MUMBAI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The gunmen who attacked Mumbai killing at least 155 people wanted to go down in history for an Indian 9/11, and were also inspired by the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, media reports said.
They had planned every detail, knew the layout of the Taj Mahal and Trident Oberoi hotels they targeted, had commando-style training and even had snacks such as dry fruit stuffed in their backpacks. The capture of one of the militants, a clean-shaven, fluent English-speaking 21-year-old from Pakistan according to reports, has highlighted the ambitious plans of the Islamist group.
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| This image taken from NDTV shows one of the militants as he enters the train station in Mumbai on Wednesday |
“The entire idea was to replicate the JW Marriott at the Taj,” Times Now television reported, quoting a defence official present at the interrogation of Azam Amir Kasav.
He was referring to one of Pakistan's worst bomb attacks, when a lorry packed with explosives all but destroyed the hotel in Islamabad and killed at least 55 people in September.
“They wanted to reduce the symbols of economic strength to rubble, the Taj and Trident, so they cannot be rebuilt,” Times Now said. “They talked of a 9/11 to bring down the buildings.” Their methods were different but the impact was huge. The militants, all young men, knew exactly their targets, including cafes and hotels frequented by executives and tourists. It was only when elite “Black Cats” commandos, the same force that guards Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, arrived to tackle the remaining militants holed up in the Taj, the Trident Oberoi and a Jewish centre, that the tide appeared to turn.
At least three gunmen battled India's best-trained commandos for two days in the maze of corridors in the Taj Hotel, setting fire to places as they moved from floor to floor.
“At times we found them matching us in combat and movement,” one commando told the Hindustan Times. “They were either army regular or have done a long stint of commando training. They were behaving the way Indian commandos would have.”
The militants’ rucksacks were packed to the brim with ammunition, six to seven magazines with 50 bullets each, and grenades. They had satellite phones, credit cards. They were in for the long haul.“These people were very, very familiar with the hotel layout and it appeared they had carried out a survey before,” the chief of the elite Naval Commando Unit, told reporters. “A very determined lot, remorseless.” In one four-to-five-hour gunbattle, the militants retreated through a hidden door in the hotel. The troops did not know even the door existed, the Hindustan Times reported.
Meanwhile AFP quoted Indian military sources as saying that eight of the Islamic militants involved in the attack on India's economic capital Mumbai infiltrated the city a month before the raid.
The sources said the pre-positioned militants, who posed as students, conducted “extensive reconnaissance missions as a prelude to the attacks”.
“These eight men rented a house posing as Malaysian students,” an intelligence source said on condition he was not named.
There were also believed to be other infiltrators who stockpiled weapons and ammunition, including in one of the two luxury hotels that were attacked.
They were joined on Wednesday evening, when the assault began, by a second group who reached Mumbai from the sea, the sources said.
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