TERRORISM - 2008 - Indian Social Institute

landmark Taj Mahal Hotel, they were positioned at various places. Another team was combating
the terrorists inside. The top portion of the hotel caught fire late on Wednesday night and huge
plumes of smoke were seen. Later, fires were seen in other parts of the building throughout the
night and on Thursday into the night.Rescue operations began early on Thursday and rescuers
did their best to help those trapped. It was a tense situation as cries of help echoed through the
night. Very little was known about how many people were still inside the hotels and how many
were held hostage. Officially 400 persons were evacuated from the Taj Mahal hotel and about 70
from the Hotel Oberoi/Trident. Six army columns were pressed into action apart from 200 NSG
personnel. Mr. Deshmukh denied there was a hostage-like situation anywhere. He said most
people had locked themselves inside their rooms. He said the situation would be resolved by
Thursday night or Friday morning. The Chief Minister said nine persons had been detained. He
denied any knowledge of the group to which the terrorists belonged. The State had received no
advance information on the attack. Investigations were on to confirm if the men came by boats.
They possibly landed at the Gateway of India. The police cordoned off the entire Trident hotel.
Truckloads of NSG and Marine commandos went inside in batches. People were still inside and
gunfire and blasts continued through the day. As the day wore on, the picture of terror strikes all
over the city became clear and the government reported 13 incidents of firing, starting from the
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus at 9.21 p.m. The station was peaceful on Thursday. Blasts took
place at the Taj, BPT Colony at Mazgaon, the Oberoi/Trident (three blasts), the Colaba Market
and in a taxi at Vile Parle. Hand grenades exploded at Cama Hospital and on Free Press Road.
(The Hindu 28/11/08)
Patil quits, Chidambaram takes charge of Home (12)
NEW DELHI: Four days after unprecedented terror attacks shook Mumbai, Union Finance
Minister P. Chidambaram on Sunday replaced Shivraj Patil as the new Home Minister. Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh entrusted Mr. Chidambaram with the responsibility of overhauling the
country's internal security set-up in the wake of increasing terror-related attacks in the recent past
and finally the one that jolted Mumbai on November 26-28 and took nearly 200 lives and left
about 300 people injured. It was the first political fallout of the terror attacks, mounted by welltrained
and equipped cadres of the Lashkar- e-Taiba who unleashed a reign of terror at about a
dozen places in Mumbai, including two luxury hotels. It took a 60-hour commando operation to
flush out the terrorists. President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who is on a visit to Indonesia, has
accepted Mr. Patil's resignation from the Council of Ministers with immediate effect. "Further, as
advised by the Prime Minister, the President has directed that Mr. P. Chidambaram be allocated
the portfolio of the Minister of Home Affairs and the Prime Minister shall look after the Ministry of
Finance," a Rashtrapati Bhavan press communiqu‚, issued from Jakarta, said on Sunday. Mr.
Chidambaram served as Minister of State for Internal Security in the Home Ministry in the Rajiv
Gandhi Cabinet in 1984. He took charge of the Commerce Ministry before becoming Finance
Minister during the United Front government rule in 1996 and has been guiding the affairs of the
Finance Ministry since 2004 when the United Progressive Alliance government took office.
Enough indications were available that Mr. Patil would have to go following strong criticism at the
Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday for his handling of internal security
situation. The highest decision- making body of the Congress advocated zero-tolerance towards
terrorism and reiterated the party's resolve to give a "befitting and hard-hitting reply" to those who
dared to challenge the sovereignty of the nation. On Sunday morning, Mr. Patil decided to step
down and submitted his resignation to Dr. Singh, owning moral responsibility for the failure to
prevent terror attacks such as the one in Mumbai. Sources close to Mr. Patil said he did not want
the party and the UPA government to suffer because of the terror attacks and decided to quit.
Senior party leaders and some Union Ministers strongly felt that accountability at the highest level
should be fixed for the Mumbai terror attacks, described as "India's 9/11." Mr. Patil faced criticism
for his statements on earlier terrorist strikes - be it at Varanasi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad,
Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi - or situation in the North-East, Jammu and Kashmir or naxal violence
in more than a dozen States. Informed sources in the government did not rule out the possibility
of some more heads rolling as the UPA government, with a few months left in office, goes about
the business of revamping the internal security set-up and intelligence machinery. … (The Hindu
1/12/08)