By Quaid Najmi, IANS,
Mumbai : At least 17 people, including a foreign tourist, were killed and many more injured as terrorists struck in yet another series of planned and synchronised attacks in the heart of India’s financial capital around midnight Wednesday. Their targets included the city’s busiest railway station and two five-star hotels, police and officials said.
A nationwide alert was sounded and all airports in the country put on high security surveillance following the attacks that came less than a month after over 50 people died in serial terror bombings in the northeastern state of Assam.
“This is a most audacious attack. It is a very serious situation and gun battles are still on in at least three places,” said Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Ghafoor said the attacks were suspected to be “coordinated terrorist acts”, and added that automatic weapons like AK-47 and AK-56 and semi-automatic rifles were apparently used.
It appeared that small groups of heavily armed terrorists sneaked into busy public places, mostly in south Mumbai, in the dead of the night spreading panic in the crowded metropolis that has been a target of terror attacks in recent years.
Many of the locations targeted, mostly in upscale south Mumbai, were favourite destinations of foreign tourists.
Maharashtra Director General of Police A.N. Roy said: “At least seven places have been attacked. The figure could be eight.
“The terrorists have gone in and fired indicriminately at certain places. There are still holed up in three places and gun-battles have been on (with security forces).”
The three locations are the Hotel Taj Intercontinental, Hotel Trident and the GT hospital.
Two terrorists were killed near Chowpati beach while two more were arrested near Tardeo in the wee hours of Thursday, police said.
Five people were killed in a bomb blast targetting a taxi in Vile Parle. The taxi was blown to pieces, police said.
Police officials said suspected terrorists opened fire at police and paramilitary forces outside the Hotel Taj Intercontinental in south Mumbai between 10.15 p.m. and 10.30 p.m.
The police officials, who refused to speak on record because it was too early to confirm anything, said firing was on near the five-star hotel where around 2,000 guests and staff were stranded.
The body of a foreign woman guest was recovered from the Taj Hotel and two terrorists were holed up inside the building, a police official said. She was not immediately identified and her nationality was not known.
At least 90 percent of the 22-storey building on the waterfront facing the Arabic Sea was plunged into darkness as authorities cut off power in a precautionary measure.
Minutes later, bullets were fired near the Hotel Trident (previously known as Hotel Oberoi) – another five-star hotel barely a kilometre away from the Taj. At least 1,000 tourists were inside the hotel, which is in a high-security zone and lies just behind the Air India and Maharashtra legislature buildings.
Those trapped in the two hotels included an unspecified number of foreign guests.
Suspected terrorists also opened indiscriminate firing near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST – previously known as Victoria Terminus), the headquarters of the Central Railway, which is a World Heritage building and remains crowded almost throughout the day.
A terrorist was hiding inside the railway terminus where thousands of people have been evacuated. As a precautionary measure, authorities suspended suburban and other railway services.
Later in the night, two bomb blasts, one in Vile Parle, a residential suburb in north Mumbai, and another in Mazgaon, also injured an unspecified number of people, the police officials said.
Later, firing also took place near the Metro cinema, barely a kilometre away from the CST. An eyewintess said the attackers hijacked a police vehicle after opening fire at two policemen in the vehicle.
All roads linking south Mumbai with the rest of the metropolis were barricaded. Antri-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials rushed to the targeted locations which were soon cordoned off.
Chief Minister Deshmukh urged people to maintain peace and calm even as a red aert was sounded across Maharashtra state.