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CNN Live Event/Special
HBO Documentary Films - Terror in Mumbai
Aired November 25, 2012 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: On November 26th, 2008, the world watched in horror as the most significant terrorist attack since 9/11 flickered across television screens.
My first reaction as I watched was to call my mother. You see, I grew up in Mumbai. My mother still lives there and she has an office at the Taj Mahal Hotel, the site of some of the most gruesome killings that evening. Luckily, she was out of town through the entire 60-hour ordeal. My sister lives across the street from the other hotel that was taken over, the Trident.
When special forces arrived, some stationed themselves in her apartment and fired at the gunman from there. My nieces kept some of the shells as souvenirs.
The Mumbai attacks should worry us all. A handful of lightly armed men with little training were able to throw one of the world's great cities into total chaos. A small group with little connection to al Qaeda expanded its ambitions, seeking greater international attention through greater acts of cruelty.
What you're about to watch is unique. All terrorist attacks so far have been reconstructed or recounted from the point of view of the survivors, witnesses and first responders. This time, you are with the terrorists. You will hear the voices of the young men on the ground in Mumbai. You will hear their masters in Pakistan. And you will also see the victims, men, women and children, and hear from those who survived.
It is the first 360-degree view of terrorism.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA (voice-over): November 26th, 2008. An organization determined to surpass al Qaeda as the world's most feared terrorist group sent 10 gunmen to Mumbai, India's biggest city. Their mission was to kill and keep on killing. To stage a spectacle so terrifying that the world could no longer ignore Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Army of the Righteous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): You've very close to heaven. For your mission to end successfully, you must be killed. God willing.
ZAKARIA: Indian intelligence intercepted the terrorists' cell phone conversations with their commanders in Pakistan. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Yes, do it. Sit them up and shoot them in the back of the head. Do it. I'm listening. Do it.
SEYFI MUEZZINOGLU, MUMBAI ATTACK SURVIVOR: They were very calm, not shouting, not excited. They were doing their job, as a matter of fact.
ZAKARIA: One gunman was captured alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): How many people did you kill?
AJMAL AMIR KASAB, GUNMAN (through text): I don't know. Kept firing and firing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Who were you supposed to kill?
KASAB (through text): Just people.
ZAKARIA: For the Army of the Righteous, it was a test run for future operations, not just in India, but perhaps elsewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Tell them this is just a taste. Let the government wait and see what we do next.
ZAKARIA: Their method of attack could easily be adapted to any American city. No hijacked airliners or sophisticated weaponry, just 10 young men with mobile phones and assault rifles programmed to kill and die on command.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I don't understand what these people are doing. What do they gain from all this killing?
ZAKARIA: This is the inside story of the attack on Mumbai. Told by its victims and by the terrorists themselves in hours of intercepted phone calls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): The enemy must fear us. When this is over, there will much more fear in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Where else have you done operations like this?
KASAB (through text): Nowhere else. This is my first one. Haven't been anywhere else. You do it just anywhere else. You do it just once and you die.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): You mean you have a shoot-out and you die?
KASAB (through text): Yes.
ZAKARIA: At dusk, 10 gunmen arrive off Mumbai on a hijacked fishing trawler. The crew is killed, the captain left alive to navigate. Later that night, Indian intelligence would monitor calls between the terrorists in Mumbai and a group of older men who were remote controlling the operation from across the border in Pakistan, India's long-time enemy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): The captain of the boat -- did you kill him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Yes, we finished him off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): How?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): We slit his throat.
ZAKARIA: Under cover of darkness, they landed in a fisherman's slum next to one of the wealthiest parts of Mumbai. Splitting up into teams of two, they said their last goodbyes and hailed taxis to take them to their targets, which were all close by.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): This is a struggle between Islam and the unbelievers. We're the people God has chosen to defend our religion against the unbelievers.
ZAKARIA: The first pair of gunmen made for one of Mumbai's best-known bars. They left behind a bomb in their taxi, set to explode in an hour's time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came from a taxi and they were talking on the phone for a long time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Thinking they were foreigners, I asked, want a t-shirt? They said, no. Then they asked, is the Leopold Cafe famous?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): He was wearing a beige shirt, height 5' 9". And blue cargo trousers with pockets. When he came in we noticed he was very good-looking, no doubt very handsome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): They stood like this with their faces close together. And hands on each other's shoulders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): They were very, very happy, talking and smiling. Then after 10 minutes they took something from their bag and threw it.
ZAKARIA: A grenade ripped through the bar. The gunmen emptied their automatic weapons then reloaded to finish off the people who couldn't run away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): So then there were only fumes, sparks, the noise of gunfire, of people running.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): Chairs being knocked over, screams.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): And the shouting of those who were killing. Terrible sounds. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): Everybody was screaming. They killed until no one was left alive. What happened to me, it's very -- one is here, here, here, and this portion.
