37 hours later
10.20am - The Trident has been cleared of terrorists and everyone has been evacuated. Two or three terrorists are believed to be holed up in the Oberoi (adjoining tower in the same complex). The Taj continues to burn and still not much luck with Nariman House, even though commandos being airdropped on the roof.
Apparently, the NSG has termed this business Operation Black Thunder. Clearly none of them are keeping an eye on Robert Downey Jr’s upcoming releases in India.
11.55am - There are now helicopters circling over the Taj. Let’s not forget all this is to combat less than three terrorists in there, of which one is injured, and they’re all in their early twenties.
1.15pm - Rumours of fresh rounds of firing at CST, which Headlines Today and Times Now say are confirmed. Except, of course, that they’re not. There is however fresh firing at the Taj.
UPDATE: It’s 6.05pm and I’ve just come back from a walk around Colaba and Nariman Point. While the operation sounds like it’s over at the Trident and Oberoi, in Colaba the situation is much more grim and the inane behaviour of many journalists as they try to get as close to the Taj as possible isn’t helping. Further down in Colaba at Nariman House, it’s seriously intense. Window grills have been ripped out, shattered glass all around and the constant ricochet of bullets. In the silence, every shot echoes. A colleague who lives four buildings away has pictures of kids playing cricket on the roof while commandos stand guard in the rooftop just behind them. I can’t decide whether it’s chilling or uplifting.
6.40pm - All terrorists at Nariman House are killed. There have been significant casualties, including five hostages, an NSG major and one commando. At 7.17pm, Barkha Dutt informs us that the operation is not over. Crowds are cheering but as Dutt informs us, it’s actually chaos. The operation is not over. Rumours are abound that two terrorists have escaped. There are so many people outside, perched on roofs and generally on the street, that I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if there are armed terrorists inside looking to wreak havoc.
7.45pm - Official report: There are no survivors in Nariman House. Five hostages are dead.
7.51pm - Fresh firing at the Taj.
7.58pm - More explosions at Nariman House. Hopefully, these are clean-up operations.
At 11.24, Nariman House has finally been taken. The final assault continues at Taj. Supposedly, there is only one terrorist in there.
CORRECTION: It’s not Operation Black Thunder but Operation Black Tornado. At Taj, it’s been named Operation Cyclone.
The arrest of one of the terrorists and the subsequent interrogation has led to the following information: Forty terrorists make up the teams that were involved in these operations. There are/ were 29 Pakistanis and the rest are Bangladeshis. A group of them came to India a week ago while the others came over more recently by sea. This quite obviously contradicts the interview two separate terrorists had with the channel India TV (transcript here). My faith in India TV’s reportage is minimal (they make Headlines Today seem positively restrained; thank you, o media gods, for NDTV and CNN-IBN) but who knows? Maybe these guys got bored. The other major concern is that if there were indeed 40 terrorists then where are the ones whom we can’t account for, given we’ve been told that each siege location had less than 10 terrorists?
on Thursday, November 27th, 2008, 9:47 pm in Mumbai › 
Email this
› 
Retweet
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
A railway official said there was no firing at VT, false alarm– someone heard a loud noise and people ran out in panic.
NDTV: Commandos using grenade launcher at Taj. At least 4 journies and bystanders outside Taj hit by bullets or shrapnel.
Let’s not forget all this is to combat less than three terrorists in there, of which one is injured, and they’re all in their early twenties.
I hope you didnt mean that it was excessive precaution. Cos as we have seen many times before less than three is enough to do major damage. It was perhaps an earlier lack of paranoia that probably led to the death of 3 selfless Mumbai Cops.
A commando force is only as good as its equipment. India has been trying for years to get advanced gear without much luck. I bet they don’t have heat sensors.
The latest: Nariman House has been taken and the police has taken it over. The fighting is going on at the Taj. Rumour has it a new batch of 20 NSG commandos have been sent in. It’s still just one terrorist in there.
Two chaps can be seen moving around what was Wasabi (the most expensive restaurant in Mumbai) so clearly, the one terrorist theory is a touch flawed.
random notes
- bjp ad in newspaper has a dia going out - stresses security. congress ad evokes its track record of growth.
- cover story says singh is gambling by asking shujaa to come to india rather than go to war. yes war is possible.
- sad story of chef rego calling dad on the phone as he lay dying. his last words were dada, and then silence.
- chairman of yes bank dead.
- point to be noted. commissioner of police for mumbai is muslim. shoulndt be a point. but noting for the idiots.
- newspaper contrasts the mumbai policeforce with commandoes. summary - underprepared, undertrained, under equippe, underfunded.
- marcos trains with israeli counter terrorism force. israel and uk intelligence aid was rejected by india fyi
- son of rabbi picked up by employee of chabad house as she escaped.
- chabad/nariman house had a daring assault by commandoes who rappeled down from helicopters
- the trawler which was hijacked had its owner murdered b the terrorists. his throat was slit.
- the captured terrorist is singing. says there were 16 of them and they planned to escape back to pakistan.
- captured terrorist is from faridkot in pok.
- canadian news coverage is prett shitty, probably same as u.s. - and forums are full of worrying pussies wringing their hands.
- indian news worry about loss of brand india. wrong idea.
- business is going on despite drop in share prices of india hotels and major airlines. flights are proceeding as normal. no extra security at airports. only major change is delay n flights from bangkok but thats another issue
After 60 hours, it’s finally over. The terrorists ultimately were smoked out by the NSG. One has been captured alive while two were found dead, along with some arms and ammunition. There’s still very little idea of the casualties because the sanitisation process is still going on.
The Mumbai Mirror has an exclusive with the terrorist captured earlier, Azam Amir Kasav, 21 year-old from Faridkot. He apparently lost his nerve when he saw his colleague’s dead body and offered to cooperate. According to him, the terrorists have also killed two coast guards, which remains to be confirmed. After some interrogation by the police, he told medical staff that he no longer wanted to live and could they please kill him.
The GM of Taj who is a friend has lost his wife and kids, I can’t believe what has happened to my city.
umber desi, how terrible!
This was a coward work. The whole operation lost the NSG commando. i think this information is not complete.