India blasts, hostage situation kill, injure hundreds

Dear Friend and Reader:

We are tracking the ongoing terrorist attack in India that has so far killed 87 people and injured hundreds. Westerners were targeted and two hotels are under a hostage siege in Bombay, the financial capital. Here is an English language Indian website with video if you want to follow the story as it develops. CNN is reporting that Bombay (now called Mumbai) is under martial law. The Army was called in to assist local police.

Terrorists struck at 10 separate locations and focused on taking Brits and Americans as hostages. To the best of our research, the attacks began at 9:30 pm local time Wednesday night.

Hemant Karkare, India’s anti-terrorism chief, was shot dead in one of the attacks. The 54-year-old, said to be known for his fair investigations, died in a shootout with terrorists at the Taj hotel. He was probing the earlier Malegaon blasts case, and was hit by three bullets in his chest. It seems that his assassination was clearly part of the terrorists’ plan.

The attack comes in the final hours of Pluto in Sagittarius, as if religious extremists were taking a last opportunity to use the energy of this 14-year transit. It also occurred one day before a powerful New Moon, which using Vedic astrology is taking place in Scorpio.

The Western charts for the event involve an extraordinary alignment between the time the shooting began at 9:30 pm local time, India’s independence chart and the progressions to India’s independence chart.

The chart for the time that shooting commenced puts Eris directly on the midheaven — the top of the chart, emphasizing the most violent attributes of this planet, which was named in 2006. The progressed Sun within India’s chart is precisely opposite this point. It seems inevitable that this will throw the Indian government and to some extent the nation of a billion people into turmoil, as well as distract the attention of the U.S. media from the economic bailout that was estimated by today’s New York Times at a staggering seven trillion dollars.

News reports from India say that little known outfit “Deccan Mujahideen” claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, in looking for an answer as to who would organize such an attack, an obvious suspect is Dawood Ibraham, an underworld czar in India and Pakistan; he is believed by many to live in Pakistan now, though the government of that country has claimed to have never heard of him. An attack on this scale, wiping out India’s highest anti-terrorism official, would need immense planning, financing and inside intelligence. How, for example, was Krakre caught in the line of fire, unless someone knew he would be there?

We are developing this story live. Check back Thursday as we add details.

— Eric Francis & Priya Kale

2 thoughts on “India blasts, hostage situation kill, injure hundreds”

  1. Found this link on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. I posted the piece in its entirety:

    India must engage with Pakistan to root out militancy
    November 27th, 2008 – by Chris Devonshire-Ellis

    Mumbai, the current scene of bloody machine gun battles with grenades being thrown at civilians, firefighters and police, is India’s most cosmopolitan city. Facing the Arabian Sea, it is also it’s most Middle Eastern flavored, and the city is dotted with Parsi and Zoroastrian buildings and designs, all jostling for grandeur amongst the colonial architecture brought in by the British. For centuries, people of all faiths have traded in Mumbai. The Taj Hotel, now aflame, pock marked with bullet holes and rocked by explosions, was built by the founder of the Tata Group and is still operated by them. You were just as likely to see visiting Arabic businessmen in dish-dash-ah and headscarves in the lobby, milling around with American executives, visiting Chinese traders, and the wealthy India elite as anyone else. Yet now that same lobby has become a killing field in the name of Islam, if new reports coming to light confirm that the terrorists sped in by boat from Karachi, in southern Pakistan.

    Karachi itself is the financial center of Pakistan, just as Mumbai is too India. One has to wonder about the lax security of the Naval base in Mumbai, the berths for the Indian Navy are just yards from the Gateway of India and the Taj Hotel itself, and being so one would have thought in-bound vessels should have been tracked on radar and identified. Yet the discovery of a boat full of weapons and ammunition moored just off the Gateway – and literally just across the street from the Taj – would seem to indicate security was relaxed.

    Yet that the vantage point of the Gateway to India should be a security risk seems obvious. That an area milling with foreign tourists, several luxury five star hotels, and numerous expensive waterfront restaurants and residences extending more than three miles along Marine Drive should not pose a risk for the extremist beliefs of Islamic fundamentalists seems almost negligent.

    With reports of Western, and especially American and British passport holders being targeted, as well as the apparent abduction of a Jewish Rabbi and his family would indicate that anti-Western motives are afoot. But then again, mayhem and violence at Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus or V.T. station) – rarely used by foreigners but packed with local Indians – suggests either an alternative motive – Hindi/Muslim clashes over Kashmir spring to mind – or just a random desire to trash Mumbai regardless of who is in the way.

    Certainly, the throwing of hand grenades and machine-gunning of firefighters battling fires engulfing the Taj and Oberoi Trident Hotels is not something regular terrorists would choose to target. The intent has been to cause maximum damage and to destroy whoever gets in the way regardless of color or creed.

