Assam and Kashmir ethnic cleansing…

Assam
Assam –has notoriously and conspicuously grabbed the News Headlines for the ethnic( read religious) conflict between the Bodos and Bangla muslims(read Bangladeshis) which has taken more than 75 lives so far in the last month or so. The area of conflict was the Bodoland where Bodos constitute more than 90% Hindus .Bodos and majority of Hindus in Assam attribute this violence to the influx of Bangla Muslims(read illegal).The indigenous Assamese muslims have so far refrained from any provocative statement on this conflict.
The name coined for this Violence is ethnic violence(It is religious)

 
Kashmir
In Kashmir the indigenous Kashmiri Hindus(Kashmiri Pandits) were forced by the Muslim Jihadis to leave by selectively killing them .the cold blooded murders led to the mass exodus of kashmiri Hindus.

 
Assam
In the case of Assam violence, there has been reported a mass exodus of around 5lakh people. The displaced people constitute both Bodos as well as Bangla Muslims.

 
Kashmir
In the case of Kashmir,at least 4 lakh people got displaced from their homes .All the displaced people were Kashmiri Hindus.

 
Assam
The repercussions of Assam violence resonated in whole of India and the people of North-East particularly Assamese were targeted in Pune, Mumbai ,Bangalore, Hyderabad .People from Assam thronged to their nearest Railway stations and fled to Assam fearing more attacks from the Muslims.

 
Kashmir
No such repercussions as Hindus are peace loving .It has been thousand years since India attacked any country. In fact majority of Indians are still oblivious to the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus.

 
Assam
The Bangla Muslims constitute more than 30% of the total population and their votes are extremely important for political parties, they can bring into power at least two Lok sabha M.P’s(Member of parliament).There are rumors that certain political have given their tacit approval to the influx of illegal Bangladeshi Muslims.

 
Kashmir
It is believed that in early 20th century the numbers of Kashmiri Hindus were one million, which declined to 4-7lakh, as they have been migrating to other parts mainly because of the lack of religious freedom in Kashmir .However 1990 proved beyond doubt that those who had migrated in 40’s had taken the right decision, At least they didn’t suffer the ways their successors suffered in 90’s.
Kashmiri Hindus have no voice in the political arena of J&k. Even the central government have so far behaved invidiously with them.

 
Assam
The governments at the state and center have refrained to use the word communal in the case of Assam Violence and have blamed the repercussions and retaliatory action of Muslims on Pakistan and ISI.

 
Kashmir
In the case of Kashmir ethnic cleansing, It was said by the Government that Pakistan ,ISI ,Muslim terrorists brainwashed by Pakistan were responsible for the killings and mass exodus of Hindus. As a Kashmiri Hindu I know who are responsible for my exodus and I remain witness to the blatant lies and blatant injustice of my own successive governments.

 
Assam
There has been ethnic violence between the Bodos and the Bangla Muslims in the past also and once the violence subsided, the bodos and Muslims have moved back to their homes. This time also they will repeat the same.

 
Kashmir
Last year many Kashmiri Hindus came back to Kashmir, this year thousands of Kashmiri Pandits came back to Kashmir. But Alas, they came back as tourists to see their motherland, where they and their ancestors had lived from last 5000 years.
23 years have passed since Kashmiri Hindus left their homes….
Returning to their native land is still a dream……………………..a distant dream..

The pain has been expressed in the following lines..

In my Dreams
I saw my childhood
happily screaming
and running
up and down the stairs
of my erstwhile home
when I opened my eyes
I saw my Childhood
mauled and Chocked…

 
In my Dreams
I saw my Happiness
blooming in the flower
that embelleshed
the kitchen garden
of my erstwhile home
when I opened my eyes
I saw my happiness
withered and crumpled…

 
In my Dreams
I saw my Grandparents
playing with me
in my erstwhile home
When I opened my eyes
I looked sadly
at the photo of my
Late Grandparents…

 
In my dreams
I saw my freedom
roaming around the
chinars and in the brooks
i saw my freedom
riding the kite above
my erstwhile home
when I opened my eyes
I saw my freedom
incarcerated and in shackles…

 
In my Dreams
I saw my soul
in the erstwhile home
of my loved ones
drinking the nectar of love
at the feet of lord shiva
when I opened my eyes
I did not see my soul
for, I have not seen my soul
since that day
when I was forced to
leave the home where
I was born………..

