As Ennis mentioned in the earlier post, there isn’t much we, as American bloggers, can add to the story from Mumbai as it continues to unfold on the ground. The time for blogging about the specifics will come in the next few days as more facts emerge. I recommend forgetting the news channels with their endlessly repeating video loops and paid talking heads. The best place to follow what is happening in Mumbai is to visit the wiki page created to compile all information about these attacks. It is continually being updated and the references section is terrific. There is also a Google Map of the region that has been created with all the attack sites highlighted.
Twitter has also been a great way to get details about what’s going on. Try typing Oberoi for example. “Terrorists trapped” also results in a slew of Tweets.
USE THE COMMENTS TO POST INFORMATIONAL FACTS or WORDS OF SYMPATHY ONLY. RIGHT NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR RECRIMINATIONS.
I think they’re just calling it “India’s 9/11” because that’s the most relevant frame of reference America can use, regardless of scale, motive, etc.
Prayers.
51 · sebs said
But it’s CNN IBN that seems to have latched on to it… every tragedy is it’s own. I wish we in India did not have to use such shortcuts…
In the face of such sorrow, words seem empty right now and trite, but I hope justice is served without any injustices. My sympathies are with all the families affected, particularly with the family of Ashok Kamte, one of the police officers killed. All who knew you/remember you are probably feeling emptier inside today.
I live in Mumbai and my office is across the road from the Oberoi. I spent last night there, and was evacuated at midday today Indian time. I know people who were in the Taj (who managed to get out at 4am this morning, thankfully) and another friend is still in the Oberoi and we have no way of getting in touch with him.
To say that it’s been a harrowing 24 hours is stating the obvious, but the fact remains that this is the first time that this war on terror has hit so close to home for me (and many others in Mumbai) because the places attacked are near where we work, where we eat, watch movies and so on. I just don’t understand how to react – have been numb the whole day.
Last night there was heavy police/paramilitary presence in NY Penn station while coming back from work. Didn’t realise then – now I know why. Terrorists often use India as a “dry-run” before perfecting their strategies for elsewhere.
M. Nam
54 Namita
I am glad you are safe, thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I am in shock too, and I don’t even live there anymore but I have many fond memories. I hope your friends come out of this ordeal in one piece. Wishing you all the best.
Sympathies esp. to Mutineers close to the action or who have friends/family there. I wish that CNN would essentially turn its coverage over to Asian CNN for chunks of time instead of just interrupting that kind f coverage with insane questions. I dunno, even if those outfits don’t have as much to say I think I would feel a little comforted hearing the regional/local perspective right now, unfiltered.
Here is a sorted list of the dead and injured.
Wow. It is pretty incredible how fast information is being collected.
My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims.
I am sad for the loss of life in the Mumbai attacks. The dastardly act of terror will not shake our resolve to stay united and we will defeat all divisive forces. We must simultaneously make sure we don’t compromise on our civil liberties to draconian laws. Some people are going to push for POTA bigtime using the deaths of innocent to narrow political gains. But we must win against both the extremes.
Raj:
Now is especially not the time for this sort of speculation.
Chilling photographs of the attackers here, here
61 · Raj said
Not only would that be unfair, it would be inappropriate, pointless and inaccurate. Please show some compassion and respect for others at such a difficult time.
Please heed the blogger’s call for sympathetic or informative comments. If you can’t type something nice, don’t.
My beautiful city in flames. I cry because there is nothing I can do. Beer and conversation at Leopold’s. Chinese at Golden Dragon and French at the Zodiac Grill. Walk up and down the causeway ignoring the touts and pimps, fish curry rice at Brindavan , Masala Dosa at Laxmi Vilas,Frankies at Aga Brothers, Biryani at Olympia, the last show at Regal-my beloved Colaba. Heal so we can do it again. For now we grieve.
The focus in on the hotels. Ordinary people were killed. Street vendors, folks waiting at a railway station. Very sad. This is a city that I lived in for a few months so can relate to the locations.
