India fears 5 terrorists still at large:
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai, December 1, 2008
At least five terrorist gunmen have evaded capture in Mumbai and could make a secondary strike on India's financial capital, it was feared today.
The prospect of more killers being at large added to mounting public anger at the Indian Government's lax handling of the worst terror strike to hit the country in 15 years.
As the city slowly moved towards normality, Indian security forces claimed that just ten militants – nine of whom were killed and one caught alive – were behind the series of co-ordinated attacks that claimed nearly 200 lives. Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police, crime branch, said: "Their plan was just to cause maximum damage and return with hostages protecting themselves."
However, a hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen had equipment for 15 men on board when it was discovered adrift off the city shore – suggesting that several gunmen could still be at large.
"Fifteen winter jackets were found, fifteen toothbrushes," a police source said. "That more terrorists are loose is possible".
Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole gunman caught alive, said during police questioning that 24 men were trained in camps in Pakistan for the mission, according to a leaked account of his police interrogation. He has apparently since claimed, however, that only ten made the final trip to Bombay, including him. Police are continuing to question the baby-faced 21-year-old, who has said that he and his accomplices planned to kill 5,000.people.
Security experts say that it is conceivable that a force of just ten heavily armed men could carry out an operation of the scale of the Mumbai strike, which paralysed the commercial capital of India for three days and will haunt its residents for years, but only if they received extensive training and local support.
Investigators believe that at least five or six additional people were immediately involved in preparing for the attacks, by organising logistics and carrying out reconnaissance work. Their whereabouts is unknown.
Efforts to unravel the local support network – which investigators fear may be activated again in future attacks – are centring on Mumbai's most notorious mafia gang, D Company, which is run by Dawood Ibrahim, an organised-crime boss who ranks among the world's top five most-wanted men and is widely believed to have links with al-Qaeda.
Dr Lakshman, of the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, said: "The level of local logistical support given to the terrorists suggests the involvement of Dawood Ibrahim's group."
Indian officials are convinced that Ibrahim is currently being harboured by Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI, in the port city of Karachi, from which it is thought the gunmen that struck Mumbai last week sailed. He is thought to have financed the 1993 Bombay bombings, which claimed 250 lives.
Yesterday, many Mumbai residents remained convinced that more than two dozen gunmen must have stormed the city, such was the trail of death and destruction left in their wake. That impression was supported by early police and media reports that spoke of 25 terrorists. Angry at the Government's response to the crisis, they are reluctant to accept the assurances that all the terrorists are accounted for.
K. Subrahmanyam, a prominent political analyst, said. "There is an impression that the Government is weak and not able to deal with terrorism."
On Sunday, India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned after a public backlash at the handling of the attack on Mumbai. It was reported that Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, had also tendered his resignation, but that Sonia Gandhi, President of Congress party, had refused it.
People are furious that it took an elite group of commandos at least seven hours to reach the two luxury hotels that were attacked, by which time the gunmen had consolidated their positions and trapped hundreds of people.
The new home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said: "I recognise that there is a sense of anguish and deep shock among the people of India."
Today, further details of how the militants were prepared emerged.
Kasab, the captured gunman, told police that he had undergone months of commando-style training in an Islamist militant camp in Pakistan. The training was organised by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group that Indian officials are convinced is behind the Mumbai attacks, and conducted by a former member of the Pakistani army, a police officer close to the interrogation claimed.
The training covered topics from how to handle sophisticated weaponry to what to eat to maintain energy levels during a siege.
The terrorist recruits were also placed on a rigorous physical training regime, running and swimming large distances. The account tallies with that of the elite Indian commandos that hunted the gunmen down in the two hotels they had occupied. The troops said that the terrorists must have been given military training, such was their bearing and effectiveness.
It has also emerged that Rata Tata, the head of the Indian conglomerate that owns the Taj Mahal Palace had been warned of a possible attack on the hotel. He claimed, however, that no security arrangement could have prevented the highly trained and organised militants. "They did not go through the front entrance. All our security arrangements are in the front," he said.
"They planned everything. I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler."
Mumbai residents have been left shell-shocked by the attacks and fear a repeat. Amitabh Bachchan, the Bollywood superstar known as the "Big B", described how he is sleeping with a gun under his pillow. "Before retiring for the night, I pulled out my licensed .32 revolver, loaded it and put it under my pillow. For a very disturbed sleep," he said.
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