Revealed:How ‘ISI spy’ Fai pushed anti-India agenda in US

In the first such known case in United States’s history, an American citizen — Srinagar-born, Kashmiri separatist leader Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai — has admitted that he acted as an operative of the Inter Services Intelligence.

Fai, 62, admitted to acting on the Pakistani spy agency’s specific instructions and funneling thousands of dollars to try and influence US policy — particularly through illegal lobbying in the US Congress — towards Kashmir. He simultaneously urged US lawmakers, who were the beneficiaries of these contributions, to malign India for its alleged draconian policies in the Valley.
 
Fai was undisputedly one of the most influential Kashmiri Americans in the country. He was the founder and the executive director of the Kashmiri American Council, headquartered in Washington, DC, that espoused independence for Jammu and Kashmir.

Fai pleaded guilty Wednesday in the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia to one count of conspiracy of receiving at least $3.5 million from the ISI between 1990 and 2011 and to one count of impeding the Internal Revenue Service to collect revenues of $200,000 to $400,000.
 
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Fai admitted that he would submit his strategy plans and budgets to his ISI supervisors, specifically to a point man named Javeed Aziz Khan, who also was known as ‘Brigadier Abdullah’. Khan would then review these plans, revealed Fai, and send back suggested topics to be used at the Capitol Hill conferences the KAC would host to secure Congressional support to influence administration policy toward independence for Kashmir.
 
Following Fai’s arrest on July 19, after which he was put under house arrest in his Fairfax, VA home in the suburbs of DC, his defence team initially claimed that he was not an agent of the ISI and all the lobbying he did as the head of the KAC was his own. They claimed that the funds received by the KAC were from donors who were Kashmiri Americans and supporters of the separatist cause.

But, facing an iron-clad case, which the prosecutors presented with ample evidence of funds received for his illegal lobbying from the ISI and the unraveling of the network of straw donors through which this money was funneled, his defence team saw the writing on the wall and agreed to a guilty plea agreement. This could necessarily lead to a lighter sentence on March 9, where the judge is expected to also take his ill-health into consideration. Two years ago, Fai had suffered a serious stroke.
 
Law enforcement sources told rediff.com that if Fai had not entered into a plea agreement and the case had gone to trial, the prosecution with its iron-clad evidence and several affidavits by witnesses could have asked for a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted.
 
The sources said it is likely that Fai, now free on bond, would now get off with a considerably lighter sentence. He may be put under a kind of house arrest in a half-way house with a couple of years probation time.
 
When Fai was arrested in July, Zaheer Ahmad, 63, a US citizen and resident of Pakistan, was charged along with him.
 
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which arrested Fai when he returned from one of his many overseas trips, said in an affidavit that he received approximately $500,000 to $700,000 per year from the government of Pakistan.
 
As part of the plea agreement, where he pleaded guilty, he admitted to only a generic count of conspiracy and impeding the revenue collection of the IRS, but there was no mention of the violation of Foreign Agents Registration Act.
 
Fai’s attorney Nina Ginsberg argued that all the lobbying Fai did was of his own volition and not under the specific instructions of the ISI.
 
She also issued a statement by Fai after his guilty plea sating that “the Kashmiri American Council and I have always tried to represent the sentiments of the people of Kashmir, irrespective of the religious background and cultural affiliations.”
 
The KAC also issued a statement welcoming the court’s decision to not prosecute Fai for the violation of FARA and maintaining that it was independent of the ISI. It also pointed out that the KAC had issued op-ed articles that had strongly criticised Pakistan’s policies on Kashmir as much as it did India’s.