ZAKARIA: Eleven people died at the Leopold Cafe and 28 people were wounded. At the same time, another pair of gunmen were approaching Mumbai's main railway station, Chhatrapati Shivaji, better known as Victoria Terminus or VT.
Again, one of them left a bomb in the taxi. He was Ajmal Amir Kasab, who later that night would be captured and interrogated.
KASAB (through text): They told us there was a job we must do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What do you mean?
KASAB (through text): There was a job we must do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What job?
KASAB (through text): The VT station job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What job was that?
KASAB (through text): I was supposed to kill people there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What people?
KASAB (through text): Whoever was there.
ZAKARIA: At the station, Kasab and his accomplice Ismail, mingle with those they had come to kill. They were ordinary people from every part of India, traveling to a wedding, a village, a temple. Workers laden with holiday gifts, Muslim families heading home for the festival of Eid. At seven minutes to 10:00, Kasab and Ismail opened their backpacks and took out assault rifles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): My wife was the first one to be shot. I turned round and saw her get hit. She was shot and she fell down. When a bullet hit me it knocked me over. Then I couldn't get back on my feet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): The floor was vibrating with the gunfire. My ears went deaf. Everybody fell down. My uncle fell on top of me. I saw him get hit. Then Dad got shot. He fell in front of me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): My grandson said, Grandma, why did we take the train? We should have gone by bus. Look how much Grandpa is bleeding. And I peeked out and saw that my husband's shirt was red with blood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): They showed no fear or horror. They were like children firing toy game. They strolled very slowly, killing whoever they chose. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I tried to get up. My uncle said, stay down. Then I shouted for my dad, and he shushed me. There was a devout man behind us and he was calling upon a Muslim holy man to help him. When the terrorist heard, he killed him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): My children were crying on top of my wife's body. They were soaked in blood. I grabbed them with my good hand and dragged them behind a pillar. I pretended to be dead, gripping my kids between my legs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): Right next to us and all around, blood everywhere. One person had his nose blown off, another had his head split apart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): There was a baby. His mother was still alive next to him. The baby started crying so the mother picked it up. And was shot dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Didn't you ever ask, won't feel pity for these people I'm killing?
KASAB (through text): Yes, that's true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Well, did you ask?
KASAB (through text): I did, but he said you have to do these things. You're going to be a big man and get reward in heaven. I asked, have you done these things, too? He said he had. But I thought, well, he's done it, I should do it, too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: From the start, the police were confused and disorganized. They did nothing to stop the killing. For 15 minutes, they stood watching the massacre, then most of them ran away and hid. One who didn't was Sudam Pandarko.
SUDAM PANDARKO, SURVIVOR (through text): There were 15 to 20 policemen present. But we had no idea what was going on, or what we could do about it. Our brains were not working. We just froze. We didn't know what to do.
ZAKARIA: The second in command at the station, Police Inspector Shashank Shinde, rallied his men.
PANDARKO (through text): He said, you give men with rifles, come with me. There are terrorists over there, we must shoot them. My mind was blank except for one thing. Aim, fire, kill. That was all I could think of. Shoot them and kill them. S
ZAKARIA: The policemen were outgunned. Pandarko carried an ancient protection rifle with five bullets. Inspector Shinde carried a pistol. Another officer, Ambadas Pawar, was unarmed.
PANDARKO (through text): Ambadas Pawar told me it was off-duty cop. He wanted to shoot them so he took my rifle and fired. Before we could reload he came. The one who's been captured, the terrorist Kasab. He fired and the bullet went through my chest. Then there was silence. And Shashank Shinde and Ambadas Pawar were lying dead, both of them.
ZAKARIA: As Kasab and Ismail headed for the exit, a policeman grabbed a rifle from a terrified comrade. It jammed. When Kasab returned fire, in desperation, the policeman hurled a plastic chair. Now the gunman fired through the station windows, shooting down a plainclothes policeman.
The Wednesday night traffic passed by, the drivers oblivious to the horror inside.
An hour and a half had passed since Kasab and Ismail came ashore with their eight accomplices. Now they walked out of the station and melted into the darkness.
With the terrorists gone, the railway police rush out of hiding, weapons at the ready. Kasab and Ismail had killed 52 people at the station and wounded more than 100.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): When the shooting was over, a man came and asked me up and put me on one of those handcarts the porters use. My little brother was shouting, mommy, mommy. I said, Mommy is fine, and took him with me to hospital. Six was dead. Arif, my brother-in-law, Abbas, my dad. Rakila, my mom. My two cousins and another uncle, they all died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I miss her so much. When I look at her photo I start missing her. I can't look at her for too long, it makes me want to cry. My daughter often points to it. Look, Dad, Mommy is smiling at you.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We don't know, is it a terrorist attack, planned by some big organization? We don't know. Is it planned by the underworld? We don't know. But yes, Mumbai is --
ZAKARIA: The police had no plan or training for such an attack. Mumbai's most famous detective, Joint Commissioner Raskesh Maria, found himself unexpectedly in charge of the control room. He didn't know who the gunmen were or where they would attack next.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We received calls from our mobiles that it appears that they are moving towards the police headquarters. So, you know, in addition to looking at the control room, one also had to fortify this complex.
