ADDING to post no. 1203:
Thanks to Abu Afak for the ping to this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2138931/posts
and this post:
QUOTE:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2138931/posts?page=37#37
101 killed as gunmen rampage in India city
By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM,
Ramola Talwar Badam
Associated Press Writer
MUMBAI, India – Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, a crowded train station and a JEWISH group’s Headquarters in India’s financial capital, killing at least 101 people, taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege Thursday. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.
Police and gunmen were exchanging occasional gunfire at two luxury hotels and dozens of people were believed held hostage or trapped inside the besieged buildings. Pradeep Indulkar, a senior official at the Maharashtra state Home Ministry said 101 people were killed and 287 injured.
Officials said eight militants had also been killed in the coordinated attacks on at least 10 sites that began around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Gunmen also seized the Mumbai headquarters of the Ultra-Orthodox JEWISH outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, the New York-based group said.
Indian commandos surrounded the building Thursday morning and media reports said gunfire was heard from the building.
Police loudspeakers declared a curfew around Mumbai’s landmark Taj Mahal hotel, and black-clad commandos ran into the building as fresh gunshots rang out from the area, apparently the beginning of an assault on gunmen who had taken hostages in the hotel....”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081127/ap_on_re_as/as_india_shooting
37 posted on November 26, 2008 11:42:21 PM PST by abu afak (Mellita, domi adsum)
Thanks to a special emailer for pointing to these links showing events PREVIOUSLY IN THE NEWS in India:
“HuJI, LeT joining hands rattles security agencies”
1 Nov 2008, 0422 hrs IST, TNN
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Security agencies in India believe that the coastal area stretching from Chittagong, all the way to the Myanmar border, is the nerve centre of HuJI-B. It apparently comprises more than 15,000 active members, many of them refugees from Myanmar (Rohingya), who are led by general secretary Shaukat Osman alias Sheikh Farid. Others are mostly youths from Bangladesh and India.
However, it’s the coming together of HuJI-B and terrorist outfits operating out of Pakistan like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which has rattled security agencies in India. This became much more obvious after HuJI’s operation commander Abdul Hannan admitted after his arrest in October 2005 that he had passed out of the Gouhardanga madrassa in Pakistan.”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The official added that in the past 12 months, most of these youth have infiltrated into Assam. According to the official, these HuJI men have excellent relations with Ulfa as they have helped the outfit in running its training camps along the Tripura-Bangladesh border.
HuJI was originally formed in Pakistan in the 80s, but it operates in India mainly through its Bangladesh counterpart which has active sleeper cells all over India now. Bangladesh HuJI was also found to have links with Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF) that had claimed responsibility for the American Center attack in Kolkata in 2002.
The arrest of accused Aftab Ansari led to more information about HuJI’s links with LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Earlier, in 2001, there were reports that Taliban squads were regularly visiting Bangladesh to train HuJI cadres. Being banned by Bangladesh in 2005, and termed by the US as a foreign terrorist organization, clearly has not affected HuJI’s functioning at all.
In fact, the original Pakistan HuJI has emerged as one of the main suspects in the sensational bombing of the Mariott hotel in Islamabad recently. According to reports in the Pakistan media, authorities are trying to ascertain if the attack was sponsored by al-Qaida and executed jointly by HuJI and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).”
###
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/huji-man-from-pak-emerges-as-kingpin/388567/
“HuJI man from Pak emerges as kingpin”
Font Size
-A+A
Express News Service
Posted: Nov 21, 2008 at 0042 hrs IST
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Ahmedabad, November 20 Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islam (HuJI) operative Aamir Raza has emerged as the kingpin in the Indian Mujahideen (IM) orchestrated countrywide blasts, according to the first chargesheet in the Ahmedabad serial attacks, filed on November 11.
Currently said to be in Karachi, Pakistan, Raza was in constant touch with the SIMI top brass and supervised, planned and provided financial assistance to the IM for carrying out the attacks.
The chargesheet says that Raza figures prominently as the person who initiated the whole process of the formation of IM, a radical splinter group of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
The DCB already has in its custody Raizuddin Nasir, a Laskar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative said to have undergone training in Pakistan. Nasir has also been named as one of the persons who attended the Wagamon training camp.
According to the police, Raza and Nasir establish the close links IM has with the LeT and HuJI, known terrorist organisations that played their part in the bomb blasts.”