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Remembering 26/11 Ten Years Later
November 26, 2008.
Also known as 26/11. Early on a Wednesday morning, ten terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba sneak into Mumbai, India armed with explosives and automatic assault rifles. They split up, and headed for their targets. One of the first to be hit was the Leopold Cafe, a place known for catering to foreign tourists right on the Colaba Causeway. They opened fire on the guests in the cafe, killing 10. They also hit the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, killing 58 and injuring more than 100.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, 2015 from the outside
The carnage didn’t stop there. Terrorist stormed the Taj Palace Hotel not that far from the Leopold Cafe.
Taj Palace Hotel and Gateway to India, 2015
Taj Palace Hotel (left) and the Gateway to India (right), 2015
The terrorists set off explosives and shot many people in the lobby. Meanwhile, at the Nariman House, a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish center was also taken over by the terrorists. Local police were overwhelmed, as at the time, most local police officers were only armed with sticks or World War I era rifles. India sent in commandos but they were coming from Delhi and it took some time. Meanwhile, terrorists had moved and also taken over the Oberoi Trident hotel as well. Almost 600 hostages in total. Two days later, the Nariman House would be liberated by the Indian commandos, and one day later the Taj Palace Hotel would be liberated.
Nine of the ten terrorists were killed. 164 others were killed. Of the 164, 15 police officers and two commandos were killed. Twenty-eight foreign nationals also were among the victims, including the Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka Holtzberg from the Nariman House. Mumbai would never be the same.
Local police are now armed with Sten submachine guns. There are now metal detectors to get into the train station as well as an additional police presence. An armored personnel carrier now sits outside of the Gateway to India. Hotels, including those that weren’t attacked, now have x-ray machines to check all of their guest luggage before being allowed inside. The Taj Palace, which suffered extensive damage during the attack, now has anti-car bomb blockers, and solid bulletproof doors to get in. If you visit the Leopold Cafe, expect to be wanded. The Leopold did not repair all of the damage incurred that night – if you visit, you may notice that some of the bullet holes are still there….a reminder of those horrible day(s).
Most Americans have probably never heard this story. I vaguely remember it getting a little airtime, but it is still a sobering and haunting reminder that evil exists everywhere in our world. It’s not just the local white supremacy group; but everywhere. This attack was motivated by religious hatred, hence the focus on the Chabad and places where foreigners and innocents would be. Others are motivated by the belief that their skin color makes them a better person. Or they are just mentally unstable. But even throughout all of this evil, good still stands. The Holtzberg’s two-year-old son survived the attack and is flourishing in Israel.
Business continues in Mumbai, even with the changes. The terrorists did not win.
There is a decent docudrama about these attacks. It is in Hindi but has English subtitles. The Attacks of 26/11. The movie recreates the attack but then ends with the inquest following the attack, from the point of view of the Mumbai police chief and his feelings during that fateful time. If you haven’t seen it, perhaps you should. https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/The_Attacks_Of_26_11?id=gv70tdtOO5k
Published in History
Thank you for the reminder.
Such savagery is hard to comprehend, even though it happens so frequently of late.
Milt Rosenberg, the noted Chicago radio talk show host, and his wife Marjorie were at our house for Thanksgiving dinner. We talked about the attack at length. There were warnings prior to the attack which were ignored. The terrorists specifically targeted Jews. Obama consistently ignored or denied this in later Islamic terroristic attacks.
I remember the attack. At the time there was an open question as to how much the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) was involved.
After we found Osama hunkered down in a compound just down the road from the Pakistani version of West Point, I’d say that it’s still an open question.
Bill Roggio didn’t think there was much doubt.
I commend you for bringing this to our attention again. My only criticism is the failure to call out Islamic supremacy explicitly as the source of so much hatred and violence around the world. By comparison, white supremacy is a non-issue, except in the fevered imaginations of privileged white American leftists, who are also likely never to experience the terror inflicted daily in the Middle and Near East by Islamic supremacists on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It’s also dangerous to be Jew in France and other European locales, and it isn’t because of the rise of white supremacy. Let’s not feed the Left’s insane, self-loathing, anti-white racist narrative.