ZAKARIA: Now the bombs Kasab and his colleagues had planted in their taxis exploded, killing the drivers and their passengers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a taxi blast at Mazagaon. There was a taxi blast at Vile Parle. There were also rumors that there was an attack at J.W. Marriott in Juhu. There is attack on the Four Seasons at Worli. So, you know, we felt that the whole city was under a siege and under attack. ZAKARIA: Amidst the chaos, the anti-terrorist police began scanning cell phone frequencies in the hope of intercepting any calls the gunmen might be making.
With hundreds of thousands of voices on the airwaves, their chances were almost zero. But earlier that year, undercover agents had fed a batch of 35 SIM cards to the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e- Taiba. Intelligence officers discovered that three of the SIM cards had been activated that night. Suddenly, they were listening in on conversations between the terrorists and their masters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I just wanted to check -- what did you do with the boat?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): We just left it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What? You didn't open the bottom of the boat to sink it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): In the rush, they didn't do it. We had to get out, things went a bit wrong.
ZAKARIA: The gunmen were calling an Internet number bought from a company in New Jersey using money transfers from Pakistan. Once Indian intelligence locked on to the controller's Internet number, they could listen to all the gunmen's calls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): So we jumped in the dinghy and got out of there. Brother Ismail's satellite phone got left behind.
ZAKARIA: Little use was made of them, but the authorities would intercept a total of 284 calls. Most involved a single controller identified only as brother Wasi. His grip on the young gunmen would not loosen until they were dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Fight with all your might. Stretch it out as long as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): OK. God willing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: As scores of people were being gunned down at the railway station, another pair of clean-cut Pakistani boys in their early 20s blasted through the entrance of one of Mumbai's top five-star hotels, the Trident Oberoi. The lead gunman was Fahadullah, who wore black.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Fahadullah? Are you there?
FAHADULLAH, GUNMAN (through text): Yes, I'm listening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): You're very close to heaven, brother. Today is the day you'll be remembered for, brother.
ZAKARIA: Fahadullah and his accomplice killed nine staff and three guests in the lobby. Then they headed for the hotel restaurants. At Tiffin, a popular eatery, Fahadullah murdered 13 diners.
Rishma Kiani was shot five times and left for dead beside her family and friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole place was very silent. I couldn't see my friends. Whenever I tried to look, I also saw Shihad move. She was in the same position from the time she got shot and so was my cousin and his wife. I tried to nudge my cousin's leg because I was close enough to do that. I think I succeeded, but he didn't move.
ZAKARIA: Bewildered by the ferocity of the attack, the police made no organized attempt to storm the hotel. Rishma Kiani would lie bleeding on the floor of the Tiffin Restaurant for the next 16 hours before she was finally rescued.
Hearing the gun fire, hotel guests bolted their doors. Fear drove some of them onto the window ledges. The terrorists detonated a bomb in the tea lounge and rounded up survivors from the hotel restaurants. A group of 15 were marched to the top of the service staircase. Among them was Seyfi Muezzinoglu, a Turkish businessman, and his wife, Meltem.
S. MUEZZINOGLU: The one in black, Fahadullah, told the woman to go up the stairs so we were pressed there and like in a crowded bus. And all of a sudden he raises his gun, and at that moment my wife screamed out, stop, stop, he's from Turkey. He's from Istanbul. He's Muslim or something, and he made the gesture -- Fahadullah.
I threw myself face down and he started to shoot and all the bodies were falling on me. And I was buried under the bodies from my waist down.
ZAKARIA: Fahadullah left five people alive -- Seyfi, his wife Meltem and three other women. The other 10 had been gunned down on the narrow landing.
MELTEM MUEZZINOGLU, MUMBAI ATTACK SURVIVOR: You can hear them, some of them were not dead yet. You can hear the sounds of their last -- I don't know. And we had to, you know, step over those people.
S. MUEZZINOGLU: I said, look, I step on the back of this man, then on the neck of that man and I will hold your hand. I ushered four women over the bodies and I told them not to step on the blood everywhere. It such slippery. I have never seen -- known that blood can be so slippery.
ZAKARIA: At the same time as the attack on the Trident Oberoi, two backpackers had strolled into the Taj, the most exclusive hotel in the city. Each carried an assault rifle, pistol, hand grenades, hundreds of bullets and enough dried fruits and nuts to last a couple of days.
