A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| 2008 Mumbai attacks | |
|---|---|
| Part of terrorism in India | |
 Places of the attacks | |
| Location | Mumbai, India |
| Coordinates | 18°55′19″N 72°50′00″E / 18.92194°N 72.83333°E |
| Date | 26 November 2008 – 29 November 2008 21:30 (26/11) – 08:00 (29/11) (IST, UTC+05:30) |
Attack type | Bombings, mass shootings, mass murder, hostage crisis,[3] siege |
| Weapons | AK rifles, RDX, IEDs, grenades |
| Deaths | 175 (including 9 attackers)[4] |
| Injured | 300+[5] |
| Victims | See casualty list for complete list |
| Perpetrators | Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi[6][7] and Lashkar-e-Taiba[8][9][10] |
No. of participants | 10 |
| Defenders | |
| Motive | Islamic terrorism |
The 2008 Mumbai attacks[14] (also referred to as 26/11 attacks)[15][a] were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamist[16] organisation from Pakistan, carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.[17][18][19] The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday 26 November and lasted until Saturday 29 November 2008. A total of 175 people died, including nine of the attackers, with more than 300 injured.[4][5][20]
Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel,[2] the Leopold Cafe, the Cama Hospital,[2] the Nariman House,[21][22] the Metro Cinema,[1] and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College.[2] There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle.[23] 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 (NSG) conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining attackers; it culminated in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Taj Hotel and ended the attacks.[24]
Before his execution in 2012, Ajmal Kasab,[25] the sole surviving attacker, disclosed that the attackers were members of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba,[26] and were controlled from Pakistan, corroborating initial claims from the Indian Government.[27] Pakistan later confirmed that the sole surviving perpetrator of the attacks was a Pakistani citizen.[28][29] On 9 April 2015, the foremost ringleader of the attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was released on bail and disappeared;[30] he was arrested again in Lahore on 2 January 2021.[31][32] In 2018, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif questioned the Pakistani government's allowance of those who committed the attacks to cross into India.[33] In 2022, one of the masterminds of the attack, Sajid Majeed Mir —who had been earlier claimed to be dead by the Pakistan Government— was convicted for funding terrorist activities by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan.[34][35][36]
Background
There had been many terrorist attacks in Mumbai since the 13 coordinated bomb explosions that killed 257 people and injured 700 on 12 March 1993.[37] The 1993 attacks were carried out in revenge for the earlier Bombay riots, in which a large number of Muslims were killed.[38]
On 6 December 2002, a blast in a BEST bus near Ghatkopar station killed two people and injured 28.[39] The bombing occurred on the 10th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.[40] 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.[41] 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.[42] On 28 July 2003, a blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar killed 4 people and injured 32.[43] 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.[44] On 11 July 2006, seven bombs exploded within 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai,[45] killing 209 people, including 22 foreigners[46][47][48] and more than 700 injured.[49][50] According to the Mumbai Police, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).[51][52]
Training
A group of men said to number between 24 and 26[53] 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.[54]
The recruits went through extensive training.
- Psychological: Indoctrination to Islamist Jihadi ideas, including imagery of atrocities suffered by Muslims in India[55] and globally.
- Basic Combat: Lashkar's basic combat training and methodology course, the Daura Aam.
- Advanced Training: Selected to undergo advanced combat training at a camp near Mansehra, a course the organisation calls the Daura Khaas.[55] 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,[27] along with survival training and further indoctrination.
- Commando Training: Finally, an even smaller group was selected for specialized commando tactics training, and marine navigation training was given to the Fedayeen unit that was selected, in order to target Mumbai.[56]
From the recruits, 10 were handpicked for the Mumbai mission.[57] They also received training in swimming and sailing, besides the use of high-end weapons and explosives under the supervision of LeT commanders. According to a media report citing an unnamed former Defence Department 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.[27] They were given blueprints of all the four targets – The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Oberoi Trident, Nariman House, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.
