Originally published Friday, December 5, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Comments (0)
E-mail article
Print view
Threat of assault rattles India
India remained on edge today amid reports of a threatened air attack, more than a week after gunmen landed on Mumbai's shores and launched a brazen attack that left 170 people dead.
Los Angeles Times
NEW DELHI — India remained on edge today amid reports of a threatened air attack, more than a week after gunmen landed on Mumbai's shores and launched a brazen attack that left 170 people dead.
The new threat was contained in an e-mailed warning that referred to the anniversary Saturday of one of the inflammatory events in India's recent history: the 1992 destruction by Hindu mobs of a centuries-old mosque in the north Indian town of Ayodha. That incident has been a flash point of religious tension throughout South Asia.
Survivors of the November attack in Mumbai have been quoted as saying that at least one of the gunmen cited revenge for what happened in Ayodha as a motive behind the coordinated assault on luxury hotels and other busy spots in India's biggest metropolis.
Early today, Indian commandos combed New Delhi's international airport after reports that shots had been fired there. An airport official said no one had been killed, contradicting a report by the British Broadcasting Corp. that Indian security forces had shot six gunmen to death.
Although the e-mailed threat focused on the capital, New Delhi, and the southern cities of Bangalore and Chennai, airports throughout the country went on high alert. Authorities added extra layers of security, including patrols of armed guards and sniffer dogs and thorough inspections of passengers and their belongings.
Many Indians have reacted with incredulity and growing anger to news that their government failed to act on repeated intelligence, including from the United States, warning of a possible terrorist attack on Mumbai by sea. Tens of thousands of Indians have taken to the streets in protest, accusing the government of not protecting its citizens.
Investigators have said the only attacker who was captured has detailed the involvement of a Pakistani militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and its training of the assailants at camps in Pakistan.
Investigators also allege that Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, a known senior commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, helped mastermind the plot, and Indian authorities have named another Lashkar leader, Yusuf Muzammil.
Pakistani authorities have not acknowledged a link between the attacks and any group based on Pakistani soil, saying it was up to India to provide proof.
Deven Barthi, a deputy commissioner on the Mumbai force, said the weapons used in the attacks came from a factory called the Pakistan Ordnance Factories, The New York Times reported. The factory, based in Pakistan's Punjab province, is under contract to the Pakistani military, he said. The factory also was the source of grenades and explosives used in several earlier terrorist attacks in India, Barthi said.
Other evidence emerged Thursday highlighting the sophistication and cruelty of the attacks. Some of the six people killed at the Jewish center in the city had been treated particularly savagely, police said, with bodies bearing what appeared to be strangulation marks and other wounds that did not come from gunshots or grenades.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
More Nation & World headlines...
E-mail article
Print view Share:
Digg
Newsvine
![]()
Service sector shrinks less than expected in June
UPDATE - 04:45 PM
Obama, Medvedev agree to deal to cut nuke weapons
Ousted Honduras leader blocked from return by air
Pakistan attack targets nuclear lab workers
UPDATE - 03:29 PM
Appeals loom in GM plan to sell assets

2009 fireworks time lapse
With strict parking rules enforced at this year's July 4th celebration on Wallingford Ave North, less cars and more spectators filled the streets.
Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech
shopping

events for Monday, Jul. 6th
- IKEA Summer Sale
- Posh on Main Semiannual Sale
- REI Summer Sale and Clearance
- Karan Dannenberg Clothier Progressive...
editors' picks
More shopping guides- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Police: McNair's girlfriend bought gun Thursday
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Mariners Blog | What the Seattle Mariners learned on their road trip
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
- Former NFL MVP McNair killed
- Climber who died in fall was Duvall woman
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
217 - What Mariners learned on this road trip
152 - Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
117 - Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
92 - FBI denounces rumors: Palin not investigated
91 - New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
73 - Bicyclist fatally hit by SUV outside Bremerton
63 - 2 wounded in Central District drive-by shooting
63 - Bellevue ordinance would fine retailers for not collecting runaway shopping carts
62 - Mariners did their part, now they need help
51
- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Researchers stunned by inmates' success raising endangered frogs
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- 250 gather in field near Twisp for fairy congress
- New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
- Microsoft warns of serious computer security hole
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Seattle safety project: A snake shelter on Beacon Hill