They began killing anyone in their sights. They were soon joined by the two terrorists who had just killed 11 civilians at the Leopold Cafe a block away. The newcomers narrowly avoided bullets meant for a hotel guest. The two pairs joined forces in the lobby by the swimming pool. There were now four gunmen inside the Taj. They headed to the upper floors to switch on their phones and receive fresh instructions from Brother Wasi.
BROTHER WASI (through text): Pile up the carpets and mattresses from the room you've opened. Douse them in alcohol and set them alight. Get a couple of floors burning. And when we ring, make sure you answer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Peace be with you.
WASI (through text): How are you getting on? Have you started the fire yet?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): No, we haven't started it yet.
WASI (through text): You must start the fire now. Nothing is going to happen until you start the fire. When people see the flames, they will start to be afraid. And throw some grenades, my brother. There's no harm in throwing a few grenades. How hard can it be to throw a grenade? Just pull the pin and throw it.
ZAKARIA: The gunmen, youngsters from villages in Pakistan, seemed mesmerized by the opulence of their surroundings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): There are computers here with 30- inch screens.
WASI (through text): Computers? Haven't you set fire to them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): We're just about to. You'll be able to see the fire any minute.
WASI (through text): We can't watch if there aren't any flames. Where are they?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): It's amazing. The windows are huge. It's got two kitchens, a bath and a little shop.
WASI (through text): Start the fire, my brother. Start a proper fire, that's the important thing.
ZAKARIA: Once they've set some rooms on fire, the four terrorists began searching for more guests to kill. Amit and Varsha Thadani were about to hold their wedding reception at the hotel.
AMIT THADANI, MUMBAI ATTACK SURVIVOR: I was seeing a couple of dead bodies lying on the carpet outside. We heard a couple of people outside our room talking in a strange language.
VARSHA THADANI, MUMBAI ATTACK SURVIVOR: The next thing we heard was them dragging a lady out from the room next door, and she was shouting. She was shouting a lot. And then the next thing we heard, like, she was pushed again into the room and she was shot.
A. THADANI: They didn't just shoot her a couple of times. They continuously kept shooting at her.
V. THADANI: She was crying in pain, as if she was asking for some kind of help. But there was nothing that could be done that day.
WASI (through text): How are you, Ali? Everything OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Thanks be to God, I'm fine. It's taken a long time to break the doors down. We've managed to break into three or four rooms facing the sea and we've set fire to them.
ZAKARIA: Finally, the Taj Hotel, Mumbai's most iconic landmark, was ablaze. Brother Wasi and his fellow controllers were watching the action live on international TV channels. It was an image Brother Wasi knew would travel around the world.
WASI (through text): My brother, yours is the most important target. The media are covering your target, the Taj Hotel, more than any other.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: Earlier that night, a handful of police officers had crept into the Taj. Guided by hotel security staff, they headed for the CCTV monitoring room. They were led by Deputy Commissioner Vishwas Nangre Patil.
VISHWAS NANGRE PATIL, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF POLICE: We have seen four terrorists on the sixth floor and they are with AK-47, they are with knapsacks (ph). They were wearing this dress and that dress. We hear a couple of call to the control room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are recce-ing the area, they are on the 6th floor, they came on 5th floor. We fired at them, they threw grenades on us. Three men are recce-ing, they are with AK-47s and they are carrying big packs on their backs, sir. Over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The naval commandos should be there in a few minutes. Keep them pinned down. Over.
ZAKARIA: For several hours, the cops in the Taj watched the terrorists on CCTV. They were able to relay to headquarters exactly where the terrorists were and what they were doing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They again have gone back to room number 630. Over.
ZAKARIA: As the fire took hold, the policemen were driven from the hotel. The naval commandos still hadn't come.
Poor communication and leadership meant the Mumbai Police missed vital chances to stop the terrorists during the crucial first hour when most of the killing happened. The Mumbai police chief failed to take charge of the situation. Instead, he left his lead investigator to run the control room, a man more used to dealing with the aftermath of a terrorist attack. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are used to a blast occurring. We go to the spot, clear the area, sanitize the area, collect evidence and begin our investigation.
ZAKARIA: By attacking multiple targets, the terrorists had hoped to plunge the police into chaos. They succeeded completely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were prepared for a terrorist strike, but maybe at one location. Four or five locations simultaneously, then going into hotels and taking hotels, all these things contributed to, you know, making the situation a very, very difficult one.
ZAKARIA: Barely a stone's throw from police headquarters, Kasab and Ismail, the two gunmen who'd slaughtered passengers at the railway station, were looking for some way to regroup. They drifted down a back street, towards a row of shacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): This is my brother's house. He was in the middle of dinner. The man yelled, "Give me some water." He shot at my mom so we ran into my house and then we don't know what happened here. Ten minutes later, his little boy came and said, "Dad was eating. The man shot him."