But US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride, dismissing these arguments, said that it was a no-brainer that Fai was “a paid operative” of the ISI and that his links to the ISI were extensive.
 
“For the last 20 years,” he asserted, “Mr Fai secretly took millions of dollars from Pakistani intelligence and lied about it to the US government.”
 
McBride said, “As a paid operative of ISI, he did the bidding of his handlers in Pakistan while he met with US elected officials, funded high-profile conferences, and promoted the Kahsmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”
 
Assistant Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco, echoing McBride’s sentiments, said, “Syed Fai admitted his role in a decades-long scheme to conceal the fact that the government of Pakistan was secretly funding his efforts to influence US policy on Kashmir.”
 
Earlier, McBride had said that Fai’s decades-long scheme had only “one purpose — to hide Pakistan’s involvement behind his efforts to influence the US government’s position on Kashmir.”
 
The KAC, established in 1990, regularly held press briefings at the National Press Club and hosted conferences, including a major annual conference on Capitol Hill, which was attended by influential US lawmakers, including members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee like Congressman Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and a longtime bete noire of New Delhi, Congressman Joe Pitts, Pennsylvania Republican and Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat who would bemoan the situation in the Valley and the human rights abuses perpetrated by Indian security forces and paramilitary groups.
 
These conferences would also always be attended by the Pakistan ambassador to the US, and senior Pakistan government officials as well as legislators. Till he was fired a month ago for his role in the Memogate issue, Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani was  a conspicuous presence at Fai’s Capitol Hill conferences, as were earlier ambassadors like Maleeha Lodhi.
 
These conferences have also been able to draw some leading South Asian experts and former diplomats like Howard Schaffer, a 36-year veteran of the US Foreign Service and the author of the recently published seminal book on American diplomacy and intervention in Kashmir, The Limits of Influence: America’s Role in Kashmir, published by the Brookings Institution.
 
Fai has also, over the years, hosted some Indian journalists and Indian American academics.
 
Indian embassy officials, including the Indian Ambassador to the US, have also over the years been religiously invited by Fai to attend and speak at these annual conferences. But as far as this correspondent can remember, not a single embassy official has attended these conferences, let alone speak at these two-day parleys.

These Capitol Hill conferences have almost always been attended by the prime minister and former prime ministers and senior officials of Pakistani Occupied Kashmir.

Whenever Kashmiri leaders like Mirwaiz Farooq, former Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik or others from the Hurriyat Conference visit Washington, they usually stay with Fai at his Fairfax home. He arranges meetings between them and  US lawmakers, administration officials and organises seminars and forums for them at Washington, DC think-tanks.
 
Fai also constantly traveled around the world, delivering speeches, and regularly visited Vienna and Geneva to appear before the UN Human Rights Council to make a case on behalf of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the constant violation of their human and civil rights by the government and the troops in the Valley. Over the years, he has also been a regular speaker at universities and colleges across the US.
 
The government’s affidavit submitted with Fai’s arrest in July alleged that although the KAC held itself out to be a Kashmiri organisation run by Kashmiris and financed by Americans, the KAC is one of three “Kashmir Centres” that are actually run by elements of the Pakistani government, including the ISI. The two other Kashmir Centres are in London and Brussels.

According to the affidavit, a confidential witness told investigators that he participated in a scheme to obscure the origin of money transferred by Pakistan’s ISI to Fai for his work as a lobbyist for the KAC in furtherance of Pakistani government interests.  The witness explained that the money was transferred to Fai through Ahmad, an American living in Pakistan. 

A second confidential witness told investigators that the ISI created the KAC to propagandise on behalf of the government of Pakistan with the goal of uniting Kashmir.  This witness said ISI’s sponsorship and control of KAC was a secret and that ISI had been directing Fai’s activities for the past 25 years.
 
When questioned by the FBI about these relationships in March 2007, Fai allegedly stated that he had never met anyone who identified himself as being affiliated with the ISI. 

