Hostages Killed

This is unfortunate but not unexpected. These murdering nutcases don't take "Hostages" in the traditional sense. Their singular aim is to kill.

Hostages said dead in Mumbai Jewish center

Commandos who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group found the bodies of five hostages inside, an Israeli emergency medical crew said, as a fresh battle raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a siege at another five-star hotel.

More than 150 people have been killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night, including 22 foreigners — two of them Americans, officials said.

Early Friday night, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow gaping holes in the wall.

Inside, though, were five dead hostages.

A delegation from Israel's ZAKA emergency medical services unit entered the building after the raid and reported through an Indian aide that five hostages and two gunmen were dead, a ZAKA spokesman in Israel said. The spokesman had no information on the hostages' identities or whether there were wounded inside.

Jewish law requires the burial of a dead person's entire body, and the mission of the ultra-Orthodox ZAKA volunteers is to rescue the living — and in the case of the dead, carry out the task of gathering up all collectable pieces of flesh and blood.

By Friday evening, at least nine gunmen had been killed, one had been arrested and as many as six were still in the Taj Mahal, said R. Patil, a top official in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital. He said more than 150 people had been killed and 370 injured.

Chabad House in Mumbai Attacked

Eight Israelis held by terrorists in Mumbai Chabad House

Indian commandos and police were evacuating civilians and cordoning off the area apparently in preparation to storm the Chabad House in Mumbai, India, where a rabbi, his wife and several other Israelis were being held hostage, according to IBN, an Indian news agency.

Chabad spokesman in Israel, Moni Ender, said there were eight Israelis inside the house, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg.

Several other Israelis were reportedly being held at the Oberoi Hotel, Israel Radio reported.

Newscasters were calling it the "final assault" on the Nariman House, where Chabad headquarters are located, adjacent to the Leopold Cafe, a major tourist center in Mumbai's Colaba area, which was also attacked Wednesday night.

According to a report by Reuters, the terrorists have expressed their desire to negotiate with the Indian government for the release of the hostages. The government, however, has repeatedly stated that it will not negotiate.

Several senior Indian police and security officers have been killed in the joint attack, which has caused police to take more cautious measures before storming the Chabad House, said Indian reporters.

Earlier, Reuters reported that one terrorist had been killed by Indian special forces in the Chabad House, but four others still remained barricaded inside, where they were holding off efforts to reach those inside.

Sky News reported that a loud explosion had been heard at the Chabad House. There was no official word as to the cause of the explosion, which could indicate the onset of an attempt to storm the compound.

On Thursday morning, Moshe Holtzberg, the toddler son of the Chabad emissaries, was rushed from the house in the arms of one of the Chabad House's employees, Sandra Samuel.

"I took the child, I just grabbed the baby and ran out," said Samuel, 44, who has worked as a cook for the center for the last five years.

She said that the rabbi and his wife, along with two other unidentified guests, were alive but unconscious.

"Pray that we should hear good news," urged a Chabad spokesman, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, in a telephone conversation with The Jerusalem Post from New York in the early hours of Thursday morning, Israel time.

Shmotkin also said that the gunmen had seized a police vehicle, which allowed them access to the area around the Chabad House.

Joshua Runyan, the news editor of the Chabad.org/news website, told the Post that there had been "several reports that shots were fired in the vicinity of the Chabad House, and unconfirmed reports on CNN of casualties in the Nariman House." Nariman House, Runyan said, was the original name of the Chabad House, which was purchased two years ago.

Runyan, who is in Jerusalem, said that a friend of the rabbi's had received an email from Holtzberg, unrelated to the attacks, at around the time of the attacks or shortly before they began, but that there had been no contact with Holtzberg since. "Since then, we've been trying all the numbers," he said.

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem confirmed that hostages had been taken in the Chabad House area. The ministry had yet to make contact with some 20 Israelis in the Mumbai area.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke with the Israeli consul general in Mumbai, who briefed her on the attacks, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. According to the statement, the ministry and the consulate were making "maximum efforts to ascertain the situation of the Israelis in the city as quickly as possible."

Livni sharply condemned the attacks, saying, "This is further painful evidence that the terrorist threat is the greatest challenge which Israel and the international community have to face. Nothing justifies the unforgivable slaughter of innocents."

Indian news agencies reported that three people were killed in or close to the Chabad House. The dead were not hostages, the reports said.

Phone calls by the Post to the Chabad House and to the Holtzbergs went unanswered late Wednesday night and in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Friends of the Holtzbergs placed messages on various Internet sites appealing for information about them.

Israel Radio reported that consulate staff were visiting local hospitals. Runyan said the Chabad House was a popular tourist destination and that "Israelis regularly come by and visit."

In an article on the chabad.org Web site, Runyan wrote that "Chabad-Lubavitch representatives in New York and Israel are working alongside the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the US Consulate in Mumbai and a volunteer team of local residents to ascertain the well being of the Holtzbergs and other Jews in the area."

He added: "People are urged to say Psalms for Gavriel Noach ben Freida Bluma and Rivka bas Yehudis, and anyone affected by the tragedy."

