Mumbai Attacks Drama: Evaluation of Indian Dossier by Talat Hussain

Mumbai Dossier… Fact or Fiction?

It is now approximately a month an a half since the attacks of Mumbai. The Indian Government decided to, at last, send a document to Pakistani authorities to prove Pakistani nationals were involved.

You can find PDF versions contributed by a Pro-Pakistan blogger below. Be advised, I have not yet been able to find an alternative source that has published this document on its website.

You can download the documents from the links below. The dossier is divided into two files available on link and could be accessed through the the first two links, while the third one contains a copy of the slides presented by some Indian department.

Mumbai Attacks Dossier of Evidence aka Propaganda Part 1:

Mumbai Attacks Dossier of Evidence aka Propaganda Part 2:

Mumbai Attacks Dossier of Evidence aka Propaganda Part 3:

Initial Impressions
The document contains details from terrorists possessions to their activities.

I am not an expert on evaluating the quality of evidence. However, during my review I found certain aspects of the document interesting. The first is this excerpt on page 5 of the PDF document.

Now there is some ambiguity here, at least to me, it says here that “On the November 23, 2008, at 1500 hours, the captured terrorist noticed another boat docked next to Al-Hussaini.”(Al-Hussaini is the first of the “motherships” used) There is no reference, where the boat was “docked” despite exact co-ordinates given at the end of document pertaining to path of journey. Also notice the “enlightenment” aspect of this part as the terrorist suddenly notices a boat and it was not preplanned but left to chance, a highly questionable aspect given the precise execution of the attacks. It is also inconsistent with terrorists attention to details as observed in Mumbai attacks.

Another surprising piece below,

The use of hindi in this document is a questionable aspect alone, since there is no background given as to if the hindi part was added by Indian authorities after the evidence was obtained or was it a part of the document. Even if the hindi part was added after it was obtained, the question is “Isn’t this tampering with evidence?”

The document goes on with pictures of possessions of terrorists. I am told that the floor cleaning brush had “Made in Pakistan” written on it. So I am speechless (and a believer).

Readers may find the document a refreshing read.

Did the Indian Commandos kill the Jews?

Orignal Story: Dawn

The Indian commando raid launched to save the lives of Jewish and Israeli hostages at Mumbai’s Chabad House may have inadvertently ended the lives of one or more of the hostages, the head of a six-man ZAKA team in the terror-stricken Indian city told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Speaking by phone from Mumbai, Haim Weingarten, the head of the Mumbai ZAKA team, said, “Based on what I saw, [although] I can’t identify the type of bullets in the bodies [of the victims], I don’t think the terrorists killed all the hostages, to put it gently.”

Although he lacked forensic tools to determine time of death, Weingarten said his team’s observations led him to believe that “some of the hostages were killed on Wednesday [when gunmen first entered the building], some on Thursday, and some on Friday morning [during the start of the commando raid].”

The Jerusalem Post

And Israeli Security Expert puts it as

The source said he was puzzled by a number of aspects of the response by Indian security forces to the Chabad House siege.

“I was surprised by the fact that the raid was launched in broad daylight at 7:30 in the morning. It was a daylight assault with helicopters, which I found puzzling,” the source said.

The source explained that the Indian cabinet, not the military, closely controlled all details of the rescue attempts and ordered all of the anti-terrorist raids, including the operation at the Chabad House.

“All operations of this type require political clearance,” he said, adding that Indian authorities believed some hostages had been alive when the raid was launched.

“If they believed all the hostages were dead, the building would have been shelled and the commandos would not be risked in a raid,” the source explained.

“Usually, extra caution is used and raids are launched only when negotiations come to an end or when the terrorists start killing hostages,” he added.

Did the Indian Commandos kill the Jews?