Attacks
The terrorists first hijacked an Indian fishing boat and killed five people on board.[58] The first events were detailed around 20:00 Indian Standard Time (IST) on 26 November, when 10 men in inflatable speedboats came ashore at two locations in Colaba.[59] They reportedly told local Marathi-speaking fishermen who asked them who they were to "mind their own business" before they split up and went in two different ways. The fishermens' subsequent report to the police department received little response and local police failed to act.[60]
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) was attacked by two gunmen, Ismail Khan and Ajmal Kasab.[61] Kasab was later caught alive by the police and identified by eyewitnesses. The attacks began around 21:30 when the two men entered the passenger hall and opened fire[62] with AK-47 assault rifles.[63] The attackers killed 58 people and injured 104 others,[63] their assault ending at about 22:45.[62] Security forces and emergency services arrived shortly afterwards. Announcements by a railway announcer, Vishnu Dattaram Zende, alerted passengers to leave the station and saved many lives.[64][65] The two gunmen fled the scene and fired at pedestrians and police officers in the streets, killing eight police officers. The attackers passed a police station. Knowing that they were outgunned against the heavily armed terrorists, the police officers at the station, instead of confronting the terrorists, decided to switch off the lights and secure the gates.
The attackers then headed towards Cama Hospital with intent to kill patients,[66] but the hospital staff locked all of the patient wards. A team of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad led by police chief Hemant Karkare searched the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and then left in pursuit of Kasab and Khan. Kasab and Khan opened fire on the vehicle in a lane next to the hospital and received return fire in response. Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte and three of their officers were killed. The only survivor, Constable Arun Jadhav, was severely wounded.[67] Kasab and Khan 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.[68] A gun battle then ensued in which Khan was killed and Kasab was wounded. After a physical struggle, Kasab was arrested.[69] A police officer, Tukaram Omble, was also killed when he tried to disarm Kasab by wrestling his weapon away from him.
Leopold Cafe
The Leopold Cafe, a popular restaurant and bar on Colaba Causeway in South Mumbai, was one of the first sites to be attacked.[70] Two attackers, Shoaib alias Soheb and Nazir alias Abu Umer,[61] opened fire on the cafe on the evening of 26 November between 21:30 and 21:48, killing 10 people (including some international visitors) and injuring many more.[71]
Bomb blasts in taxis
There were two explosions in taxis caused by time bombs. The first one occurred at 22:40 at Vile Parle, killing the driver and a passenger. The second explosion took place at Wadi Bunder between 22:20 and 22:25. Three people, including the driver of the taxi were killed, and about 15 others were injured.[23][72]
Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Oberoi Trident
Two hotels, The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the Oberoi Trident, were among the four locations targeted. Six explosions were reported at the Taj Hotel – one in the lobby, two in the elevators, three in the restaurant – and one at the Oberoi Trident.[73][74] At the Taj, firefighters rescued 200 hostages from windows using ladders during the first night.[75]
CNN initially reported on the morning of 27 November 2008 that the hostage situation at the Taj Hotel had been resolved and quoted the police chief of Maharashtra stating that all hostages were freed;[47] however, it was learned later that day that there were still two attackers holding hostages, including foreigners, in the Taj Hotel.[76]
A number of European Parliament Committee on International Trade delegates were staying in the Taj Hotel when it was attacked,[77] but none of them were injured.[78] British Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Sajjad Karim (who was in the lobby when attackers initially opened fire there) and German Social Democrat MEP Erika Mann were hiding in different parts of the building.[77] Also reported present was Spanish MEP Ignasi Guardans, who was barricaded in a hotel room.[79][80] Another British Conservative MEP, Syed Kamall, reported that he along with several other MEPs left the hotel and went to a nearby restaurant shortly before the attack.[77] Kamall also reported that Polish MEP Jan Masiel was thought to have been sleeping in his hotel room when the attacks started, but eventually left the hotel safely.[81] Kamall and Guardans reported that a Hungarian MEP's assistant was shot.[77][82] Also caught up in the shooting were the President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, while checking in at the Oberoi Trident,[82] and Indian MP N. N. Krishnadas of Kerala and Gulam Noon while having dinner at a restaurant in the Taj Hotel.[83][84] Gautam Adani, a billionaire business tycoon of India, was having dinner in the Taj on November 26; he hid in the hotel basement for the night.[85]