In March 2010, the Justice Department sent Fai a letter notifying him of his possible obligation to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department.  In his written response to the Justice Department, Fai asserted that neither he nor KAC had ever engaged in any activities for or provided any services to Pakistan or any foreign entity.  In a March 2011 interview with the FBI, Fai again denied having any relationship with anyone in the Pakistani government.
The affidavit alleges that Fai has acted at the direction of and with the financial support of the Pakistani government for more than 20 years. The affidavit alleges that four Pakistani government handlers have directed Fai’s US activities and he has been in touch with his handlers more than 4,000 times since June 2008.  Fai’s handlers have also allegedly communicated with Ahmad regularly.
 
For example, the affidavit alleges that Fai repeatedly submitted annual KAC strategy reports and budgetary requirements to his Pakistani government handlers for approval.

One document entitled “Plan of Action of KAC / Kashmir Centre for Fiscal Year 2009” laid out Fai’s intended strategy to secure US Congressional support in order to encourage the executive branch to support self-determination in Kashmir; his strategy to build new alliances in the State Department, the National Security Council, the Congress and the Pentagon, and to expand KAC’s media efforts.
 
According to the affidavit, Fai also set forth KAC’s projected budgetary requirements from the Pakistani government for 2009, including $100,000 for contributions to members of Congress. There is no evidence that any elected official who received financial contributions from Fai or the KAC was aware that the money originated from any part of the Pakistani government.
 
The affidavit further said that Fai and the KAC have received at least $4 million from the Pakistani government since the mid-1990s through Ahmad and his funding network.  The money is allegedly routed to Fai through Ahmad and a network of other individuals connected to Ahmad. Ahmad allegedly arranges for his contacts in the United States to provide money to Fai in return for repayment of those amounts in Pakistan.

 When Fai was arrested, Schaffer told rediff.com, “If the Inter-Services Directorate or some other organ of the Pakistan government has been footing the Kashmir American Council’s bills,  as seems so obvious, it is hard to conclude that they have been getting their money’s worth.”

Schaffer, who was the lead panelist on the session on India-Pakistan Relations: Breaking the Deadlock over Kashmir at the last International Kashmir Peace Conference in August 2010 on Capitol Hill, said, “For all its efforts, the council’s lobbying has had minimal success in persuading the Clinton, George W Bush, and Obama administrations to change their basically hands-off diplomacy on the Kashmir dispute.”

However, Schaffer said, “It is regrettable that the charges against Fai have been raised at a point when US-Pakistan relations face a host of problems far more consequential than alleged wrongdoings by Pakistan’s lobbyists in Washington.”

He recalled that at these Capitol Hill conferences, “Members of Congress play bit-parts. Some of them, such as Representative Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, are familiar with the Kashmir issue, or at least Pakistan’s interpretation of it, and apparently feel strongly about it. But many others appear to have come to the sessions with scant awareness of the nature of the dispute. They customarily appear briefly, read prepared scripts, and hastily depart.”

At the annual Capitol Hill Conference on August 10, Pitts called on President Barack Obama to keep his campaign pledge to help resolve this dispute between India and Pakistan.

Pitts recalled that “during his campaign, President Obama suggested that the US should help resolve the Kashmir crisis. I heard one suggestion that they have a special envoy for Kashmir. And we need to develop that kind of expertise in our own government — in our own State Department. I wholeheartedly agree and hope this administration will engage productively on this critical issue.”
 
At the same conference, Pitts recalled his several visits to Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir and Pakistan and said he had founded the Kashmir Forum “and we support the idea of self-determination for the people in the area.”
 
Both Burton and Pitts later claimed that they had absolutely no idea that the funds they received from Fai were sent by the ISI.
 
Subsequently, they said they had donated these funds to charities, including the Boy Scouts of America.
 
Burton told the New York Times that he was “deeply shocked” because he had known Fai for 20 years and “in that time I had no inkling of his involvement with any foreign intelligence operation and had presumed our correspondence was legitimate.”

Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-how-isi-spy-fai-pushed-anti-india-agenda-in-us/20111208.htm

US exposes ISI subversion of Kashmir issue; FBI arrests US-based lobbyist

Check the charges against  here-Lobbying-Complaint(full complaint report attached)

WASHINGTON: Federal authorities on Monday arrested a prominent US-based pro-Pakistan activist associated with the kashmir sepratisst movement accusing him of funneling money from the Pakistani spy agency ISI to lobby US decision-makers.

In the process, the Obama administration’s law enforcement brigade also blew open the Pakistan and its spy agency’s two-decade long subversion of the so-called Kashmir cause.

The FBI swooped down on the Virginia residence of Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, a well-known representative of Kashmiri separatists in the US and detained him on charges of ”participating in a long-term conspiracy to act as agents of the Pakistani government in the United States without disclosing their affiliation with the Pakistani government as required by law.”

Or simply put, he served as a frontman for ISI’s Kashmir agenda.

Another individual, Zaheer Ahmed, like Fai a US citizen, was also similarly charged, but he is at large and believed to be in Pakistan, according to US authorities.

Fai has been a familiar and prominent figure in Washington DC for nearly two decades, lobbying Kashmiri separatist cause as executive director of the Kashmiri-American Council (KAC) and dallying with senators and congressmen. US authorities now say the KAC was just an ISI front, funded by Pakistan’s spy agency.

The FBI affidavit alleges that, although the KAC held itself out to be a Kashmiri organization run by Kashmiris and financed by Americans, ”it is one of three ‘Kashmir Centers’ that are actually run by elements of the Pakistani government, including ISI.” The two other Kashmir Centers are in London, England, and Brussels, Belgium.

According to the affidavit, a confidential witness told investigators that he participated in a scheme to obscure the origin of money transferred by Pakistan’s ISI to Fai to use as a lobbyist for the KAC in furtherance of Pakistani government interests. The witness explained that the money was transferred to Fai through Ahmad, an American living in Pakistan.

A second confidential witness told investigators that the ”ISI created the KAC to propagandize on behalf of the government of Pakistan with the goal of uniting Kashmir.” This witness said ”ISI’s sponsorship and control of KAC were secret and that ISI had been directing Fai’s activities for the past 25 years.”

The FBI affidavit alleges that Fai has “acted at the direction of and with the financial support of the Pakistani government for more than 20 years.” Four Pakistani government handlers have directed Fai’s US. activities and Fai has been in touch with his handlers more than 4,000 times since June 2008, according to the FBI.

The affidavit also alleges that Fai repeatedly submitted annual KAC strategy reports and budgetary requirements to his Pakistani government handlers for approval. One document entitled “Plan of Action of KAC / Kashmir Center for Fiscal Year 2009” laid out Fai’s intended strategy to secure US. Congressional support in order to encourage the Executive Branch to support self-determination in Kashmir; his strategy to build new alliances in the State Department, the National Security Council, the Congress and the Pentagon, and to expand KAC’s media efforts.

According to the affidavit, Fai also set forth KAC’s projected budgetary requirements from the Pakistani government for 2009, including $100,000 for contributions to members of Congress.

Fai and the KAC have received at least $4 million from the Pakistani government since the mid-1990s through Ahmad and his funding network, the FBI said. The money is allegedly routed to Fai through Ahmad and a network of other individuals connected to Ahmad. Ahmad allegedly arranges for his contacts in the United States to provide money to Fai in return for repayment of those amounts in Pakistan.

source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-exposes-ISI-subversion-of-Kashmir-issue-FBI-arrests-US-based-lobbyist/articleshow/9289454.cms

Osama, Geelanis and Kashmiri Pandits….

Around thirteen years back, My friend who was my classmate met me after a gap of year or so in Bangalore, a  self confessed moderate Muslim from Kashmir Valley . He was feeling ebullient because he could feel the absence of Fear and uncertainty which has become synonym with Kashmir since last 21 years. There was a visible change in his physical appearance and he was looking weak , his face had lost that healthy pinkish tinge which was found ubiquitously  on the face of Kashmiris-whether Hindus or Muslims. I  asked him the reason for his cadaverous looks and he said,” I was picked by the Police in Kashmir for being  hand in glove with the terrorists and I was beaten mercilessly and  even some of my bones were cracked”, I asked sympathetically ,” Is that True?” He said,” No, I was framed by a former terrorist who has now become an informer”.