MNam – very true. the question is how many months will pass between the rehearsal and the actual event. Shopping centers and hotels are not exactly fotresses – nor can they be.
charge seemed to strongly suggest that they were from Pakistan. The captured guy is
also supposedly from Pakistan. Hopefully this will spur cooperation between the
respective governments.
Strange as this may seem, I consider this encouraging. For three reasons:
1)For all the training and money and the indoctrination, the so-called “sleeper cells” in India were not willing/competent/motivated enough to undertake such an operation.
2)The fact that they came all the way from Karachi, risking the revelation of their nationality, indicates that this was an act of desperation. It is an effort to stay in the limelight, without which the adrenalin gets dissipated and the organisation withers away. But the desperate operation ripped off the “deniability” veneer, and suggests that the organisation is no longer under the control of their political handlers.
3)The above also indicates that India is using very well the biggest asset any government has against terrorism — entropy. Of course, India is not using it intentionally, but wait-out-the-adrenalin is probably the most sensible strategy against terrorism, as proactive counter insurgency efforts (like Israel’s) only helps the organisation recruit more. If you resist long enough, most extremist organisations will eat themselves. And looks like we are reaching that point against the anti-India ones.
Overall, I would say we are witnessing the last hurrah. There will be more violence in the coming months, but this is the beginning of the end, especially if India and Pakistan cooperates on this, with or without the IMF twisting its knots.
I hope these events don’t cause a backlash against desi’s in the west
69 · Suki Dillon said
I was offered sympathy by many friends at work.
I hope someone in the Indian intelligence had enough sense to turn off the TVs in the hotel. What about outside contact? Can’t the terrorists call their buddies and find out what is going on outside via the live TV coverage? Let’s hope no Munich like blunders take place.
I was asked if wanted to go bombay
>>The focus in on the hotels. Ordinary people were killed. Street vendors, folks waiting at a railway station…
Correct. Comments from the US media not withstanding, attacks on these hotels do not automatically mean that just Brits and Americans were targeted. I know that an Indian company hosted a party for its employees in Taj, some of its employees are still unaccounted for. Some of the folks I know managed to avoid this only because they could not fit this party in their schedule as they are new parents.
I hope that this time around no Indian will forget this quickly. I hope Indian voters would not let this spineless government off the hook.
NDTV just said that one of the terrorist killed in Taj is from Pakistan.
There does’nt even seem to be an attempt to hide the pakistani participation.
Interview with one of the terrorists in Nariman House — The terrorist is speaking with a clear pakistani punjabi accent. (links from the BR forums) Hear it for yourselves
Part 1 http://ishare.rediff.com/filevideo-Terrorist-calling-himself-Sahadullah-spe-id-519886.php
Part 2 http://ishare.rediff.com/filevideo-2nd-Terrorist-speaks-from-Nariman-house-id-519881.php
I’ve thought about this as well. Violence exhausts itself eventually. “Eventually” is the operative word here. As the saying on Wall Street goes: “The market may stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent“. What if “eventually” is fifty years? Can Governments afford to keep two generations susceptible in the hope that violence will exhaust itself (even though, that is probably the right thing to do)? Would the common man understand when told “Continue with your life and work as if nothing as happened – attention is what the terrorists crave most and let’s not give it to them“?
M. Nam
PS: God. Someone please get Deepak Chopra off the TV! That bozo is linking Obama’s election to this event!! Someone please ask him about transcedental bliss to get him to talk about something else…
I’ve been glued to the TV since last night, watching it on different channels. Couldn’t help but notice that a large number of reporters had Muslim names and quite a few images of rescued/rescuers shown were visibly Muslim (men in topis, ladies in burkhas) . And they didn’t look happy either, so there you go terrorists.
For the first time ever myself and Moornam are in complete agreement 🙂
btw V.P.Singh is Dead.