Nariman House
Nariman House, a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish centre in Colaba known as the Mumbai Chabad House, was taken over by two attackers and several residents were held hostage.[86] Police evacuated adjacent buildings and exchanged fire with the attackers, wounding one. Local residents were told to stay inside. The attackers threw a grenade into a nearby lane, causing no casualties. NSG commandos arrived from Delhi, and a naval helicopter took an aerial survey. During the first day, 9 hostages were rescued from the first floor. The following day, the house was stormed by NSG commandos fast-roping from helicopters onto the roof, covered by snipers positioned in nearby buildings. After a long battle, one NSG commando, Sergeant Gajender Singh Bisht was killed, as were both perpetrators.[87][88] Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg, who was six months pregnant, were murdered with four other hostages inside the house by the attackers.[89]
According to radio transmissions picked up by Indian intelligence, the attackers "would be told by their handlers in Pakistan that the lives of Jews were worth 50 times those of non-Jews". Injuries on some of the bodies indicated that they may have been tortured.[90][91]
NSG raid
During the attacks, both hotels were surrounded by Rapid Action Force personnel and Marine Commandos (MARCOS) and National Security Guards (NSG) commandos.[92][93] When reports emerged that attackers were receiving television broadcasts, feeds to the hotels were blocked.[94] Security forces stormed both hotels, and all nine attackers were killed by the morning of 29 November.[95][96] Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan of the NSG was fatally shot during the rescue of Commando Sunil Yadav, who was hit in the leg by a bullet during the rescue operations at Taj.[97][98] 32 hostages were killed at the Oberoi Trident.[99]
NSG commandos then took on the Nariman house, and a naval helicopter took an aerial survey. During the first day, 9 hostages were rescued from the first floor. The following day, the house was stormed by NSG commandos fast-roping from helicopters onto the roof, covered by snipers positioned in nearby buildings. NSG Commando Sergeant Gajender Singh Bisht, who was part of the team that fast-roped onto Nariman House, died after a long battle in which both perpetrators were also killed.[87][88] By the morning of 28 November, the NSG had secured the Jewish outreach centre at Nariman House as well as the Oberoi Trident hotel. They also incorrectly believed that the Taj Palace and Towers had been cleared of attackers, and soldiers were leading hostages and holed-up guests to safety, and removing bodies of those killed in the attacks.[100][101][102] However, later news reports indicated that there were still two or three attackers in the Taj, with explosions heard and gunfire exchanged.[102] Fires were also reported at the ground floor of the Taj with plumes of smoke arising from the first floor.[102] The final operation at the Taj Palace hotel was completed by the NSG commandos at 08:00 on 29 November, killing three attackers and resulting in the conclusion of the attacks.[103] The NSG rescued 250 people from the Oberoi, 300 from the Taj and 60 people (members of 12 different families) from Nariman House.[104] In addition, police seized a boat filled with arms and explosives anchored at Mazgaon dock off Mumbai Harbour.[105]
Attribution
The Mumbai attacks were planned and directed by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants inside Pakistan and carried out by 10 young armed men trained and sent to Mumbai and directed from inside Pakistan via mobile phones and VoIP.[106][27][107]
In July 2009, Pakistani authorities confirmed that LeT plotted and financed the attacks from LeT camps in Karachi and Thatta.[108] In November 2009, Pakistani authorities charged seven men they had arrested earlier, of planning and executing the assault.[19]
Mumbai police department originally identified 37 suspects—including two Pakistani army officers—for their alleged involvement in the plot. All but two of the suspects, many of whom are identified only through aliases, are Pakistani.[109] David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, arrested in the United States in October 2009 for other attacks, were also found to have been involved in planning the Mumbai attacks.[110][111] One of these men, Pakistani American David Headley (born Daood Sayed Gilani), was found to have made several trips to India before the attacks and gathered video and GPS information on behalf of the plotters.
