Chilling

Anatomy of Mumbai's Crime

Terrorists landed in city in inflatable rafts.

The papers are filled with tick-tocks retracing the steps of the Mumbai terrorists—a good refresher after days of frantic news. According to The Washington Post, the terrorists entered the city on inflatable rafts, shortly after 9 PM. Mumbai's insecure coastline gave the terrorists easy entry to the city. They landed at a fishing slum and fanned out across the city in groups of three, hitting five sites within half an hour, including Nariman House, the Leopold Cafe, and the Oberoi and Taj hotels. At Mumbai's main rail station, they killed 48 people. One of the train-station gunmen who was caught "admitted that the operation had been launched from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, from where the attackers initially set out by boat. They reportedly hijacked a fishing trawler along the way. Police later found the trawler, along with the captain's body—his throat cut and his hands bound with rope. The terrorists had killed the trawler's four other crew members and dumped the bodies overboard."