Attackers "Foreign"?

Apparently the terrorists who attacked Mumbai weren't from India. What a shock that is. Especially since all the other attacks were done by non-Indians. Let's see... What country might they be from? I'd guess it starts with a P and ends with a stan.

Mumbai Attackers Based Outside Country

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says the perpetrators of coordinated attacks on the financial capital Mumbai were likely based outside the country.

Mr. Singh addressed the nation Thursday a day after heavily armed men attacked 10 sites in the city, killing about 100 people and wounding about 300. Without specifying another nation, he said he will tell "neighbors" that the use of their territory for launching terrorist attacks will not be tolerated.

As Mr. Singh was speaking, Indian security forces were moving through two luxury hotels, The Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident, in an attempt to free hostages and find remaining gunmen. Gunfire and explosions were heard from the hotels, and another fire broke out at the Taj after an earlier blaze caused serious damage to the historic building.

Police were also trying to resolve a standoff at a building belonging to a Jewish group, Chabad house.

Wednesday night, groups of assailants with machine guns and grenades attacked several locations popular with foreigners and business people, including hotels and train stations.

Witnesses said gunmen were looking for U.S. and British citizens.

Local media report a previously unknown militant group, called the Deccan Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility. The term Mujahideen is associated with Islamist extremists, while Deccan may be a reference to the Deccan Plateau - an area of southern India.

Islamic militants have been blamed for past bombing attacks.

Among those reported killed in the attacks were Mumbai's anti-terror chief, Hemant Karkare, and at least 11 policeman. Foreign nationals, including an Australian and a Japanese citizen were also killed.

Police say at least four gunmen have been killed and nine arrested, but it is not clear where these encounters occurred.

Please send in the S.A.S.

Indian "Foreign Militants" with Thai Links?

Restiveness is spreading all over the place. Why would "foreign militants" have links to "groups" in the South of Thailand? It's all so confusing! Guide me MSN...

India arrests 'foreign militants'

They said those arrested during weekend raids in the town of Moreh were either Rohingya people from the Arakan province of Burma or from Bangladesh.

Over the last 15 years, thousands of Arakanese Muslims have fled Burma to escape alleged government persecution.

A large number of Rohingya refugees live in camps in Bangladesh.

'Speculative'

"We think they are members of a Rohingya insurgent organisation operating in Arakan but we are not yet definite which one," Maj-Gen BK Chengappa, who leads Indian counter-insurgency operations in Manipur, told the BBC's Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta.

Asked whether those arrested may have links to al-Qaeda, he said there was "no evidence" about such links, which "could only be speculative".

Police said no weapons were seized from those arrested, but some documents have been recovered suggesting they had links with Islamic groups active in Thailand.

Moreh, on the Burma border, is about 109km (68 miles) from Manipur's state capital, Imphal.

"If they are Rohingya insurgents, it is possible they would have links with militant groups in southern Thailand. But this is something we have to check in depth," an intelligence official told our correspondent.

He said possible links between those arrested and local Muslim radicals in Manipur is also being probed.

Earlier this year, three Manipur Muslims working for the Islamic radical group, Lashkar-e-Toyeba were arrested in Delhi.

About 7% of Manipur's population is Muslim.

Female Writer Attacked By Half-wits

A brave woman.

Exiled Bangladeshi female writer attacked by Muslims in India

Angry Muslim protesters on Thursday manhandled controversial exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin while she was attending the release of her book in southern India and told her to go back to her country.

Nasrin escaped unhurt as the organizers pushed back about 100 protesters, led by three lawmakers, in Hyderabad. In the melee, one of the protesters slapped her, according to witnesses.

The protesters, belonging to the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a political party in Andhra Pradesh state, burst into the local Press Club shouting slogans describing Nasrin as "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Islam."

They ransacked the venue, throwing chairs in the air and overturning the tables.
Nasrin fled Bangladesh in 1994 when Islamic extremists threatened to kill her after an Indian newspaper quoted her as saying changes must be made to the Islamic holy book, the Quran, to give women more rights.

She has vehemently denied making the comments, but still faces death threats from Islamic hard-liners in Bangladesh, where one of her books is banned.

"Our protest is against Taslima Nasrin because of her writings ridiculing Islam. We want the Indian government to send her back to Bangladesh," said Ahmad Pasha Quadri, one of the lawmakers, on Thursday.

Nasrin was in Hyderabad for the launch of her book "Shodh" (Getting Even) in the local Teulgu language.

Police detained all the nearly 100 protesters, including the three lawmakers, said N. Madhusudan Reddy, the deputy commissioner.

After fleeing Bangladesh, Nasrin lived in Sweden for several years but eventually moved to India, where she has lived in Calcutta for the last two years. She has applied for Indian citizenship or a permanent resident status.

In 2004, the Bangladeshi government banned her Bengali-language book "Shei Shab Andhakar" ("Those Dark Days") for what it said were objectionable comments about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

Angry Muslims. Is there any other kind that make the headlines these days?