In April 2011, the United States issued arrest warrants for four Pakistani men as suspects in the attack. The men, Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal alias "Major Iqbal", are believed to be members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and helped plan and train the attackers.[112]
Negotiations with Pakistan
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks.[113][114] Pakistan promised to assist in the investigation and President Zardari vowed "strong action against any Pakistani elements found involved in the attack".[115]
Pakistan initially denied that Pakistanis were responsible for the attacks, blaming plotters in Bangladesh and Indian criminals,[116] a claim refuted by India,[117] and saying they needed information from India on other bombings first.[118]
Pakistani authorities finally agreed that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani on 7 January 2009,[29][119][120] and registered a case against three other Pakistani nationals.[121]
The Indian government supplied evidence to Pakistan and other governments, in the form of interrogations, weapons, and call records of conversations during the attacks.[122][123] In addition, Indian government officials said that the attacks were so sophisticated that they must have had official backing from Pakistani "agencies", an accusation denied by Pakistan.[27][119]
Under US and UN pressure, Pakistan arrested a few members of Jamaat ud-Dawa and briefly put its founder under house arrest, but he was found to be free a few days later.[124] A year after the attacks, Mumbai police continued to complain that Pakistani authorities were not co-operating by providing information for their investigation.[125] Meanwhile, journalists in Pakistan said security agencies were preventing them from interviewing people from Kasab's village.[126][127] The then Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the Pakistani authorities had not shared any information about American suspects David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, but that the FBI had been more forthcoming.[128]
An Indian report, summarising intelligence gained from India's interrogation of David Headley,[129] was released in October 2010. It alleged that Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI) had provided support for the attacks by providing funding for reconnaissance missions in Mumbai.[130] The report included Headley's claim that Lashkar-e-Taiba's chief military commander, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, had close ties to the ISI.[129] He alleged that "every big action of LeT is done in close coordination with ISI."[130]
In 2018, during an interview with newspaper Dawn,[33] Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif questioned Pakistan's inaction in preventing the Mumbai attacks.[131][132][133]
Investigation
According to investigations, the attackers travelled by sea from Karachi, Pakistan, across the Arabian Sea, hijacked the Indian fishing trawler Kuber, killed the crew of four, then forced the captain to sail to Mumbai. After murdering the captain, the attackers entered Mumbai on a rubber dinghy. The captain of Kuber, Amar Singh Solanki, had earlier been imprisoned for six months in a Pakistani jail for illegally fishing in Pakistani waters.[134] The attackers stayed and were trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in a safehouse at Azizabad in Karachi before boarding a small boat for Mumbai.[135]
David Headley was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and between 2002 and 2009 Headley travelled extensively as part of his work for LeT. Headley received training in small arms and countersurveillance from LeT, built a network of connections for the group, and was chief scout in scoping out targets for Mumbai attack[136][137] having allegedly been given $25,000 in cash in 2006 by an ISI officer known as Major Iqbal. The officer also helped him arrange a communications system for the attack and oversaw a model of the Taj Hotel so that gunmen could know their way inside the target, according to Headley's testimony to Indian authorities. Headley also helped ISI recruit Indian agents to monitor Indian troop levels and movements, according to a US official. At the same time, Headley was also an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, and Headley's wives warned American officials of Headley's involvement with LeT and his plotting attacks, warning specifically that the Taj Hotel may be their target.[136]
US officials believed that the Inter-Services Intelligence (I.S.I.) officers provided support to Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who carried out the attacks.[138] Disclosures made by former American intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had intercepted communications between the Lashkar boat and the LeT headquarters in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and passed the alert on to RAW on 18 November, eight days before the terrorists actually struck Mumbai.[139] In the hours after the attack, the New York City Police Department sent Brandon del Pozo, an official from their Intelligence Division, to investigate the incident in order to understand what vulnerabilities its methods posed for New York City.[140]
The arrest of Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Hamza in June 2012 provided further clarity on how the plot was hatched. According to Abu Hamza, the attacks were previously scheduled for 2006, using Indian youth for the job. However, a huge cache of AK-47s and RDX, which were to be used for the attacks, was recovered from Aurangabad in 2006, thus leading to the dismantling of the original plot. Subsequently, Abu Hamza fled to Pakistan and along with Lashkar commanders, scouted for Pakistani youth to be used for the attacks. In September 2007, 10 people were selected for the mission. In September 2008, these people tried sailing to Mumbai from Karachi but could not complete their mission due to choppy waters. These men made a second attempt in November 2008, and successfully managed to execute the final attacks. David Headley's disclosures, that three Pakistani army officers were associated with the planning and execution of the attack were substantiated by Ansari's revelations during his interrogation.[141][142]
