MUMBAI: On November 26, 2008, 10 militants from the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) infiltrated Mumbai via the sea and carried out a series of attacks at major sites, including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Oberoi Trident Hotel, CST Railway Station, and Nariman House.
The attacks resulted in the deaths of 166 people, including 18 security personnel, and left over 300 others injured. The siege lasted for almost four days, during which many were held hostage by the terrorists.
Today, Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and other political leaders paid tribute to the hundreds of martyrs who lost their lives in the devastating terror attacks.
Ten terrorists armed with Kalashnikovs launched simultaneous attacks at five locations in Mumbai, killing 140 Indians and 25 foreign tourists, including Americans and Britons in luxury hotels.
At a Jewish center, Israeli nationals were tortured and killed, and at a café popular with Western backpackers, gunmen opened fire indiscriminately.
The largest number of casualties occurred at the city’s railway station, where all victims were Indian.
The attack seemed to target not only India but also the global community.
On that evening, a boat arrived at Mumbai’s Fisherman’s Colony, depositing eight young men dressed in orange anoraks. Their mission was chillingly simple: kill and continue killing without mercy.
After discarding their waterproof jackets, the attackers, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, silently unloaded their backpacks from the inflatable boat and began walking toward the heart of India’s financial capital.
At the time, the beach was nearly deserted as most residents were indoors, engrossed in watching the concluding moments of a one-day cricket match between India and England.
India’s victory would be the last piece of good news the country would experience for a long time. What followed was a brutal 62-hour rampage that would claim at least 195 lives and hold Mumbai—and the world—captive in horror.
Carrying heavy backpacks and red bags, they identified themselves as students and claimed to be “tense” and uninterested in further tension.
They headed toward the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the iconic Gateway of India, setting off the tragic chain of events that followed.
At the same time, other attackers were preparing for their part in the carnage.
Sources suggest there were as many as 40 gunmen involved, though the exact number remains unclear.
What they sought to achieve and who was behind the attack remained questions that would soon be answered by the capture of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist to survive and be taken into custody by Indian authorities.
His interrogation revealed crucial details that began to form a clearer picture, leading investigators to suspect Pakistan-based terrorist groups were involved.
Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, publicly stated that the attack appeared to have been orchestrated by groups from Pakistan.
Kasab, alongside a fellow attacker identified as Ismail Khan, began their attack at Mumbai’s CST railway station, where Kasab was famously photographed during the massacre that left over 50 dead.
From there, they moved on to Cama and GT hospitals, continuing their killing spree. In the course of their rampage, Kasab and Khan killed senior police officers, including the head of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, Hemant Karkare.
The killing only ended when Khan was shot dead, and Kasab surrendered.
Kasab’s revelations were a turning point in the investigation, providing a clearer picture of the planning behind the attack.
He confirmed that most of the attackers were from Pakistan, and that the planning had been ongoing for months.
Some attackers had infiltrated the targeted hotels earlier as guests, while others had taken jobs there to aid the operation. Kasab himself had visited Mumbai months earlier under the guise of a student and had stayed in a safe house.
GPS devices recovered from the attackers confirmed that the group traveled by sea from Karachi, overpowered a crew, and made their way to Mumbai via speedboats.
As Kasab and Khan attacked the CST station, another pair of gunmen targeted Leopold Café, a popular spot for tourists.
Witnesses described how they opened fire and hurled grenades, killing at least one person.
Meanwhile, another group of attackers hijacked a police vehicle and moved through the area, firing indiscriminately.
At Nariman House, the attackers stormed a Jewish center, where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, were killed.
If the attackers’ goal was to inflame tensions between India and Pakistan, they succeeded. Anti-Pakistan sentiments surged, and angry crowds gathered, chanting slogans.
Their young son, Moshe, was rescued by the family nanny. But the most harrowing scenes unfolded at the Oberoi and Taj Mahal Palace hotels, where the gunmen targeted Western and Indian guests.
Survivors later described how the attackers focused on British and American nationals, even sparing others.
One guest, former Australian actress Brooke Satchwell, recalled seeing bodies in hotel corridors, while hotel staff huddled in the kitchen, listening to explosions and gunfire until they could flee at dawn.
At the Oberoi, 58-year-old Madhu Kumar and her husband Ashok, along with friends, were caught in the chaos.
The attackers were described as fair-skinned, speaking English, and indiscriminately killing guests. As they moved through the hotel, panic spread, and a stampede ensued.
Mumbai’s police were ill-prepared for the scale of the attack. The initial response came from just eight officers armed with revolvers.
It wasn’t until 2 AM that military personnel arrived, but by then the attackers had already taken full control of the hotels.
The first team of 40 commandos had no detailed information about the layout of the Taj, and by the time they entered the hotel, the gunmen had scattered.
The attacks left nearly 200 people dead and raised pressing questions about India’s preparedness.
Despite numerous prior terrorist incidents, the country’s security forces were caught flat-footed, and critics—like Rakash Bhaud, a local Shiv Sena leader—blamed the central government for failing to protect citizens.
If the attackers’ goal was to inflame tensions between India and Pakistan, they succeeded. Anti-Pakistan sentiments surged, and angry crowds gathered, chanting slogans.
As the violence subsided and Mumbai began to recover, the emotional and political fallout from the attacks remained.
The traumatic events of 26/11 would continue to haunt Mumbai—and the world—for years to come.
(Inputs from various Indian news agencies)
Comment