Orignal Story: Dawn

The Indian commando raid launched to save the lives of Jewish and Israeli hostages at Mumbai’s Chabad House may have inadvertently ended the lives of one or more of the hostages, the head of a six-man ZAKA team in the terror-stricken Indian city told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Speaking by phone from Mumbai, Haim Weingarten, the head of the Mumbai ZAKA team, said, “Based on what I saw, [although] I can’t identify the type of bullets in the bodies [of the victims], I don’t think the terrorists killed all the hostages, to put it gently.”

Although he lacked forensic tools to determine time of death, Weingarten said his team’s observations led him to believe that “some of the hostages were killed on Wednesday [when gunmen first entered the building], some on Thursday, and some on Friday morning [during the start of the commando raid].”

The Jerusalem Post

And Israeli Security Expert puts it as

The source said he was puzzled by a number of aspects of the response by Indian security forces to the Chabad House siege.

“I was surprised by the fact that the raid was launched in broad daylight at 7:30 in the morning. It was a daylight assault with helicopters, which I found puzzling,” the source said.

The source explained that the Indian cabinet, not the military, closely controlled all details of the rescue attempts and ordered all of the anti-terrorist raids, including the operation at the Chabad House.

“All operations of this type require political clearance,” he said, adding that Indian authorities believed some hostages had been alive when the raid was launched.

“If they believed all the hostages were dead, the building would have been shelled and the commandos would not be risked in a raid,” the source explained.

“Usually, extra caution is used and raids are launched only when negotiations come to an end or when the terrorists start killing hostages,” he added.

The Mystery of Faridkot… Did the gunmen speak Hindi?

Dawn reports that

a Pakistani village named Faridkot is being mentioned in the Indian media as the place of origin of the lone gunman arrested by Indian commandos. He has been identified as Ajmal Amir Kasab.

The media, however, conveniently avoids mentioning that there is also a town with the same name in the Indian state of Punjab.

In Pakistan, there are several villages named Faridkot, but three of them — one each in Khanewal, Pakpattan and Okara — attracted the attention of intelligence agencies and media to ‘prove’ that the terrorist was a Pakistani.

One of the commentators Warraich was indicating this and he was right.

The media also reports that

Interestingly, the Indian media is not even sure whether the alleged attacker is named Ajmal Amir Kamal, Muhammad Ajmal, Muhammad Amin Kasab, Azam Amir Kasav or Azam Amir Kasab.

Are there any Pakistani muslims who have KASAB or KASAV as their surname? KASAB means skills this word is used in Kashmir. I did not find this on these muslim names websites here
or here. However, I suggest that Indian government use a terrorist name generator so that they wont embarrass themselves again.

It comes as no surprise that the Kashmiri word was used to name terrorists who apparently were “Punjanbi”. This is because CNN reports that some of the commandos participating in the operations were from Kashmir temporarily visiting Mumbai.

Hindi speaking terrorists!

Dawn and Yahoo News also report that

They opened the doors and dumped five slumped officers’ bodies into the streets, then piled into the van. What they did not know was that two officers, including constable Arun Jadhav, were in the backseat, alive.

Jadhav was then taken on a chilling 10-minute ride through the dark streets of Mumbai with two of the gunmen who had launched a siege that would last for 60 more hours and leave at least 174 people dead.

The young gunmen said little during the harrowing drive, but spoke Hindi with a strong Punjabi, north-Indian accent.

This is getting weird!

The Mystery of Faridkot… Did the gunmen speak Hindi?

Dawn reports that

a Pakistani village named Faridkot is being mentioned in the Indian media as the place of origin of the lone gunman arrested by Indian commandos. He has been identified as Ajmal Amir Kasab.

The media, however, conveniently avoids mentioning that there is also a town with the same name in the Indian state of Punjab.

In Pakistan, there are several villages named Faridkot, but three of them — one each in Khanewal, Pakpattan and Okara — attracted the attention of intelligence agencies and media to ‘prove’ that the terrorist was a Pakistani.

One of the commentators Warraich was indicating this and he was right.

The media also reports that

Interestingly, the Indian media is not even sure whether the alleged attacker is named Ajmal Amir Kamal, Muhammad Ajmal, Muhammad Amin Kasab, Azam Amir Kasav or Azam Amir Kasab.