After Ansari's arrest, Pakistan's Foreign Office claimed they had received information that up to 40 Indian nationals were involved in the attacks.[143]
Method
The attackers had planned the attack several months ahead of time and knew some areas well enough to vanish and reappear after security forces had left. Several sources have quoted Kasab telling the police that the group received help from Mumbai residents.[144][145] The attackers used at least three SIM cards purchased on the Indian side of the border with Bangladesh.[146] There were also reports of a SIM card purchased in the US state of New Jersey.[147] Police had also mentioned that Faheem Ansari, an Indian Lashkar operative who had been arrested in February 2008, had scouted the Mumbai targets for the November attacks.[148] Later, the police arrested two Indian suspects, Mikhtar Ahmad, who is from Srinagar in Kashmir, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata. They supplied the SIM cards, one in Calcutta, and the other in New Delhi.[149]
The attackers used a satellite phone and cell phones to talk to each other as well as their handlers that were based in Pakistan. In transcripts intercepted by Indian authorities between the attackers and their handlers, the handlers provided the attackers with encouragement, tactical advice, and information gained from media coverage. The attackers used both personal cell phones and those obtained from their victims to communicate with each other and the news media. Although the attackers were encouraged to murder hostages, the attackers were in communication with the news media via cell phones to make demands in return for the release of hostages. This was believed to be done in order to further confuse Indian authorities that they were dealing with primarily a hostage situation.[150]
Type 86 Grenades made by China's state-owned Norinco were used in the attacks.[151]
There were also indications that the attackers had been taking steroids.[152] The gunman who survived said that the attackers had used Google Earth to familiarise themselves with the locations of buildings used in the attacks.[153]
There were 10 gunmen, nine of whom were subsequently shot dead and one captured by security forces.[154][155] Witnesses reported that they seemed to be in their early twenties, wore black T-shirts and jeans, and that they smiled and looked happy as they shot their victims.[156]
It was initially reported that some of the attackers were British citizens,[157][158] but the Indian government later stated that there was no evidence to confirm this.[159] Similarly, early reports of 12 gunmen[160] were also later shown to be incorrect.[122]
On 9 December, the 10 attackers were identified by Mumbai police, along with their home towns in Pakistan: Ajmal Amir Kasab from Faridkot, Abu Ismail Dera Ismail Khan from Dera Ismail Khan, Hafiz Arshad and Babr Imran from Multan, Javed from Okara, Shoaib from Sialkot, Nazir Ahmed and Nasir from Faisalabad, Abdul Rahman from Arifwalla, and Fahadullah from Dipalpur Taluka. Dera Ismail Khan is in the North-West Frontier Province; the rest of the towns are in Pakistani Punjab.[161]
On 6 April 2010, the Home Minister of Maharashtra State, informed the Assembly that the bodies of the nine killed Pakistani gunmen from the 2008 attack on Mumbai were buried in a secret location in January 2010. The bodies had been in the mortuary of a Mumbai hospital after Muslim clerics in the city refused to let them be buried on their grounds.[162]
Attackers
Only one of the 10 attackers, Ajmal Kasab, survived the attack. He was hanged in Yerwada jail in 2012.[163] The other nine attackers killed during the onslaught were Hafiz Arshad alias Abdul Rehman Bada, Abdul Rahman Chhota, Javed alias Abu Ali, Fahadullah alias Abu Fahad, Ismail Khan alias Abu Ismail, Babar Imran alias Abu Akasha, Nasir alias Abu Umar, Nazir alias Abu Umer and Shoaib alias Abu Soheb.
Arrests
Ajmal Kasab was the only attacker arrested alive by police. At first, he deposed to police inspector Ramesh Mahale that he had come to India "to see Amitabh Bachchan's bungalow", and that he was apprehended by the Mumbai Police outside the bungalow.[55][164] Much of the information about the attackers' preparation, travel, and movements comes from his subsequent confessions to the Mumbai police.[165]
On 12 February 2009, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Pakistani national Javed Iqbal, who acquired VoIP phones in Spain for the Mumbai attackers, and Hamad Ameen Sadiq, who had facilitated money transfer for the attack, had been arrested.[121] Two other men known as Khan and Riaz, but whose full names were not given, were also arrested.[7] Two Pakistanis were arrested in Brescia, Italy (east of Milan) on 21 November 2009, after being accused of providing logistical support to the attacks and transferring more than US$200 to Internet accounts using a false ID.[166][167] They had Red Corner Notices issued against them by Interpol for their suspected involvement and it was issued after the last year's strikes.[168]
In October 2009, two Chicago men were arrested and charged by the FBI for involvement in "terrorism" abroad, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana. Headley, a Pakistani American, was charged in November 2009 with scouting locations for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.[169][170] Headley is reported to have posed as an American Jew and is believed to have links with militant Islamist groups based in Bangladesh.[171] On 18 March 2010, Headley pleaded guilty to a dozen charges against him thereby avoiding going to trial.