We had a good time together until the word “TALIBAN” popped up in the discussion. Taliban was new at that time and I had no interest in another Extremist Muslim Group operating in Afghanistan. But my friend bubbled with joy at the name of Taliban and said,” Taliban is doing good work in Afghanistan, they are adhering to the tenets of Islam and I pray to Allah that their ideology spread to every part especially Kashmir.” I thought he calls himself moderate,yet he is visibly exited about “Talibanis” and got lost for a while thinking of those who  don’t call themselves moderates!!!

Yesterday Prime Minister of Pakistan Yusuf Raza Geelani came out with clarification for the first time after the death of Osama Bin Laden who was hunted down by the American navy seals in the Backyard of Military establishment of Abbotabad in Pakistan . Pakistan just got “exposed” and It was sheer shame and a slap on the face of Pakistan, Many wrote that Pakistan’s golden Goose is Dead. No longer can they extract  Billions of Dollars from U.S.A ,the way they used to, on the name of Osama Bin Laden.

Prime Minister Geelani flayed Al-Qiada with some strong words but Tactically omitted out the other Devil namely the Taliban. It is widely believed that Taliban is the creation of Pakistan’s  I.S.I  and whole world knows the relation of Al-Qiada with Taliban.The terminologies or names such as Jamat-ul-dawa, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen or Taliban may sound different but they are just the different facets of the same epidemic which has killed tens of thousands of innocent people and ISI has been supporting these groups for a long time now. The whole episode of “Laden” made it evident the role of I.S.I in giving shelter and other strategic tools to Osama Bin laden and thereby Al-Qiada.The other Islamic extremist groups are safe in Pakistan as long as they don’t challenge directly U.S.A the way Al-Qiada did.The role of Pakistan as the center of Islamic terrorism as well as outsourcing of terrorism on the name of Islam has become crystal clear…

Meanwhile Another Talib of Kashmir, Syed Ali Shah Geelani  lead the funeral prayers for the most wanted Terrorist of World and declared him a “Martyr” an Hero of Islamic world and said at the same time,” Kashmir is not a battle of religions”. If it is not the battle of religions then why on Earth did he led the funeral procession of a man from Middle east!! …By the way he has scored a point by restricting the duration of Amarnath  Yatra to 15 days which was previously extended to one month.

Ethnic cleansing of Minorities is widely prevalent in every Country where Islam is A Major religion. Taslima Nasreen’s Book  “Lajja” which was written in the Backdrop of Babri Masjid demolition has captured the mind and Mood of Islamic zealots Photographically. I had read that Book long time back and I still remember the names of the protagonists family  like suranjan, Sudhamoy, Kironmoyee and Maya, while Maya does,nt come back to his family and It is presumed that she has changed her faith to Islam in order to live, the other three at the end flee to India in order to survive. Isn’t it the same thing which happened to Kashmiri Pandits, we left our homes and properties too in order to live. We left our everything in order to escape  the Bloody ideology of Islamic fundamentalists, which had long time back left us with two choices-convert and embrace Islam  or Die. At the time of our exodus there was nothing like Babri Demolition, or any other Hindu-Muslim riot in India but still,  Kashmiri Pandits were ousted because they happened  to follow a different faith.

Kashmiri Pandits-the victims of Jihad ,know very well the devious designs of fundamentalists and separatists. The Crocodile tears of Former terrorists and separatists has little effect on us. They may act to be friendly  and laugh with KP’s but their laughter is like the laughter of Hyennas-Deceptive ,cunning and dangerous for the lives of K.p’s.