ZAKARIA: Leaving Takul Wagaila (ph) to die on the floor of his shack, the gunmen jumped over a gate into the women's hospital next door. Alerted by the gunfire at the nearby railway station, 450 patients, relatives and staff had locked themselves in the wards.
Civil servant Harishchandra Shrivardhankar had also heard the gunfire and thought the hospital would be a safe place to hide.
HARISHCHANDRA SHRIVARDHANKAR, MUMBAI ATTACK SURVIVOR (through text): I saw a dead body in a pool of blood so I got scared and ran inside the building. Inside there was absolute silence, but all the lights were on.
ZAKARIA: On the stairs, he bumped into Ismail, Kasab's accomplice.
SHRIVARDHANKAR (through text): He grabbed my neck and quickly drew a knife and I knew he was going to slit my throat. So I kneed him and whacked him in the face with my briefcase. He still managed to slash my neck twice, then threw me down.
ZAKARIA: Now the gunmen roamed the corridors, testing doors, looking for hostages. In one of the locked silent wards, Nasrin Sheikh (ph) was about to give birth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text): She was screaming in pain. The nurses said, "If she screams, they'll fire into this ward and we'll all die. Tell her to endure the pain."
NASRIN SHEIKH, MUMBAI ATTACK SURVIVOR (through text): The doctor told me to lie flat. She started praying. She said, "Endure a little longer, my child." But I kept on screaming, and grabbing the doctor's clothes. I was banging my head on the ground, begging, "Do something. Do something." ZAKARIA: Nasrin's (ph) daughter, Ishwaria (ph), would be born safely an hour after the terrorists had left.
Meanwhile, the head of Mumbai's anti-terrorist squad, Hemant Karkare, had arrived near the hospital. Over the next 40 minutes, Karkare and two other senior police commanders would make repeated calls for armed backup. It never came.
Finally, Karkare and his colleagues drove down a backstreet to cut off the terrorists' likely escape route from the hospital. The three commanders rode in the front of a jeep, four policemen squeezed into the back. But the gunmen had already left the hospital and were looking for a car to hijack.
Arun Jadhav was one of the cops in the back of the jeep.
ARUN JADHAV, MUMBAI POLICE (through text): Suddenly they sprayed our car with bullets. We had no idea where the gunfire was coming from. Then the man in front of me collapsed on top of me and I moved like this so my head was at seat-level. I couldn't reach my Sten gun. I went to draw my pistol but I'd given it to another cop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): The policemen --
KASAB (through text): Oh, them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What did you do to them?
KASAB (through text): They -- they fired at us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Really?
KASAB (through text): Yes. I fell down and then Ismail shot them.
ZAKARIA: The gunman pulled the terribly wounded police commanders from the front of their jeep and took over the vehicle. The bodies in the back jammed the rear door shut.
JADHAV (through text): The gunmen just drove off. Then a phone rang next to me in the back of the jeep and they sprayed us with bullets. The man on top of me died, but I wasn't hit. God was working His magic.
They drove towards a junction crowded with media people and both gunmen fired. The driver used his pistol. I could see the whole thing through a gap between the seats.
ZAKARIA: Back outside the hospital, the wounded police commanders lay dying, undiscovered just 200 yards from police headquarters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We could hear the firing, you know, at the Cama Hospital. It's very close. It's just behind this complex.
ZAKARIA: Orders had been given to send armed backup to the commanders at the hospital, but the police were in meltdown and orders did not lead to action. The three dead commanders were well known names in Mumbai.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the information came to the control room that Kamte, Karkare and Salaskar are dead, that moment, then everything stands still. Those few -- you know, one or two seconds, I think they would haunt me for the rest of my life.
They were some of the best officers, I would say, in the country. These are the people who are leaders. The challenge before the leadership at that time was motivating the men to continue the fight, to continue facing the terrorists.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: It wasn't until later that night when the sole surviving gunman was captured that the police would find out who their enemy was. An organization founded 15 years before with support from Pakistani intelligence to help reclaim the disputed territory of Kashmir from India. A group that was now trying to transform itself into a standard bearer for global jihad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What is the name of your organization? What's your gang, your team?
KASAB (through text): It's Lashkar-e-Taiba.
ZAKARIA: Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Army of the Righteous. Successive Pakistani governments had turned a blind eye to its training camps, its thousands of fighters, its new global ambitions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): How long was your training?
KASAB (through text): Three months. In the training, there were 24 or 25 in our class.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Where were the people from?
KASAB (through text): They don't tell you. I only know about one. He said he was from Lahore. He became my friend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Didn't they allow you to speak to each other?
KASAB (through text): We were forbidden to speak to each other. It was very strict. The proper training, where they say, "This boy is ready now," that takes three months. That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): OK. Then what?
KASAB (through text): That's it. After that he's ready. He just waits. They prepare him and say, "Off you go and die."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): When was this planned?
