Indian Forces Comb Taj Mahal After Deadliest Attack Since 1993

By Vipin Nair and Stephen Foxwell

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Indian forces combed the luxury Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai looking for survivors of the nation's deadliest attack in at least 15 years after commandos killed the remaining terrorists to end a 60-hour siege.

At least 195 people were killed in the attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, a Jewish center, railway station and restaurant, S Jadhav, an official at the city's disaster management unit said.

Two blasts were heard inside the Taj Mahal Hotel after the National Security Guard said in a public announcement it would set off controlled explosions. Firemen who were putting out a blaze that started shortly after daybreak pulled back from the building. Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group, which owns the Taj Hotel, visited the site with officials from the group.

Busloads of commandoes moved in earlier to do a room-by-room search after gunshots and blasts that had rocked the building in the early hours of today subsided. The siege on the hotel is over, Press Trust of India said in a news flash.

The NSG wasn't declaring an end to the crisis until all rooms at the Taj Mahal hotel were searched, J.K. Dutt, director general of NSG commando unit, said at a briefing, adding some guests may still be in the complex.

Foreigners Killed

More than 295 people were injured as the attackers moved through India's financial hub, Jadhav said.

Most of those who died were Indians and a final death toll hasn't been officially released. Five Americans died in the attacks, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. More U.S. citizens are missing. A German, two Australians, two Frenchmen, a Briton, a Japanese, a Canadian, a Singaporean and an Italian were among the dead, the Associated Press said yesterday.

Two rabbis from New York were among five hostages and two attackers who died at the Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch Center in Mumbai when it was stormed by Indian commandos.

The attack is the deadliest in India since a series of bomb blasts rocked Mumbai's commercial landmarks, including the Bombay Stock Exchange building, killing more than 250 people in 1993.

The 1993 blasts were blamed by the police on members of the Mumbai underworld, belonging to Dawood Ibrahim's gang. India says Ibrahim is hiding in Pakistan, a charge the neighboring country denies.

A little-known Islamist group, the Deccan Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for the shootings and explosions across the western coastal city that started late on Nov. 26, Indian Home Ministry official M.L. Kumawat said.

The attackers began planning their assaults six months ago, India's NDTV reported, citing an account from a captured terrorist. A seized global positioning system showed some of the group left Karachi, Pakistan, as early as Nov. 12, NDTV said.

Advance Surveys

Lashkar-i-Taiba or Jaish-i-Muhammad, two Muslim extremist terrorist groups from Pakistan that have attacked India in the past, may be involved, MSNBC reported on its Web site, citing unidentified analysts and counterterrorism officials. The groups are linked to violence in Kashmir, a region over which India and Pakistan have fought.

The attackers were familiar with their targets and had probably done surveys in advance, a leader of Indian commandos said yesterday in a video on the Times of India Web site.

``We came up against highly motivated terrorists,'' Vice- Admiral J.S. Bedi, whose commandos led the assault against the militants, said in televised comments. He showed pictures of recovered hand grenades, tear-gas shells and AK-47 ammunition.

Multiple Attacks

Multiple attacks have hit cities in India, which is mostly Hindu, with bombs planted in markets, theaters and near mosques this year, leaving more than 300 people dead.

India will ``go after'' individuals and organizations behind the attacks, which were ``well-planned with external linkages,'' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a televised address, without identifying nations.

Pakistan's government turned down India's request to send the chief of the military intelligence agency to investigate the Mumbai terror attacks, CNN-IBN television reported today.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said earlier he will send the intelligence head to India for the first time to counter claims that the attackers are linked to his country.

Pakistan's ``government will cooperate with India in exposing and apprehending the culprits and the masterminds behind'' the Mumbai terrorist attacks, according to a statement by the president's office, citing Zardari's phone conversation yesterday with Singh.

The attacks in Mumbai show a militant movement among Indian- born followers of Islam is aligning its campaign with those from majority-Muslim countries, while seeking to hit economic interests, B. Raman, the former counterterrorism director of India's intelligence agency, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at vnair12@bloomberg.net; Stephen Foxwell in Mumbai at sfoxwell@bloomberg.net.