76 · Abhi said
It’s a Thanksgiving miracle! 😉
The Twitter feed is also a good source for up-to-the-second information, but of course you have to separate the wheat from the chaff. I was following it until 3 am when I finally fell asleep.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23mumbai
@thetricksimple,
it isn’t all that surprising that muslims were part of the rescue teams, reporters, everything. people here in the west love the narrative this is all because of segregation and oppression, and therefore are surprised at these kinds of incidents.
the point is, while there is animosity between hindus and muslims, it is not an all pervading kill at sight kind. the reason i get pissed off with the ones who keep drumming that “this is all because of religious tensions” is that they are creating a self fulfilling prophecy with their idiocy.
put another way, even gruesome religious conflicts in india seem to be local and fizzle out if you keep them that way. but by fueling this religious conflict narrative makes sure ppl will victimize themselves and demonize others for no reason. for example, should a christian kid from kerala be suspicious of his hindu neighbors because some louts attacked churches in orissa? should a mumbaikar fear or react against muslim neighbors because of these terrorist who seem to have came in from karachi? even when the gujarat riots happened—note that no one else in any other part of the country followed them—and it wasn’t because of any heightened security anywhere else. clearly it was the modi regime mischief, not a reason for muslims in bengaluru to fear their hindu neighbors.
but look at ppl talk here—as if everyone needs to fear everyone else. do not encourage this please. you will become right tomorrow if you do.
That idiot Kapil Sibal is claiming that the attacks were actually designed to kill the police officers like Hemant Karkare.
Only if you’re narrow-minded.
Normally targets of terrorism in India have been middle class people in middle class neighborhoods, but this time its also hit the playground of the rich and powerful (Taj and Obroi) and the young and hip (Leopolds). Maybe this time the ruling elite will react differently than when mere proles died in far away local trains and middle class markets.
I’m writing in from London. The channels here had over 24 hours of nonstop Mumbai coverage now. CNN International here is not showing any other news, only intermittent headlines, and Mumbai has dominated. Its the same story with BBC News, Sky News and Fox News. These channels are frequently switching over to Star News (for Sky), NDTV and Zee Marathi (for Fox) and CNN-IBN (for CNN International).
I’ve been observing some peculiarities in the reporting between these channels and one of the bigger ones I’ve noticed (and happy that someone blogged about it) is that Fox News, which is one of the biggest news channels in the US, is showing an incorrect map of Mumbai. The overall coverage from UK and US though, is very sympathetic, helpful and supportive of India. Everyone is calling India a ‘major ally’ and there are discussions with terrorism experts on how this could have had a Pakistan hand in this. So overall a good help for Indian foreign policy (if there IS one) but the detailed coverage here means no tourists and definitely a big impact on the GDP this year.
For the wonderfully wrong map of Mumbai being shown on Fox News, go here. http://garbledzombie.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/fox-news-publishes-blatantly-wrong-mumbai-attack-map/#comment-1679
If you’re interested in video clips or a blog post on more such differences let me know and I’ll try and get something out.
I know this is a frustrating, emotional time, but please keep it on-topic/constructive. That way I’ll be allowed to leave this machine and eat something. Many thanks!
83 · thetrickisimple said
It’s kind of weird. Many of the effete Mumbai based bloggers who are always recounting their film debuts & soirees etc. keep referring to this as “India’s 9/11”. I just heard that jackass Vijay Mallaya repeating the same stupidity. Are they not aware that 180 Indians were killed in Mumbai trains in 2006? I guess that was not their 9/11 as people who matter don’t use mass transport.
At a time like this cooperation and tolerance should be primary. Divisiveness, finger pointing and name calling is infantile and neanderthal. Thank you SM intern-go eat you bird.
Anyone here frustrated by the superboring repetitive coverage from CNN? Why are they not able to get better interviews? Such as the terrorist interview link here. THey could easily put subtitles on. And the footage of Taj looks like some endless loop. THey could do a better job recapping past Mumbai attacks. And people act like this is some supersophisticated attack. No amount of security can prevent something like this. 5 crazy people can just grab guns and start shooting randomly into huge crowds. What is troubling is the incompetent Indian response. So slow. Not even sure who these people are many hours after the initial attack.
Quick recap of terrorism in India.
The condensed version.