KASAB (through text): It was finalized a month ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): A month ago? How? Was there a meeting?
KASAB (through text): They brought Ismail and me together. I don't know where he came from. They said, "Guys, the time has come for you to be tested. Now we'll know who is for real," blah, blah. Stuff like that. "Here's your target."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Where?
KASAB (through text): They showed us a CD of this city, a full tour.
ZAKARIA: It wasn't the first time Lashkar-e-Taiba had attacked Mumbai. They had exploded bombs before, killing hundreds but attracting little international attention.
This time it would be different. Now, Lashkar-e-Taiba was showing its supporters in Pakistan and the Middle East that it could stage a spectacle the whole world would watch.
WASI (through text): The commissioner of Mumbai has been killed. They're saying that there are many, many killed and injured. They're saying there are 50 gunmen -- the whole city has been shot up. Fires are burning everywhere. People are dying all over the place. With God's blessing, you've done a brilliant job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): All praise to God.
ZAKARIA: Less than a mile from the burning Taj, at the Oberoi Hotel, Seyfi and Meltem Muezzinoglu was still being held, together with three other hostages.
M. MUEZZINOGLU: I was trying to take care of the young lady, the Singapore lady, because she was very scared.
ZAKARIA: Lo Hoei Yen was a 28-year-old lawyer, in Mumbai for a one- day seminar.
M. MUEZZINOGLU: I put her into my lotus shoes and I thought if she would have been on a business trip alone and what would have happened, you know?
S. MUEZZINOGLU: They took us out of the room, made us all lean on the wall and they were talking on the phone and they said, go away from the walls.
M. MUEZZINOGLU: All of a sudden, there's -- they just shot those women, three women.
S. MUEZZINOGLU: And that young Singapore girl, she was crying so loud that she knew that they were being shot. It was terrible. I still hear her screams.
M. MUEZZINOGLU: And I was -- let's pray for those people, and we started to pray.
S. MUEZZINOGLU: And we both raised our hands and read the same Sura from the Quran, which is spoken for the dead, so they were shocked, the terrorists.
M. MUEZZINOGLU: I said to my husband, they're going to kill us also. Now is our turn.
S. MUEZZINOGLU: They said to go into the room. Meltem said, "No, let them shoot us here." I said, "No, we don't go. You kill here." We leaned onto the same wall. And (INAUDIBLE) came and said, "No kill. You brothers. Go in."
M. MUEZZINOGLU: They left. We don't believe it. We don't believe it.
ZAKARIA: As the eight gunmen launched their attacks on the hotels and the railway station, the fifth pair had threaded their way through the alleyways of South Mumbai to a Jewish study center, Nariman House.
Brother Wasi reminded the two gunmen that killing a Jew was worth far more to them than killing a guest at the Taj Hotel.
WASI (through text): As I told you, every person you kill where you are is worth 50 of the ones killed elsewhere.
ZAKARIA: The center was run by Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife, Rivka. Their 2-year-old son had been put to bed. The neighbors heard what happened when the rabbi and his wife confronted the gunmen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): The woman shouted, "Shoot me, shoot me!" and they shot her. Then a man's voice also shouted, "Shoot me," and they shot him too. The bangs were very loud, then we heard glass breaking.
ZAKARIA: The two gunmen killed the rabbi, his wife and two houseguests. They took two women hostage. Then they turned their attention to the crowd gathering outside.
WASI (through text): Can you see any movement to the left or right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): There are quite a few people standing at windows.
ZAKARIA: Brother Wasi turned to his superiors for direction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): They can see regular civilians on the street. Should they shoot them?
CONTROLLER (through translator): Right -- anyone that moves, shoot them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): OK.
ZAKARIA: One of the regular civilians they shot was Dameonte Gohil's (ph) son.
DAMEONTE GOHIL (ph), SON KILLED IN MUMBAI ATTACK (through translator): He didn't utter a single word. I was stroking his face. I lifted his head and cradled it in my lap. My neighbor gave him some water, but he still didn't speak a word.
ZAKARIA: Three miles away, Kasab and his accomplice Ismail, the pair who'd massacred passengers at the railway station, drove into a police roadblock. Ismail was shot dead at the wheel of their hijacked car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Kasab got out of the car and pretended to surrender. The other cops rushed at him and Kasab rolled onto his back. Officer Umble got to him first. But Kasab had an AK- 47 hidden under his jacket. Umble saw this and grabbed the barrel with both hands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): As soon as they saw he was down, everyone just jumped on him. Umble was right in front of the gun. He was trying to pin him down. And that's when Kasab pulled the trigger. Umble got hit by eight or nine bullets.
ZAKARIA: At 1:00 a.m., four hours after he had come ashore in Mumbai, the police took Kasab under armed guard to a nearby hospital where they began taping his interrogation.
