INDIAN COMMANDOS ended the siege of two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre in India's financial capital of Mumbai yesterday, almost 48 hours after a chain of synchronised militant attacks struck the city killing 160 people and injuring more than 300.
"The hotel is under our control" said JK Dutt, director general of India's National Security Guard that led the assault on it, the nearby luxury Taj hotel and the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hassidic Jews a short distance away.
The airborne assault on the centre run by Rabbi Gavirel Hotzberg ended later as darkness set in yesterday - but unfortunately with the discovery of his body and that of his wife and three others shot dead by their captors after being held hostage since Wednesday evening.
Their two-year-old child, however, had been smuggled out to safety a day earlier by his nanny when the two gunmen began their siege. Mr Dutt said the two militant gunmen holding them prisoner had killed the Jewish hostages during Friday's commando assault on the building: "We had taken over the second floor of the house when a grenade was launched by the terrorists from above, killing three hostages."
As the armed unit moved upstairs, the militants killed another two hostages on the fourth floor, he added. Both gunmen were later killed by the commandos.
The operation to relieve the Jewish centre, like the two others at the hotels, lasted the entire day, with National Security Guard commandos, army, police and paramilitary supporting the operation intermittently exchanging fire with the gunmen inside.
The elite Indian commandos seemed to grant their foes a grudging respect for their military prowess and planning, as they held the special forces at bay for more than 24 hour. "A very determined lot and remorseless," the head of the Marine Commandos said, his face covered with a black scarf as he did not wish to be identified.
He said the attackers were young men in their 30s, highly trained in the use of weapons and explosives and committed to their murderous objective.
Meanwhile, the overnight death toll of 125 rose to 160 as another 35 bodies were recovered from the debris in the two hotels. Officials said this number was likely to rise further as the cleaning-up began. Guests who escaped the hotel, together with commandos, told of bodies "littering the corridors".
The synchronised strikes by small bands of gunmen that began Wednesday night and turned into a siege has left Mumbai stunned.
They attacked 10 crowded sites including a popular cafe, the two luxury hotels, Mumbai's main Victoria station and two hospitals.
The unknown Deccan Mujahideen group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but prime minister Manmohan Singh blamed "external forces" for the violence - a euphemism for Pakistani militants - whom the Indian authorities hold responsible for all such attacks.
Singh has summoned Lieut Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), to Delhi next week to discuss the Mumbai terror attacks. It will be the first time Pakistan's spy chief has travelled to Delhi over an investigation into a terror attack in India. India has blamed ISI for almost all terror strikes on it.
India's foreign minister Pranab Mukhere also ratcheted up the accusations against Islamabad by declaring "some elements in Pakistan are responsible for the Mumbai attacks". "Proof cannot be disclosed at this time," he told reporters in the western city of Jodhpur.
India has long accused Islamabad of allowing militant Muslim groups, particularly those fighting in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, to train and take shelter in Pakistan. These allegations have been dismissed by Islamabad.
Meanwhile, security sources basing their information on one person detained for questioning claimed the 10-12 member strike team, including possibly a Somali national, underwent firearms and explosives training in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. All were given Arabic kuniyats, or noms de guerre, and discouraged from interacting with one another beyond what was barely necessary.
Thereafter they travelled to the garrison town of Rawalpindi and then onwards by train to the eastern port city of Karachi where they boarded a chartered merchant ship bound for Mumbai.
En route, they hijacked another vessel, killed its owner and made their way to within four nautical miles of Mumbai. Transferring to three dinghies, they made their way to separate locations on the city's coast, including the ancient Sassoon docks used by fishermen.
This "mother vessel" and three dinghies have been seized by the Indian Coast Guard along with a satellite telephone, a GPS and a detailed map of south Mumbai.
Security officials suspect the gunmen were helped by members of former Mumbai don Dawood Ibrahim's D-gang which controls most of the city's crime syndicates.
They believe Mohammad Ali, a close associate of Dawood who is India's most-wanted criminal with al-Qaeda links and who allegedly lives in Karachi where he has undergone extensive plastic surgery to alter his appearance, guided the strike crew after they landed. Ali, known as "king of the docks", reportedly runs a massive smuggling operation. He is also believed to have penetrated naval intelligence networks to help him in his endeavours.
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