Are there any Pakistani muslims who have KASAB or KASAV as their surname? KASAB means skills this word is used in Kashmir. I did not find this on these muslim names websites here
or here. However, I suggest that Indian government use a terrorist name generator so that they wont embarrass themselves again.

It comes as no surprise that the Kashmiri word was used to name terrorists who apparently were “Punjanbi”. This is because CNN reports that some of the commandos participating in the operations were from Kashmir temporarily visiting Mumbai.

Hindi speaking terrorists!

Dawn and Yahoo News also report that

They opened the doors and dumped five slumped officers’ bodies into the streets, then piled into the van. What they did not know was that two officers, including constable Arun Jadhav, were in the backseat, alive.

Jadhav was then taken on a chilling 10-minute ride through the dark streets of Mumbai with two of the gunmen who had launched a siege that would last for 60 more hours and leave at least 174 people dead.

The young gunmen said little during the harrowing drive, but spoke Hindi with a strong Punjabi, north-Indian accent.

This is getting weird!

Mumbai Attacks… Pakistan? I dont think so

I have managed to gather some interesting facts regarding the “proposed” landing point of the terrorists. The media is surprisingly quiet about them.

Mumbai is approximately 900 km from Karachi, and it would be no surprise if I am told how closely guarded the waters will be, due to the element of distrust between the two nations.

On the other hand the media and government seems to speculate that the entry point was the “Gateway of India” (please ignore the misplaced Placeholder, Google Earth doesn’t let me move it. ) which happens to be on the East side of Mumbai in a territory that is littered with Indian Navy ships and has a navy base in proximity.

The question whether young individuals in T-shirt with AK-47 and backpacks could endure a rough journey across the waters and still manage go undetected is not even being considered. The boats in question seem to be inflatable boats capable of generating 80 hp (design capacity) and depending on load conditions they can top 50-60 Kph . Assuming my data is correct, it would take at least 15 hours at top speed to reach Mumbai. Assuming there was no external support than the boats would have been in Indian waters for at least 10 hours or so. Obviously they would not have embarked on a killing spree at once they would need time to get some rest after they landed in India and to re-organize. This makes it more probable for the boats as well as the gang to be spotted, which in fact were not.

To me the proposition seems unlikely, however a major international crisis could be averted if the world uses its head for a change. We do remember War on terror, don’t we?

Please refer to newer post for my response

Update
-Indians believe that a fishing boat was hijacked and terrorists used that boat to launch the attacks (for reference indian fishing boat looks like this) also Indian Fishing trawler
-However, assuming this is correct, this does not in any rule out how the inflatable rafts got through the naval base. This area is critical as there is a dry dock, naval dock yard, missile boat HQ, submarine facility, marine training facility in vicinity, and is the Western HQ Command of the Indian Navy SOURCE . Hence a highly valuable area
-Any landings would be a serious breach of security
-How terrorists could get through is a mystery that the mainstream is reluctant to investigate

I am not moderating comments so that people may see what they believe

Mumbai under Attack?! Blame Pakistan…

Atleast some Indians are thinking… below is a rather rare piece by an Indian who thinks rather than blames.

