The 2008 Mumbai attacks, colloquially known as 26/11, were a coordinated series of twelve Islamic terrorist attacks carried out in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, from 26 to 29 November 2008, by ten members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. A total of 175 people died, including 166 civilians and nine of the attackers, and more than 300 people were injured.
The attackers arrived in Mumbai via the Arabian Sea. They had departed from Karachi on a Pakistani cargo vessel, hijacked an Indian fishing trawler on the way, and ended their journey to South Mumbai's coastline on inflatable boats. Eight of the attacks were mass shootings in South Mumbai at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Trident Hotel, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, Nariman House, Metro Big Cinemas, and in a lane behind St. Xavier's College and the headquarters of The Times of India. In addition to the mass shootings, an explosion occurred at Mazagaon, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle. By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj Hotel had been secured by the Mumbai Police and security forces. On 29 November, India's National Security Guards conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining terrorists; it culminated in the death of the last remaining terrorists at the Taj Hotel and ended the attacks.
Before his execution in 2012, Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving attacker captured by the Mumbai Police, stated and confessed that the terrorists were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and were controlled from Pakistan, corroborating initial claims from the Indian government. Although initially denying the claims, Pakistan later confirmed that the sole surviving perpetrator of the attacks was a Pakistani citizen. The subsequent capture and interrogation of David Headley, a Pakistani-American DEA informer, and Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin and a former Pakistan Army captain, who was Headley's partner, pointed to the involvement of rogue officials from Pakistan's army and its Inter-Services Intelligence agency, who provided support to Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks. The capture of Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Hamza in July 2012, an Indian national radicalised by Lashkar-e-Taiba, provided further clarity to the plot.
On 9April 2015, the foremost suspected ringleader of the attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was released on bail in Pakistan and disappeared. He evaded capture for years, until being arrested again in Lahore on 2January 2021. In 2018, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif questioned the Pakistani government's allowing men who had committed the attacks to cross into India. In 2022, one of the masterminds of the attack, Sajid Mir — who the Pakistani government had earlier said was dead — was convicted for funding terrorist activities by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Consequently, several masterminds such as Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi were convicted for terror financing in 2021–22, as Pakistan went into an economic crisis after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) threatened the government of Pakistan to be put in the FATF Blacklist for failure to comply on money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Known as one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Mumbai and across India, the 2008 attacks caused property damage worth through fire, grenade attacks, and gunfire; although the human casualties were lower than in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, the attacks had a significant impact on the city's infrastructure and security measures. Economic losses arose from insurance claims and business disruption. The attacks strained diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, and made a huge impact on law enforcement and security officials to deal with such scenarios in the future. The attacks also caused a major political impact on the then ruling government led by the United Progressive Alliance, as the same year, several other cities suffered from Islamic terrorism, which were also perpetrated by Pakistani terror groups.
Background
Many terrorist attacks had occurred in Mumbai since the 13 coordinated bomb explosions that killed 257 people on 12 March 1993. The 1993 attacks were carried out as revenge for the earlier Bombay riots, in which many Muslims were killed. Between March 1993 and July 2006 Mumbai city saw 12 notable incidents of bomb attacks resulting in the death of 516 people and injuries to 1952. Whereas all of these were bomb attacks, the November 2008 Mumbai attacks were fidayeen or suicide attacks.