In December 2009, the FBI charged Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani army, for planning the attacks in association with Headley.[172]
On 15 January 2010, in a successful snatch operation R&AW agents nabbed Sheikh Abdul Khwaja, one of the handlers of the 26/11 attacks, chief of HuJI India operations and a most wanted suspect in India, from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and brought him over to Hyderabad, India for formal arrest.[173]
On 25 June 2012, the Delhi Police Department arrested Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Hamza, one of the key suspects in the attack at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. His arrest was touted as the most significant development in the case since Kasab's arrest.[174] Security agencies had been chasing him for three years in Delhi. Ansari is a Lashker-e-Taiba ultra and the Hindi tutor of the 10 attackers who were responsible for the Mumbai attacks in 2008.[175][176] He was apprehended, after he was arrested and deported to India by Saudi Intelligence officials as per official request by Indian authorities.[177] After Ansari's arrest, investigations revealed that in 2009 he allegedly stayed for a day in a room in Old Legislators's Hostel, belonging to Fauzia Khan, a former MLA and minister in Maharashtra Government. The minister, however, denied having any links with him. Home Minister P. Chidambaram asserted that Ansari was provided a safe place in Pakistan and was present in the control room, which could not have been established without active State support. Ansari's interrogation further revealed that Sajid Mir and a Pakistani Army major visited India under fake names as cricket spectators to survey targets in Delhi and Mumbai for about a fortnight.[178][179][180]
Sajid Mir, a Pakistani citizen and key operative of the militant Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),[181][182] is seen as one of the main organizers of the 2008 attacks.[183][184] He has been called the "mastermind"[185] and "project manager".[182] Mir is on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted list and the United States Department of State offers in its Rewards for Justice Program,[186] a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Mir.[187][188] Mir has carried out terrorism operations in different parts of the world, including France.[183]
Jason M. Blazakis, professor of practice at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, stated in 2018 in The Hill: "A lethal, miasmic mix of bureaucratic inertia, diplomatic dysfunction and misperception has contributed to the fact that LeT members Sajid Mir, Mazhar Iqbal, Abu Qahafa (his nom de guerre), and their ISI handler, Major Iqbal (no relation to Mazhar), roam free."[189]
Casualties and compensation
| Nationality | Deaths | Injured |
|---|---|---|
 India |
141 | 256 |
 United States |
6[b][190][191] | 2[191] |
 Israel |
4[192] | – |
 Germany |
3[158] | 3 |
 Australia |
2[193] | 2 |
 Canada |
2[194] | 2 |
 France |
2[195] | – |
 Italy |
1[196] | – |
 United Kingdom |
1[c][197] | 7 |
 Netherlands |
1[198] | 1[199] |
 Japan |
1[200][201] | 1 |
 Jordan |
1 | 1 |
 Malaysia |
1[202] | – |
 Mauritius |
1[203][204] | – |
 Mexico |
1[205] | – |
 Singapore |
1[206] | – |
 Thailand |
1[207] | – |
 Austria |
– | 1[208] |
 Spain |
– | 2[158][209][210] |
 China |
– | 1[158] |
 Oman |
– | 2[158] |
 Philippines |
– | 1[211] |
 Finland |
– | 1[158] |
 Norway |
– | 1[212] |
| Total | 166 | 293 |
A total of 175 people, including civilians, security personnel, and nine of the attackers, were killed in the attacks. Among the dead were 29 foreign nationals.[4][5][47][213][214][215] One attacker was captured.[216] The bodies of many of the dead hostages showed signs of torture or disfigurement.[217] A number of those killed were notable figures in business, media, and security services.[218][219][220]
The chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, said that 15 policemen and two NSG commandos were killed, including the following officers:[213][220]
- Assistant Police Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble,[221] who succeeded in capturing a terrorist alive, with his bare hands.
- Joint Commissioner of Police Hemant Karkare, the Chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad[219]
- Additional Commissioner of Police: Ashok Kamte[219]
- Encounter specialist Senior Inspector Vijay Salaskar[219]
- Senior Inspector Shashank Shinde[219]
- NSG Commando, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan
- NSG Commando, Hawaldar Gajender Singh Bisht
Three railway officials of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus were also killed.[222]
The casualties occurred in the following locations: