grenade at a gas pump nearby," he said. The home secretary for Maharashtra state, Bipin Shrimali, said four suspects were killed when they tried to flee in cars, while four more gunmen were reported killed at the Taj Mahal hotel. Officials said nine more had been arrested but gave no further details.

Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamist militants, including a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people. An Indian media report said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen [it was later established that Lashkar-e-Taiba had claimed responsibility for the latest attacks in emails to several media outlets. There was no way to verify the claim. Mumbai was today turned into a ghost town, with the normally chaotic and crowded streets eerily still. The only movement was by police, army and commando units making their way through labyrinthine back alleys. The state government ordered schools, colleges and the Bombay stock exchange to close for the day. "We blame the intelligence - the government spends so much money and nothing happens. Then these people come and do whatever they want," said one local resident, Richard Madhavan, 34.

Many Mumbai residents have experienced similar violence before, either in the form of bombings or gunfights between mobsters and police. But no one was prepared for the running gun battles or the coordinated execution of last night's violence. "Bombay's streets are used to violence," said Dinesh Bhandari, 41. "Tomorrow we'll be back to work."

Source: The Guardian
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