The story
On the night of November 26, 2008 ten armed men landed in boats in Mumbai from the Arabian Sea and split into small groups. They attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, the Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi Trident hotels, the Leopold Cafe, the Nariman House Jewish centre and other sites. Commandos of the National Security Guard took about 60 hours to end the sieges, which finished on the morning of November 29. At least 166 people were killed and more than 300 wounded, and nine of the attackers were killed.
The attackers had sailed from Karachi, hijacked an Indian fishing boat, the Kuber, and killed its captain, then moved to Mumbai in an inflatable dinghy. The one survivor, Ajmal Kasab, was caught alive. He told investigators the group was Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group, and he was hanged in November 2012. India blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba and alleged links to Pakistan's intelligence service, which Pakistan denies, while Pakistan acknowledged that part of the plot was planned on its soil and put some suspects on trial, which has moved slowly. David Headley, a Pakistani-American, who scouted the targets, was sentenced in the United States to 35 years. India did not retaliate militarily, but it suspended talks with Pakistan, and the peace process has never fully recovered.
Why it mattered
- It froze India-Pakistan peace talks that had been under way since 2004.
- It led to a rethink of Indian coastal security and counter-terror policy, including the creation of the National Investigation Agency.
- It raised the issue of whether Pakistan's state used militant groups as a tool, a question of ongoing dispute.
- The attacks, broadcast live, became a defining event for India's media and public debate on security.
Sources
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
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