Is their a civil society of Kashmiri Muslims who have ever raised their voices in support of K.p’s? the answer is “NO”. There are some moderates, but what is the use of those moderates who like the three monkeys of Gandiji-see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil whenever it is a question of Kashmiri Pandits. But when it comes to the Human right issues of Kashmiri Muslims, suddenly from             Gandhiji’s Monkeys they transform into torn out loudspeakers and cry and scream for the violations.

The mainstream political parties are to some extent better than the separatists but till now there has been no sincerity, synergy and cohesiveness in their words and actions. Their lip service underline their unctuousness and their political interests  and more so over they have to water the garden of their vote bank .

Since last 21 years time has stood still from the KP perspective, Kashmir –The land of our ancestors  is still far, our deserted homes tell the story of our forced exodus, our depilated temples tell the story of the battle of our faith, The lakes and mountains of Kashmir silently recognize us as their own but cannot utter a word and those who have the power of speech have never spoken for us. we may go to visit Kashmir as many of us do But none, not even those who are working there under PM employment package can call it “SWEET HOME”…..not under the present circumstances……..

terrorists killed,taj,oberoi,nariman house freed from terrorists

The operation to flush out terrorists from Taj Hotel is over, signalling an end to the 62-hour siege by terrorists three of whom were killed this morning in an assault by the elite commandos of National Security Guards (NSG).

However, the NSG is still sanitising the hotel to check if any remaining terrorist or explosive is still in the 400-room hotel, NSG Director General J K Dutt told reporters.

“The commandos killed three terrorists after intense gun-battle inside the hotel,” Dutt said.

An AK-47 rifle was also recovered from them.

“There was lot of shooting. Grenades were lobbed and explosives were used by the terrorists,” he said.

Dutt said the “operation” to secure the 100-year-old heritage hotel in Colaba area completely was still in progress and NSG was undertaking the combing operation.

“We cannot say the operation is over till we check the hotel. Each floor, each room will be checked” to ensure that no more terrorist is hiding in the hotel or no explosives are hidden there, the NSG chief said.

Giving details of the operation, Dutt said the terrorists would set afire the hotel rooms whenever they came under pressure from the NSG commandos.

This was to divert the attention of the NSG, he said, adding that the commandos were, however, undeterred by these tactics and continued their assault resulting in the success.

“We are also looking for any surviving guests, still locked up in the rooms and not coming out for the fear of terrorist attack,” Dutt said.

Dutt appealed to the surviving guests to open curtains of their windows to help them identify and rescue them while assuring that NSG has the expertise to neutralise the terrorists from the window.

“The body which was seen falling out of the first floor window was of a terrorist,” he said.

The forces had secured the other luxury hotel Trident Oberoi and a Jewish Centre yesterday while maintaining that a lone gunman continued to hold out inside the Taj hotel at the end of the pitched combat that left 30 hostages dead.

At the Centre, a residential complex housing a prayer hall, commandos were air dropped from helicopters in first such operation in urban India during which the security forces spent the entire day to clear it. Two terrorists were killed but not before five of the hostages were eliminated by them.

The might of the Indian security forces had to be brought in to rid these landmarks in the country’s financial capital of the heavily-armed suspected Pakistani terrorists, but the costs were heavy.

When the Oberoi was cleared of the terrorists, as many as 30 hostages were found dead raising the toll in the worst terrorist strike against India to over 160 including 16 security personnel. Eleven terrorists were also eliminated and one was captured on Friday.

Police Commissioner Hassan Gaffoor separately told reporters that four terrorists were holed up at the Taj and they were killed in the last two days.

Over ten terrorists were holed up in the three buildings — Taj, Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House in the South Mumbai, he said, adding nine of them killed and one captured.

Eyewitnesses said that there was a carnage in the Oberoi’s upper lobby restaurant ‘Tiffin’ and bodies were strewn all over in both the five star hotels.

Eerie silence was slowly descending on the city as it was coming to terms with the terror attack.

Most of the bodies were taken to J J hospital for post-mortem which had been delayed as the morgues in the South Mumbai government hospital were full.

Surgeons from another government hospital were in Oberoi-Trident to examine bodies and attend to injured.

source:news agencies