On 6 December 2002, a blast in a BEST bus near Ghatkopar station killed two people and injured 28. The bombing occurred on the 10th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. A bicycle bomb exploded near the Vile Parle station in Mumbai, killing one person and injuring 25 on 27 January 2003, a day before the visit of the Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the city. On 13 March 2003, a day after the 10th anniversary of the 1993 Bombay bombings, a bomb exploded in a train compartment near the Mulund station, killing 10 people and injuring 70. On 28 July 2003, a blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar killed 4 people and injured 32. On 25 August 2003, two bombs exploded in South Mumbai, one near the Gateway of India and the other at Zaveri Bazaar in Kalbadevi. At least 44 people were killed and 150 injured. On 11 July 2006, seven bombs exploded within 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, killing 209 people, including 22 foreigners and more than 700 injured. According to the Mumbai Police, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Training A group of men numbering about 25 to 40 went through an extensive multi-stage training programme at different locations in Pakistan: Psychological: Indoctrination to Islamist jihadi ideas, including imagery of atrocities suffered by Muslims in India and globally. Kasab went through the three week Daura Sufa course at the headquaters of Lashkar-e-Taiba, called Markaz-e-Taiba, in Muridke, between 29 December 2007 and 18 January 2008. Apart from Islamic studies, physical training was given priority. During Kasab's stay at Muridke, he had the opportunity to hear Hafiz Saeed in person. Swimming was encouraged, and those who already knew how to swim were taken for advanced training at the lake in the campus. Basic combat: Lashkar's basic combat training and methodology course, the Daura Aam. Beginning on 25 January 2008, Kasab went through the Daura Ama course which lasted for 21 days and took place in one of Lashkar's terrorist training camps located in Buttal (Kahori). Weapons introduced included the SKS and the AK-47. Advanced training: Selected to undergo advanced combat training at a Lashkar camp near Mansehra, a course the organisation calls the Daura Khaas. According to an unnamed source at the U.S. Defense Department, this includes advanced weapons and explosives training supervised by former members of the Pakistan Army, along with survival training and further indoctrination. Kasab went through Daura Khaas during May to July 2008. His batch consisted of 32 participants. Commando training: Finally, an even smaller group was selected for specialised commando tactics training, and marine navigation training was given to the Fedayeen unit that was selected, to target Mumbai. Kasab received marine training in Thatta district in Sindh; his batch consisted of 15 participants. Another course, the Daura Ribat, focused on intelligence gathering and communication techniques. During 2002 to 2003 David Headley completed all these courses. The final team of 10 were introduced to Mumbai and the targets through lectures, audio visual aids, hand drawn maps and Google Earth.
They received training in marine warfare at a remote camp in mountainous Muzaffarabad in Pakistan. Part of the training was said to have taken place on the Mangla Dam reservoir in Pakistan.
According to a media report citing an unnamed former Department of Defense official of the US, the intelligence agencies of the US had determined that former officers from Pakistan's Army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency assisted actively and continuously in training. Attacks
After setting sail from Karachi, the terrorists hijacked an Indian fishing boat and killed four people on board. The boat's captain was kept alive for navigation; he was later killed. The first events ashore were detailed around 20:30 Indian Standard Time (IST) on 26 November, when 10 men in inflatable speedboats (counts vary) landed at two locations in Colaba. They reportedly told locals and fishermen (counts vary) who asked them who they were that they were students and to "mind their own business". The terrorists further split up into groups of two with each going their separate way either on foot or via taxi. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) was attacked by two gunmen including Ajmal Kasab. The attack began around 21:30, when the two entered the passenger hall and opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades. Onsite security personnel were heavily outgunned. Three were killed confronting the terrorists. Announcements by a railway announcer, Vishnu Dattaram Zende, alerted passengers to leave the station, which saved many lives. The attackers killed 58 people and injured 104 others, their assault ending at about 22:45. While moving away from the railway station, the attackers passed a police station. Knowing that they were outgunned, the officers at the station switched off the lights and secured the gates rather than confronting the terrorists.
The attackers then headed toward Cama Hospital. Alerted by the sound of gunfire, the hospital staff locked the patient wards, switched off the lights and silenced mobile phones. Two hospital watchmen were killed. The terrorists moved through the hospital for around 50 minutes. A police team reached the hospital and a shootout took place on the sixth floor. Two police officers were killed and five injured, including Sadanand Date, after which the terrorists left the hospital complex.
A team of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad, led by Police Chief Hemant Karkare, searched CSMT and then left in pursuit of the two terrorists after receiving a wireless message that Date and his team have been injured in a firefight. The terrorists opened fire on the police vehicle in a lane next to the hospital and received return fire. Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte, and three of their constables were killed. The only survivor, Constable Arun Jadhav, was severely wounded and pretended to be dead. The terrorists seized the police vehicle but later abandoned it and seized a passenger car instead. They then ran into a police roadblock, which had been set up after Jadhav radioed for help. A gun battle ensued in which the terrorist with Kasab was killed. A police officer, Tukaram Omble, was killed when he tried to disarm Kasab by wrestling his weapon away from him. After a physical struggle with other police personnel, Kasab was arrested. It was now around 01:00 on the 27th. Kasab was immediately taken to a government hospital where he was also interrogated. Actionable intelligence was being passed on. At around 05:30 he was brought to Rakesh Maria at the police control room for further questioning. Among other things, Kasab stated that there were just ten of them, and that they were supposed to die fighting. During this time, attacks went on at other locations including the two five star hotels, Taj and Oberoi Trident.
Leopold Cafe