KASAB (through text): He made us do terrible thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Who did?
KASAB (through text): Uncle did
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Who is this uncle?
KASAB (through text): The one from Lashkar.
ZAKARIA: He said his father had in effect sold him to Klashkar-e- Taiba, the army of the righteous at their branch office in his village.
KASAB (through text): He said there people make loads of money and so will you. You don; have to do anything difficult. We will have money, we won't be poor anymore. Your brothers and sisters can get married. Look at these guys living the good life. You can be like them, he said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Your dad said this?
KASAB (through text): Yes. So, I said, "fine. Whatever."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What does he do for a living?
KASAB (through text): He used to sell yogurt and potato snacks in the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): How much did they give you? Did he put it in your account?
KASAB (through text): There is no account. They gave it to my dad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): How much did they give him?
KASAB (through text): I don't know, maybe a few hundred thousand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): After finishing your job today, where were you supposed to go?
KASAB (through text): We were all supposed to die.
ZAKARIA: How?
KASAB (through text): He said we would go to heaven.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole idea is to shoot those as soon as possible and the entire team is planning the strategy --
ZAKARIA: Kasab's capture had been reported on TV. Now his masters wanted him back. The gunmen inside Nariman house forced one of the hostages, (INAUDIBLE) to call the Israeli consulate. Then they made her speak to brother Wasi in Pakistan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello? I have already talked to them. I was talking to the consulate just a few seconds ago and they are making the phone call. They said to leave the line free. They are calling the prime minister and the army in India from the embassy in Delhi.
ZAKARIA: Brother Wasi had promised Norma he would release her and the other hostage (INAUDIBLE) in exchange for Kasab.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't worry. Just sit back and relax. And don't worry. Just wait for them to contact, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Save your energy for good days. If they contact right now maybe you're going to celebrate your Sabbath with your family.
ZAKARIA: Brother Wasi briefed the gunman on what to say to the Indian government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Indian authorities will call you on this number and ask what you want. Just say, release our guy to us with his weapons within half an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): God willing.
ZAKARIA: He warned him not to let slip that the rabbi and his wife had already been murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): So you mustn't say you will release the two hostages. Say that you will release all the hostages. Then tell them they can negotiate with us.
ZAKARIA: As the terrorists waited for the Indian government to call, the Holtzbergs' 2-year-old son, (INAUDIBLE), wandered among the bodies, including those of his mother and father. The little boy's nanny, who had hidden inside the house overnight later snatched him and escaped. After much delay, 400 commandos had arrived from Delhi to take over the security operation. They began to engage the terrorists.
On the 18th floor of the Oberoi Hotel, the commandos cornered Fahadullah and his fellow the gunmen Abdul Rehman. By now, they had murdered 35 people at the hotel.
(GUNFIRE)
(PHONE RINGING)
CONTROLLER (through text): How's it going, brother Fahadullah?
GUNMAN (through text): Brother Abdul Rehman has died. Praised God.
CONTROLLER (through text): Oh, really? Is he nearby?
GUNMAN (through text): Yes. He's next to me. May God accept his martyrdom. His room is on fire. They are showing it on the TV. I'm sitting in the bathroom.
(GUNFIRE )
CONTROLLER (through text): You mustn't let them arrest you, remember that.
GUNMAN (through text): God willing. God willing.
ZAKARIA: The next time brother Wasi called, Fahadullah was still hiding in the bathroom.
(PHONE RINGING)
CONTROLLER (through text): Fahadullah, my brother, can't you just get out there and fight? Throw a grenade and try to get out.
GUNMAN (through text): I have run out of grenades.
(GUNFIRE)
CONTROLLER (through text): Be brave, brother. Don't panic. For your mission to end successfully you must be killed. God is waiting for you in heaven.
GUNMAN (through text): God willing.
CONTROLLER (through text): May God help you. Fight bravely, and put your phone in your pocket, but leave it on.
(GUNFIRE) (ALARM) (GUNFIRE)
CONTROLLER (through text): Fahadullah? Fahadullah?
ZAKARIA: It was 10:00 p.m., 24 hours into the attack, and the call from the Indian government to Nariman house had still not come. Again, brother Wasi turned to his superiors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Do you want them to keep the hostages or kill them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Listen up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Just shoot them now. Get rid of them. You could come under fire at any time. You risk leaving them behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): God willing. Although it's quiet here at the moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): No. Don't wait any longer. You never know when you might come under attack. Just make sure you don't get hit by a ricochet when you do it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): God willing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I'll stay on the line. Go on. I'm listening. Do it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): What? Shoot them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Yes. Do it. Sit them up and shoot them in the back of the head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): The thing is Umer is asleep right now. He hasn't been feeling too well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I'll call you back in half an hour and you can do it then. OK?