SOURCE

# Some unanswered questions about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai need to be answered. If you wish to add questions to this list, please do e-mail questionsterror@rediffmail.com and we will post the most relevant questions here. How many terrorists were there? Did they number 20 as Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told a press conference on Thursday? Or did they number many more? If two or three terrorists attacked the CST, how many terrorists were present at the Taj and Trident? Did the CST terrorists drop a grenade/explosive device at Dockyard Road on the way to the station? Or was someone else responsible for that act of terror which claimed three lives?
# The terrorists are said to have set up control rooms at the Taj and Trident hotels, a Cabinet minister told PTI on Thursday. When were these bookings made? A detailed investigation into the bookings made at both hotels in the months, weeks and days before the attacks may reveal the names of suspicious guests who registered there.
# Military sources tell rediff.com that there was no way the terrorists could have carried so much ammunition with them when they assaulted the two hotels with their guns blazing. They believe the ammunition may have been stored earlier in rooms at both the hotels, perhaps on the higher floors.
# If some of the terrorists had registered at the hotels earlier, could these men/women have left along with the guests who were released? Did the police record the identities and addresses of the guests who were released from both hotels?
# Indian Hotels Chairman Ratan Tata indicated on Thursday that the terrorists had intimate knowledge of the Taj, its service corridors, its layout. Does this mean that they had a mole inside the Taj? Or more worrying, did a couple of them work there at some point of time? Did they have drawings of the layout of the two hotels?
# If the terrorists were Pakistani, how did they have such an intimate knowledge of the terrain? The two or three cowards who attacked the CST on Wednesday night made their way from the CST through a road on the left side of The Times of India building towards the Cama and Albess hospital/Azad Maidan police station, a route that is known only to true-blood Mumbaikars. Were they locals? Or did they conduct extensive reconnisance of the likely routes of escape?
# These same two or three men, who are said to have commandeered ATS Chief Hemant Karkare’s [Images] police Qualis after shooting him, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar, revealed similar familarity with the road outside the Esplanade Court, making an easy U-turn towards the Metro cinema junction rather than head on the road towards the CST. How did they know this if they were Pakistanis?
# How did those men, whose images have appeared all over the world, get to the CST from Colaba where they are said to have landed by boat? Did they take a taxi? Or did they have local transportation? Did they come by a suburban train, which could explain the firing on one of the suburban train platforms? Who left the grenade on the Gitanjali Express, which killed a Bengali mother?
# The terrorists are said to have done extensive reconnisance of the city. If they are Pakistanis, how did they get earlier entry to the city unnoticed? Did they come in by boat? Or did they use other routes to escape notice?
# Such an operation could not have been conducted without extensive training and preparation, possibly on models of the Taj and Trident or Chabad House/Nariman House. Could this have been achieved at the rudimentary training camps hosted by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan occupied Kashmir? Or was it a more systematised operation conducted by a State agency in a hostile country?
# How did they know Chabad House/Nariman House, which even long-time residents of Colaba — the area in South Mumbai where the Taj, the Leopold Cafe [Images] and Chabad/Nariman House are located — are unfamiliar with? The choice of this target indicates precision thinking — it is doubtful if the Lashkar strategists are capable of such deep strategy — and again points the needle of suspicion at a government intelligence agency in a nation inimical to India or renegades within such a bureau.

Mumbai Attacks… Pakistan? I dont think so

I have managed to gather some interesting facts regarding the “proposed” landing point of the terrorists. The media is surprisingly quiet about them.

Mumbai is approximately 900 km from Karachi, and it would be no surprise if I am told how closely guarded the waters will be, due to the element of distrust between the two nations.

On the other hand the media and government seems to speculate that the entry point was the “Gateway of India” (please ignore the misplaced Placeholder, Google Earth doesn’t let me move it. ) which happens to be on the East side of Mumbai in a territory that is littered with Indian Navy ships and has a navy base in proximity.

The question whether young individuals in T-shirt with AK-47 and backpacks could endure a rough journey across the waters and still manage go undetected is not even being considered. The boats in question seem to be inflatable boats capable of generating 80 hp (design capacity) and depending on load conditions they can top 50-60 Kph . Assuming my data is correct, it would take at least 15 hours at top speed to reach Mumbai. Assuming there was no external support than the boats would have been in Indian waters for at least 10 hours or so. Obviously they would not have embarked on a killing spree at once they would need time to get some rest after they landed in India and to re-organize. This makes it more probable for the boats as well as the gang to be spotted, which in fact were not.

To me the proposition seems unlikely, however a major international crisis could be averted if the world uses its head for a change. We do remember War on terror, don’t we?