    Whatever the motives, the impact is clear. A well organized, and heavily armed militia were able to storm into Mumbai almost at will and wreak havoc. Even the central Police Headquarters came under attack. For awhile, Mumbai was out of control and at the mercy of the men who had shipped in. Hundreds of Indians, and several foreigners, now lie dead. Many more may follow while the violence that is now being played out as hostages are taken has still to reach a conclusion. For Mumbai, the 27th November is its equivalent of 9/11.

    Yet meeting just last week with Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of Punjab, I was reminded just how Pakistan itself hurts from extremism. Whilst looking to attract foreign investment into Pakistan, he acknowledged, as did the Ministry of Commerce and several other high ranking officials as part of the official government delegation visiting China just how much the country felt �embarrassed’ by violence. “There are those who would seek to disrupt us” he stated “We need help with our security and we need to root out troublemakers”. He seemed sincere, almost apologetic.

    If Pakistan truly wishes to turn back the tide of fundamentalism in its country, and stop exporting violence overseas, then it must have proper support and assistance from India. Yet the concern is that if last nights atrocities in Mumbai turn out to be Islamic backed, violence and retribution could ignite across India. The nation possesses a larger Muslim population than Pakistan, and much of the area around the Crawford Bazaar in the heart of Mumbai remains steadfastly Muslim – Mosques and Minarets abound, as do bushy beards, skull caps and women wearing burkhas. Anti-Muslim feelings here if uncontrolled in the wake of these terrorist attacks would be devastating. Tens of thousands could die.

    India, and Mumbai, must be on their guard against such feelings and act quickly to defuse tensions that are bound to be running high. Violence against Muslims in Mumbai if incited would make what has occurred the past 24 hours look like a Sunday promenade walk. The sooner India and Pakistan publicly announce a joint, high level work force to defuse the situation and engage in some serious counter-intelligence in anti-terrorism activities between the two countries, then the sooner the sorts of scenes that has been displayed across the world the past few hours can be put to one side, and the basic fundamentals of a peace accord between factions within the two countries finally be implemented. It needs to happen fast.

  2. The dilemma of being “thankful” for a dry bed in a world where blood from the innocent is gushing in a reverse baptism — This is something the Buddhist struggle with and in some way feel at peace with. Dedicate your life to the alleviation of suffering. And what you can do — do. “Chop wood, carry water.” Keep it simple.

    They tell the story of the person clinging to a twig, dangling thousands of feet high on a mountain cliff. With his other hand he is able to reach a cluster of blueberries. The question — knowing that he is about to plunge to certain death — Does he enjoy the berries? The answer is supposed to be — yes. Eat them.

    I’m not so sure.

    Right now I owe Sallie Mae over 40,000 for an original student loan of less than $15,000 to finish my undergraduate. And — while the laws allow over burdened credit card and/or mortgage holders to declare bankruptcy to start their lives over — no such right is afforded to anyone who owes any government sponsored debt. You cannot declare bankruptcy on Sallie Mae nor on the IRS. Last year my accountant made a mistake and did not claim money I won in a law suit. The money was called “damages.” This year the IRS has informed me that the damages paid are considered “income” and now almost every penny I received for damages is being siphoned off by our friends at the IRS.

    The interest I owe on Sallie Mae is thousands of predatory dollars. They won’t accept less than approx $300 a month from me. Where am I going to find $300 a month? There is no hiding from Sallie Mae. They will simply attach my current salary. The punishment of finally holding a job in an effort to take care of myself.

    The only condition which allows anyone to escape the clutches of Sallie Mae is to prove a zero income. If I opted to be homeless, I’d be $40,000 ahead immediately.

    I am not trying to get out of paying my college loan but the exorbitant interest is my point here.

    Last point: NOBODY is talking about predatory landlords or developers or city councils that have consistently eroded and/or over rules the prior rent controls in New York City and other cities. There have been wild affairs between the lucrative development industry and the city council members. It used to be a dwelling of more than three units was rent stabilized (could not raise the rent more than 2% a year). Now if the owner can prove a certain % of renovations on his building the entire building comes out of rent stabilization.

    “If you don’t like it, move.” Right? Move where? To work near my job (not to spend my life in the actual commute to and from work) requires that I live somewhere in proximity of the city. It’s blackmail.

    The predatory interest of Sallie Mae, the over reaching authority of the IRS and the failure of any legislative resistance to predatory RENTAL landlords is the bane of my existence. I’m grateful for my breath, for my fifty pound rescued pit bull, for my friends the pigeons and my three cats. As far as any kind of financial stability, that is one of the 7 deadly sins. Thou shalt not want economic stability and then maybe thou shalt not feel so ravaged by the powerlessness of trying to live and work in New York City —

    Johanna/Brooklyn
    http://johannaclearfield.blogspot.com/

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