ZAKARIA: For an hour the gunman hesitated. Finally brother Wasi's patience run out. , UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Well?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Please don't be angry. I had to move things around a bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Have you done the job or not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I was just waiting for you to call so you could listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Do it, in God's name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Right. Hold on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Do it. In God's name.
(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): OK. That was one of them, yes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Both. Together.
ZAKARIA: Friday dawned, 36 hours into the attack. Brother Wasi told the gunmen at Nariman house, it was time to die.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): OK. So the thing is, brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): You have run out of water. You're tired. They know this, too. They are hoping to arrest you. Once you are weak from hunger and thirst --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Today is Friday so we should finish it today.
ZAKARIA: Nine hours after the Jewish hostages were murdered, the commandos finally attacked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Helicopter overhead?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Yes. I hear one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Shoot, shoot.
(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): They have opened fire. They have opened fire.
(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Umer., take cover. Take cover!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): They are firing into our room. Into our room.
ZAKARIA: An hour later, the gunman spoke to brother Wasi for the last time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): I have been shot. I have been shot. Pray for me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Where are you hit?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): One in my arm. One in my leg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): God protect you. Did you manage to hit any of their guys?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): We got one commando. Pray that God will accept my martyrdom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Praise God. Praise God. God keep you. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAKARIA: Brother Wasi's work was done. For three days the terrorists he directed had dominated the world's headlines. The identity of brother Wasi and the other controllers still has not been established.
In his interrogation Kasab, the sole surviving gunman, named the mastermind of the operation.
KASAB (through text): Zaki. Zaki. Uncle Zaki.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Uncle who?
KASAB (through text): Zaki. Za-ki.
ZAKARIA: Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, the operational head of the Klashkar- e-Taiba, the army of the righteous has been arrested by the Pakistani authorities. His trial is being held in secret. Kasab has confessed his part in the attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): So you guys came here for jihad? Is that right?
KASAB (through text): What jihad, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): It's no use crying. Tell me the truth. Is that right or not?
KASAB (through text): You wouldn't understand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We broke him psychologically. We realized they had told him if you commit jihad and you die for the cause, there is a scent emanating from your dead body, there is a glow on the face. So we asked him who told you this. He said the instructors told us this is what happened. They had seen people who died fighting for jihad. This is what happens.
We did take him to the morgue and we showed him the nine dead bodies there. The shock on his face I think it dawned on him that whatever he had done he was taken for a ride by the instructors and there was no truth whatsoever in what they had told him.
ZAKARIA: Joint commissioner (INAUDIBLE), the Mumbai chief of police, has been moved from his post and given responsibility for police housing. One hundred and seventy people died in the attack on Mumbai. Many were Muslims, including 12-year-old Afroz.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): My dad was a taxi driver here in Mumbai. So one day he took us all out for a drive. He took me and my sister to the birdhouse, the aquarium, the gardens, Haji Ali Mosque. He took us so many places I don't even remember.
Mom and Dad loved me so much. Thinking about it makes me want to cry. They killed my mom and dad and so many other people. What harm did we ever do for them to kill so many people? ZAKARIA: With more than 2,000 offices in towns and villages, Klashkar-e-Taiba, the army of the righteous, is deeply embedded in Pakistani society. It remains close to its backers within the Pakistani intelligence services.
Pakistan has an arsenal of nuclear warheads and is one of America's key allies. During the attack, Klashkar-e-Taiba controller had briefed one of the Mumbai gunmen on what to say when the media called.
CONTROLLER (through text): Give the government an ultimatum. Say this was just the trailer. Just wait till you see the rest of the film. This is just a small example.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text): Wait for the rest of the movie. Shall I write that down? The main film is yet to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAKARIA: We have just been warned by the terrorists that the main film is yet to come. The horror we have seen is simply the trailer. How worried should we be? Let me give you some background.
The group responsible for these attacks, Klashkar-e-Taiba, was created to wage war in Kashmir, the territory that has been under dispute with India and Pakistan since 1947. Lashkar was assisted from the start by the Pakistani military. And whiles that support has waned over the past few years, there is little evidence that Pakistan's generals are making any serious effort to shut down what has become a vast organization within their country.
Lashkar's stated goals go beyond Kashmir to the imposition of Islamic rule in all of south Asia. Its pamphlets are filled with attacks on Hindus and Jews. Like al-Qaeda which also began with limited goals and some state support, it could be morphing into something larger and much more sinister.
But terrorism is waged by individuals. We saw these young peasant boys who had little education and no prospects in their country. They are the ones who enlist for the jihad. So, we have political and ideological forces on one hand and the simple despair of young men on the other. The two have combined to create a deadly mix.
The only way this movie will end well is if we tackle both sides of this problem. We need to get the military and foreign policy right. But, we also need to help change the sense of hopelessness and culture of hate that exists in these societies. We need to help these young men you just watched embrace life rather than death.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