Please refer to newer post for my response

Update
-Indians believe that a fishing boat was hijacked and terrorists used that boat to launch the attacks (for reference indian fishing boat looks like this) also Indian Fishing trawler
-However, assuming this is correct, this does not in any rule out how the inflatable rafts got through the naval base. This area is critical as there is a dry dock, naval dock yard, missile boat HQ, submarine facility, marine training facility in vicinity, and is the Western HQ Command of the Indian Navy SOURCE . Hence a highly valuable area
-Any landings would be a serious breach of security
-How terrorists could get through is a mystery that the mainstream is reluctant to investigate

I am not moderating comments so that people may see what they believe

Mumbai under Attack?! Blame Pakistan…

Atleast some Indians are thinking… below is a rather rare piece by an Indian who thinks rather than blames.

SOURCE

# Some unanswered questions about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai need to be answered. If you wish to add questions to this list, please do e-mail questionsterror@rediffmail.com and we will post the most relevant questions here. How many terrorists were there? Did they number 20 as Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told a press conference on Thursday? Or did they number many more? If two or three terrorists attacked the CST, how many terrorists were present at the Taj and Trident? Did the CST terrorists drop a grenade/explosive device at Dockyard Road on the way to the station? Or was someone else responsible for that act of terror which claimed three lives?
# The terrorists are said to have set up control rooms at the Taj and Trident hotels, a Cabinet minister told PTI on Thursday. When were these bookings made? A detailed investigation into the bookings made at both hotels in the months, weeks and days before the attacks may reveal the names of suspicious guests who registered there.
# Military sources tell rediff.com that there was no way the terrorists could have carried so much ammunition with them when they assaulted the two hotels with their guns blazing. They believe the ammunition may have been stored earlier in rooms at both the hotels, perhaps on the higher floors.
# If some of the terrorists had registered at the hotels earlier, could these men/women have left along with the guests who were released? Did the police record the identities and addresses of the guests who were released from both hotels?
# Indian Hotels Chairman Ratan Tata indicated on Thursday that the terrorists had intimate knowledge of the Taj, its service corridors, its layout. Does this mean that they had a mole inside the Taj? Or more worrying, did a couple of them work there at some point of time? Did they have drawings of the layout of the two hotels?
# If the terrorists were Pakistani, how did they have such an intimate knowledge of the terrain? The two or three cowards who attacked the CST on Wednesday night made their way from the CST through a road on the left side of The Times of India building towards the Cama and Albess hospital/Azad Maidan police station, a route that is known only to true-blood Mumbaikars. Were they locals? Or did they conduct extensive reconnisance of the likely routes of escape?
# These same two or three men, who are said to have commandeered ATS Chief Hemant Karkare’s [Images] police Qualis after shooting him, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar, revealed similar familarity with the road outside the Esplanade Court, making an easy U-turn towards the Metro cinema junction rather than head on the road towards the CST. How did they know this if they were Pakistanis?
# How did those men, whose images have appeared all over the world, get to the CST from Colaba where they are said to have landed by boat? Did they take a taxi? Or did they have local transportation? Did they come by a suburban train, which could explain the firing on one of the suburban train platforms? Who left the grenade on the Gitanjali Express, which killed a Bengali mother?
# The terrorists are said to have done extensive reconnisance of the city. If they are Pakistanis, how did they get earlier entry to the city unnoticed? Did they come in by boat? Or did they use other routes to escape notice?
# Such an operation could not have been conducted without extensive training and preparation, possibly on models of the Taj and Trident or Chabad House/Nariman House. Could this have been achieved at the rudimentary training camps hosted by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan occupied Kashmir? Or was it a more systematised operation conducted by a State agency in a hostile country?
# How did they know Chabad House/Nariman House, which even long-time residents of Colaba — the area in South Mumbai where the Taj, the Leopold Cafe [Images] and Chabad/Nariman House are located — are unfamiliar with? The choice of this target indicates precision thinking — it is doubtful if the Lashkar strategists are capable of such deep strategy — and again points the needle of suspicion at a government intelligence agency in a nation inimical to India or renegades within such a bureau.