In that context, it seems particularly ill-conceived to refer to this as “India’s 9/11”, as some MSM-types insist on doing.
One of the alleged gunmen spoke to an Indian TV reporter by cell phone; the man did not have a south Indian accent, and in fact spoke Urdu with a Punjabi inflection. The caller told the TV station that he didn’t even know what the group’s demands were. During the conversation, he asked the TV anchor to wait and then could be heard asking a companion in the background: “Tell me, what are our demands?” Finally the man answered that they demanded that all “mujahedeen” in Indian jails should be freed and that “persecution” of Muslims should stop. The caller disconnected the phone when pressed for further information about their numbers and goals.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/171056
It just doesn’t seem like India has a good grasp of terrorist attacks. If anything good comes of this…I am glad that the rest of the world finally paid attention. India needs lots of help from other nations to take care of this cancer taking over the world. It seemed like those caught in the middle of the attacks weren’t getting much help or direction. Just like the desi movies it looks like the police are corrupt and leaders are disorganized…then on top of it there are just too many people roaming around…it doesn’t seem like they can secure any areas. Oh well. I’m just sick of all the words…lets work together and do something already!
Yeah, I agree, CNN’s coverage of this while endless, has been short on substance. This is not India’s9-11. You would have thought the attacks on the Parliament or many other attacks were just as bad or worse.
But I do think this will shed light not on just the intelligence aspect, but the inadequate response by the indian and local administrations once the attacks commenced. it is really tough to prevent these kind of attacks. But I expect a better response since this is not unexpected.
lol!! some cnn journalist gets mobbed by horny indian ‘youth’. She claims near rape!
I’m no expert, but common sense tells me when nine terrorist attacks have already happened in your country and you still can’t prevent some dudes with machine guns taking over your financial capital, the government has completely failed in its responsibility to the people.
85 · Pranay Manocha said
Yes, please do, time permitting. This crisis makes me realize two things:
MSM is regurgitating stuff from Twitter and pretending that a couple of people who’ve never heard of Bombay or Mumbai talking on-air about a photo from Flickr is somehow adding value over what we can find on Twitter and Flickr anyway. I can understand the anchor asking pretty basic questions, but I can’t fathom the correspondent being completely uninformed about the city he or she is reporting about (not even from).
Sometimes MSM gets it blatantly wrong, as in the Fox News screengrab above.
When blogs came into their own a few years back, it was generally accepted that blogs could do analysis equally well as MSM while MSM and its fact-gathering machinery could collect news better than individual blogs. Now it looks like MSM is neither quick nor accurate with the facts, and also not particularly good at analysis, which does lead one to wonder why anyone bothers advertising on MSM anymore.
I so wish the page 3 types like Shobha De and Mahesh Bhatt keep their mouth shut. I saw an interview where Shobha De was cussing out Singh and Advani and asking for their security cover to be removed while Mahesh Bhatt went after Hinduism, asking the reporter where her Gods were now?
A very disturbing video on CNN. I was watching live when Sara Sidner was reporting and some guys came in and started shouting at her and wanted to fight about why CNN was reporting on an India thing.
Idiots. Don’t they know that foreigners were attacked and that they’re still being kept hostage in this crisis? Talking about foreigners, the CNN team were staying at the Taj Palace doing an ‘Eye on India’ week when terrorists struck, so they were victims. These guys have no right to talk like this.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/11/27/sidner.bpr.live.shot.chaos.cnn
Absolutely insensitive and ignorant. This is one reason why police should cordon off the area to everyone except the media. Well done Sara for keeping cool.
94 · thetrickisimple on November 27, 2008 05:42 PM · Direct link · “Quoteâ€(?)
lol!! some cnn journalist gets mobbed by horny indian ‘youth’. She claims near rape!
I don’t think thats funny.
i just watched the video with Sara Sidner. i still don’t understand what the problem was with those two guy who came in and disrupted the shoot. I couldn’t understand what the guy was saying.
94 · thetrickisimple said
Dude. It was clearly an assault. Lets see someone act like that to women you know and see you lol to that.