Current report says that 85 people were killed in mumbai shootout including 6 foreigners and 14 polices. And still few hundred is trapped in TAJ HOTEL, OBEROI HOTEL, CAMA hospital.
Terrorist attacked in 11 places in mumbai. killed at least 87 people including 14 cops.

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For the last several months, bombings have rattled the image of an India industriously humming toward prosperity. Beginning about two years ago, they have occured with increasing frequency: about a dozen such attacks have pockmarked India’s largest cities, from Delhi and Jaipur to Bangalore and Guwahati. And so when the alarms went out on Wednesday night, it looked like Mumbai (formerly Bombay) was being hit by another one of those attacks. The modus operandi was similar: simultaneous blasts in heavily populated areas. But this time, the attack was different.

Indeed, the assault only seemed to grow in frenzy, scope and intensity as time passed. Less that two hours after the first reports of firings and explosions, which came at about 10 p.m. local time, it soon became clear that instead of just crude bombs left on bicycles, scooters and cars, this attack used the whole arsenal: grenades, AK-47s, rifles and a car bomb in a taxi that exploded on the highway headed to the city’s international airport. And unlike previous attacks, which have hit mainly Indians in popular, crowded markets, this one appeared to have targeted foreigners and the posh hotels they frequent. Two of the city’s landmark properties — the Oberoi and the Taj Hotel — were under siege. The grand dome of the Taj caught fire, masked in a purple haze, after terrorists set off an explosion on the roof as police closed in on them. About 300 troops, sent in by the central government, have also surrounded the Oberoi.

A British national, a man in his 30s, who was having dinner inside the Oberoi Hotel, one of the city’s poshest, told the Times Now television station that two young men — in jeans and t-shirts — came in brandishing AK-47s and rifles, singled out those carrying British and American passports and ordered them to the roof. “We went on the 18th floor, it became very smoky, we escaped. Just two of us,” said the British man, who was not identified. As of 2 a.m. local time, several of the hostages were still being held, with dozens of Indian commandos surrounding the hotel.

A member of Parliament, Krishna Das, who was interviewed from inside the Taj Hotel, reported that two men also entered that hotel’s restaurant and started firing, but did not take any hostages. As of 2 a.m., he said about 200 people, including women and children, were still inside the hotel without news of the mayhem unfolding around the city. Meanwhile, bombs have been reported in at least seven sites in Mumbai, with 87 people so far reported killed and nearly 200 injured. At least two Mumbai police officers, who went into one of the hotels to confront the terrorists, were killed. Two of the suspects have also been killed by police. It is not yet clear how many attackers were involved in the assault.

The attacks come at a moment when Mumbai has become a communal tinderbox and terrorism has become one of the biggest political issues in the country. The ruling Congress Party has drawn flak for allegedly failing to take a strong line on terrorism, but the states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the leading opposition party at the center, have also been targeted.

Late last month, 10 arrests unearthed what appeared to be a possible Hindu extremist terror network, with ties to the BJP. But, for the most part, security agencies and analysts have blamed jihadi groups for the recent terror attacks. And the simultaneous bomb blasts on Wednesday — similar to previous radical Islamist attacks — immediately led most observers to suspect the jihadis once again. For years, India blamed Pakistan’s intelligence services for terror attacks; then the usual suspects became the Harkat ul Jihad Islamia (based in Bangladesh) and Students Islamic Movement of India, a group that has been banned. This summer, a new group emerged, Indian Mujahideen, claiming responsibility via e-mail for several attacks and stressing that their members and grievances were homegrown. A group called Deccan Mujahideen, previously unknown, has also sent an e-mail claiming responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks. That claim cannot yet be confirmed.

In 1993, Mumbai was hit by a series of bombs that killed nearly 300 people. Those were allegedly detonated at the behest of local gangsters in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence by India’s majority Hindus. Those gangsters, including Dawood Ibrahim, are now believed to have escaped India and to be living in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

As the debate over terror continues, various parties have been trading blame. The BJP has accused the Congress of cooking up charges against the arrested Hindu right-wingers, while the Congress has been accusing the BJP of playing a double-game of pointing fingers at the Congress while lending a hand to Hindu-fundamentalist terrorists. Mumbai has been a focus of the tension between the parties, as several of the so-called “Hindu terror” arrests have taken place in or near the city. Perhaps the size and scale of this most recent attack will force the country’s political leaders to finally push through a long-shelved proposal to co-ordinate intelligence on terror incidents between the states and prevent a repeat of Wednesday’s bloody spectacle. With reporting by Madhur Singh/New Delhi

SYDNEY: At least two Australians have been injured in a wave of terror attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai and a 20-person trade delegation is caught up in the violence, officials said on Wednesday.

The department of foreign affairs gave no further details of the two people injured, but issued a warning to all Australians in the city to remain in a safe location and follow the advice of local authorities.

A trade delegation from New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, was staying at the Trident Hotel, formerly known as the Oberoi, one of two hotels targeted in the attacks, the national AAP news agency reported.

“I can confirm a 20-member trade delegation organised by the Department of State and Regional Development booked into the Oberoi hotel,” a government spokesman said.

“We are currently trying to contact them. The last we heard, they were being evacuated from their rooms but we haven’t had any contact since then.”

Nearly 80 people were killed in a series of attacks apparently targeting foreigners in Mumbai as heavily armed Islamist militants hit two luxury hotels — the Trident and the landmark Taj Mahal.

A group calling itself the “Deccan Mujahedeen” claimed responsibility for the assaults on the hotels in the south of the city and a number of shooting and bombing incidents elsewhere, the Press Trust of India said.

  • Previously unknown group claimed responsibility
  • Group called Indian Mujahideen threatened to attack Mumbai
  • Photo of suspected terrorist released
  • Terrorists lobbed grenades and shot people
  • Terrorists occupied Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Oberoi Hotel
  • 9 militants killed, 9 arrested, 3 detained: CNN
  • Terrorists also attacked Cama Hospital, Cafe Leopold, and Ramada Hotel
  • Attackers reportedly looking for individuals with British and U.S. passports
  • Hostages taken at Hotel Oberoi
  • Explosions heard at several locations
  • 78 reported dead, hundreds injured
  • Three top police officers killed