Reign of violence in Mumbai ends as authorities seize hotel
5 hostages found dead at Jewish centre
Last Updated: Friday, November 28, 2008 | 11:00 PM ET CBC News
Indian commandos have ended their siege of a luxury Mumbai hotel being held by gunmen, bringing an end to nearly three days of violence in India's financial capital that has left more than 150 dead.
The assault at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, one of two luxury hotels targeted in the Mumbai attacks, ended early Saturday morning, hours after another standoff at a Jewish centre in the city finished with the discovery of five slain hostages.
"Taj is under our control," Mumbai police chief Hasan Gafoor said, adding that the remaining gunmen in the hotel had been killed.
Jyoti Krishna Dutt, chief of the elite National Security Guards commando force, said the militants had "set places ablaze" as they moved through the hotel battling his commandos for more than 48 hours.
He said said every room on every floor of the hotel needed to be checked.
As darkness fell on the city late Friday, gunfire and explosions were heard inside the Taj Mahal, where at least one militant was still thought to be holding two hostages more than two days after the first attacks plunged Mumbai into chaos, the CBC's Terry Milewski reported from the city.
Officials said earlier in the daythat at least nine gunmen had been killed in clashes with security forces at the Taj Mahal, but almost all guests and staff had been freed.
Meanwhile, commandos on Friday ended a similar standoff at the Jewish centre by lowering themselves from helicopters and blowing a hole in the office wall.
During the operation, the commandos killed two militants, only to discover the bodies of the hostages inside, the city's police chief confirmed.
Two of the hostages killed were identified as Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, the couple who ran the centre, said a spokesman for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Their 18-month-old son had been one of three people rescued from the centre on Thursday.
In a telephone interview with CBC News from outside the centre, freelance journalist Arun Asthhana said there are reports that some of the militants had stayed at a guest house there for up to 15 days before the attacks.
"They had a huge mass of ammunition, arms and food there," Asthhana said.
Couple 'spread love' to travellers: rabbi
The slain rabbi and his wife were emissaries who had made their home in Mumbai and set up the centre to give Jews visiting India a place to feel at home, get kosher food and reconnect with their heritage, according to friends.
"We are all crushed," said Rabbi Shalom Paltiel, a friend of the couple who serves a congregation in New York.
He said the Holtzbergs "opened their home and their hearts" to many "lost" travellers struggling with their faith, as well as a range of personal troubles.
"This guy saved lives, Paltiel told CBC News on Friday. "Him and his wife have a book of stories of people who were suicidal, people who were on drugs … who they've taken out and given their humanity back, their spirituality back.
"These are heroes in every sense of the word."
Commandos regain control of hotel
The grim discovery came just hours after commandos regained control of another five-star hotel complex, the Trident-Oberoi, where police recovered 24 bodies.
"The Oberoi Hotel and Trident are now under our control," Jyoti Krishan Dutt, director-general of the country's National Security Guards, told reporters on Friday. "Oberoi, Trident have been evacuated. We have killed two terrorists."
The announcement came after police said 93 guests had been freed from the hotel.
The death toll from the attacks could rise as security forces search each room of the hotels. The head of one commando unit said he has seen 12 to 15 bodies in one room of the Taj Mahal hotel.
In a news conference, the commando commander, who was not identified and had his face disguised by black scarf and sunglasses, told reporters that his forces at the Taj found money, ammunition and an identity card from Mauritius that they suspected belonged to the militants.
More than 400 people were brought out of the 565-room Taj Mahal hotel on Thursday, officials said, after security forces moved from room to room in the hotel, looking for gunmen and booby traps. In the afternoon, bodies and hostages were taken out of the building.
A Muslim organization calling itself Deccan Mujahedeen has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
10 sites targeted
The attacks were launched on Wednesday night, as militants armed with rifles and grenades attacked the sprawling city of about 13 million people. The gunmen struck a total of 10 sites, including a packed train station, a restaurant popular with tourists, the Jewish community centre, hospitals and the two luxury hotels.
The previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility in e-mails to several media outlets.
Most of the dead were Indian nationals — many of whom died in the attack on Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station as gunmen fired indiscriminately on waiting passengers. At least 22 foreigners were reportedly killed in the attacks.
Fourteen police officers, including the chief of the anti-terror squad, were among those killed in the attacks.
Survivors of the hotel attacks said the gunmen had specifically targeted Britons and Americans.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed "external forces" for the violence — a phrase sometimes used to refer to Pakistani militants, whom Indian authorities often blame for attacks.
On Friday, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said according to preliminary information, "some elements in Pakistan" were responsible.
