Terror Attacks in India

Gunmen attack 10 sites throughout city of Mumbai

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Nearly three days of attacks on India's largest city finally ended on Saturday. The disturbingly well-planned operation began Wednesday, when a team of 10 gunmen stormed high profile sites throughout the city of Mumbai.

More than 180 people were killed as a result of the coordinated attacks on 10 locations throughout the heavily populated city. Eighteen of the victims were from countries other than India, including six Americans.

More than 300 people were injured. Large groups of hostages were held at the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels, and at a Jewish community center called The Nariman House.

Indian police forces and specially trained commandos finished the final standoff at the five star Taj Mahal hotel on Saturday, where 200 hostages were being held. Only one of the gunmen, Azam Amir Kasab, a 21-year-old Pakistani, was captured alive.

Kasab said he belonged to a Pakistani militant group with ties to the region of Kashmir, a senior police officer told reporters in Mumbai on Sunday.

India and Pakistan have been engaged in a bitter dispute over the Kashmir region since 1947, when both countries achieved independence as separate states. Since then, neither India nor Pakistan has been willing to give up its claim to the mountainous region that borders multiple states between the geographic neighbors. Tensions have erupted into three major wars over the last 60 years.

Despite the historic conflict, the two nuclear-armed nations have been working to improve relations in recent years. The current ceasefire has lasted five years. But suspicions over the terror attacks of the past week have already strained the delicate relationship.

". . .some elements in Pakistan are involved," Pranab Mukherjee, India's foreign minister, told CNN on Thursday.

The Pakistani government has denied any connection to the terrorists. [The attacks were] "a heinous crime, and we condemn it," Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told CNN. "I think this terrorism is a menace for the whole world, and therefore we have to work jointly to combat terrorism and extremism." Pakistan's Prime Minister is sending a representative from the Pakistani intelligence agency to help out with the ongoing investigation.

President George W. Bush has pledged full U.S. support to India. On Sunday the President dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Indian capital of New Delhi "to express the condolences of the American government directly to the Indian government and the Indian people," Rice spokesperson Sean McCormack said. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been sent to Mumbai to assist in the inquiry.

The violence in Mumbai marks a major increase in terror attacks on India's cities over the last year. The most recent assault was on October 30, when terrorists coordinated a series of explosions in four towns in the state of Assam in northeastern India. That attack left 67 people dead and about 350 wounded, according to the New York Times.

The latest attacks have left many in India wondering how a team of 10 gunmen could have caused so much damage. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Sunday that he is beginning bi-partisan talks to create a national anti-terror agency similar to the FBI.

As authorities sort out the questions surrounding the Mumbai attacks, the city also known as Bombay is starting the process of mourning and recovery.

Leopold's Café, where 10 were killed on Wednesday, reopened on Sunday, the Christian Science Monitor reports. A crowd of regular customers cheered as owner Ferhan Farzad Jehani opened the shutters of the restaurant near the Taj Mahal hotel.
 
"We need to prove to terrorists that we've won and they've lost," Jehani said.

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