"Proof cannot be disclosed at this time," he said, adding that Pakistan had assured New Delhi it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks against India.
As well, there were reports that the British government was investigating whether some of the attackers could be British citizens with links to Pakistan.
With files from Terry Milewski, Reuters and the Associated Press
2 Canadians killed in Mumbai attacks: Cannon
Last Updated: Friday, November 28, 2008 | 10:59 PM ET CBC News
Two Canadians were killed in this week's series of deadly attacks on targets in Mumbai, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said late Friday.
Following an early morning announcement that one Canadian had died in the attacks, Cannon issued another statement around 8 p.m. ET that said a second person was now confirmed dead.
No details were immediately available, including the person's identity.
"I offer my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased," Cannon said in a statement. "The next of kin have been notified, and our consular officers have put themselves at their service."
A friend of the first person announced dead told CBC News his name was Michael Moss, a doctor from the Montreal area. Canadian officials have not provided any identifying information.
At least 150 people are now confirmed to have died in the attacks.
Canadian officials in Mumbai told CBC News that they can account for 20 Canadians who were staying at either the Trident-Oberoi luxury hotel or the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, two of the sites targeted in the attacks. Officials said that 17 of the Canadians are safe, while one died and two were injured.
Canadians looking for information on relatives in Mumbai can contact the Department of Foreign Affairs at 1-800-387-3124 from inside Canada or call 613-996-8885 collect from other countries.
Cannon did not provide any details of the circumstances surrounding either of the deaths, including when and where they occurred.
Attacks were carried out at 10 locations across India's financial capital — including two luxury hotels, a crowded train station, a hospital and a popular cafe — beginning Wednesday evening.
Moss was a British-trained general practitioner who immigrated to Manitoba from England more than 30 years ago, according to Dr. Ron Ludman, one of his colleagues in Montreal. He was travelling in Mumbai on vacation.
Ludman said he was told by Moss's daughter that he died in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Another colleague, Dr. David Wiegens, said Moss will be sorely missed.
"I think he'll be along with me as I'm continuing to take care of my patients, as a voice, as an independent mind, as a really dedicated physician, and as a friend," Wiegens said, adding that Moss was days away from returning from his four-week holiday.
The Canadian government had already confirmed that two Canadians were among those injured in the co-ordinated gun and grenade attacks.
Montreal voice actor Michael Rudder, a past Genie Award nominee who was visiting India with a U.S. meditation group, was one of the two Canadians wounded.
When militants stormed one of the city's hotels, he suffered three gunshot wounds, but has undergone surgery and is recovering in the critical care wing of a Mumbai hospital.
Helen Connolly of Markham, Ont., just outside Toronto, a yoga instructor, was grazed by a bullet.
Two other American members of the meditation group, Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter, Naomi, 13, were killed in the attack, said Bobbie Garvey, spokeswoman for the Synchronicity Foundation.
'Terrifying experience'
Garvey said the group's trip to Mumbai was "like a pilgrimage," but turned into an "intense, terrifying experience" as members hid in their rooms for up to 45 hours amid stifling smoke, gunfire and grenade explosions.
"Most of them had their mattresses and their bureaus up against the door," Garvey told reporters at a news conference Friday in Faber, Va., where the foundation is based.
"They didn't know at any time if that door was going to open and it was going to be someone to save them, or it was going to be someone to take them out."
24 bodies found in luxury hotel
On Friday, police found 24 bodies at the Trident-Oberoi luxury hotel after commandos regained control of the building, raising the death toll to more than 150 people. Earlier, at least seven foreign captives, some of whom had Canadian flags on their luggage, had emerged from the hotel.
But the battle to free hostages continued at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel and a Jewish centre as security forces clashed with the militants responsible for the attacks.
According to reports earlier Thursday, six foreigners were killed, including at least one Australian, a Japanese and a British national, said Pradeep Indulkar, a senior government official of Maharashtra state, whose capital is Mumbai. A German and an Italian were also killed, according to the foreign ministries in the two countries.
The attacks were launched on Wednesday night, as militants armed with rifles and grenades attacked the sprawling city of about 13 million people. The gunmen struck a total of 10 sites, including a packed train station, a restaurant popular with tourists, the Jewish community centre, hospitals and the two luxury hotels.
The previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility in e-mails to several media outlets.
Most of the dead were Indian nationals — many of whom died in the attack on Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station as gunmen fired indiscriminately on waiting passengers.
Fourteen police officers, including the chief of the anti-terror squad, were among those killed in the attacks.
Survivors of the hotel attacks said the gunmen had specifically targeted Britons and Americans.
With files from the Canadian Press, the Associated Press and Reuters
