महाराष्ट्र के उपमुख्यमंत्री आर। आर. पाटिल ने रविवार को मुख्यमंत्री विलासराव देशमुख से

महाराष्ट्र के उपमुख्यमंत्री आर। आर. पाटिल ने रविवार को मुख्यमंत्री विलासराव देशमुख से
भेंट की और कहा कि वह अपने पद से इस्तीफा नहीं देंगे। पाटिल ने देशमुख के दक्षिणी मुंबई में मौजूद सरकारी निवास 'वर्षा' में उनसे भेंट करने के बाद कहा कि उनके इस्तीफे की कोई संभावना नहीं है। पाटिल ने बाद में कहा, मैंने सुना है कि मुंबई में हुए आतंकवादी हमले के बाद बीजेपी नेता गोपीनाथ मुंडे ने मेरे इस्तीफे की मांग की है। उन्होंने आगे कहा कि जब अक्षरधाम मंदिर में हमला हुआ तो गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने इस्तीफा नहीं दिया, जब संसद पर हमला हुआ तो तत्कालीन केंद्रीय गृहमंत्री लालकृष्ण आडवाणी ने इस्तीफा नहीं दिया। पाटिल ने सवाल किया, तब मुझे क्यों इस्तीफा दे देना चाहिए। बीजेपी किस नैतिकता की बात कर रही है। उपमुख्यमंत्री ने कहा कि पुलिस बल ने बुधवार की रात से ही आतंकवादियों से संघर्ष किया, उसकी आलोचना नहीं की जानी चाहिए। उन्होंने कहा, पुलिस सात मिनट बाद ही सीएसटी पहुंच गई, जहां दो आतंकवादियों ने गोलीबारी की थी। आतंकवाद के खिलाफ जंग में 14 पुलिस अफसर और कर्मियों ने अपनी जान दे दी। पाटिल ने कहा कि पुलिस को इस संबंध में महत्वपूर्ण जानकारी मिली है कि कितने आतंकवादी मुंबई आए थे, उनकी क्या योजना थी, वे कौन थे और सुनवाई के दौरान इन सब का खुलासा किया जाएगा।


The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel in Mumbai had been warned of a possible terrorist attack and had temporarily beefed up security,

Nothing could have stopped the gunmen, Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group that owns the hotel, said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday from Washington. The iconic Taj was one of two luxury hotels taken over by terrorists on Wednesday night. When the 59-hour siege on Mumbai ended on Saturday, at least 183 people were killed at 10 locations and another 239 were wounded. "It's ironic that we did have such a warning and we did have some (security) measures," Tata said in an interview to Fareed Zakaria to be broadcast on a news channel on Sunday. While Tata wouldn't elaborate on the nature of the warning, he said security measures — such as making guests walk through a metal detector and not allowing cars to park in the hotel's portico — were eased shortly before Wednesday night's mayhem. But even if the security detail was in place, it would not have prevented the terrorists from entering the hotel, Tata admitted. "They knew what they were doing, and they did not go through the front. All of our (security) arrangements are in the front," he said. "They planned everything. I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen." The Taj, which opened in 1903, is India's most famous hotel and also one of its most luxurious. Now, its charred interiors are marred by bullet holes and grenade blasts, its corridors soaked in blood. The attacks revealed huge gaps in the city's law enforcement and crisis management. "The infrastructure was woefully poor," Tata said, citing as examples the fact that it took firefighters three hours to get water to the hotel after a fire broke out, and policemen died despite wearing bullet-proof vests. Tata said that government agencies had been "very complacent because we've really not had this kind of terrorism inflicted upon us". But he also commended the people of Mumbai and hoped they would remain united. "Rather than have us succumb to this kind of terror, what it has done is given us a resolve that nobody can do this to us," he said. "We're indignant, but we're not scared." The Taj staff has pledged to restore the hotel to its former glory. "The general manager lost his whole family in one of the fires in the building," Tata said, referring to Karambir Kang, whose wife and two sons — aged 14 and 5 — were killed. "I went up to him today and told him how sorry I was, and he said, 'Sir, we are going to beat this. We are going to build this Taj back into what it was'


The city crime branch probing the terror attack on Saturday confirmed that only 10 terrorists had entered the city just an hour before the
hostage drama unfolded on November 26. While nine of them were killed in encounter, a 21-year-old was captured alive. Arms and ammunition brought in by the terrorists was enough to kill around 5,000 people, said police. Cops officially put toll at 162, including 18 foreign nationals. The arrested terrorist, Ajmal Mohammed Amir Kasab, resident of Faridkot village in Pakistani Punjab's Ukada district, told investigators all the terrorists had come from Karachi, police said. They had come in a ship and used a boat to come to the shore, said the police. "Four Indians were already on the boat and the terrorists killed three of them while they used one, Amar Narayan, to handle the boat. When the boat was just three nautical miles away from shore, they slit Narayan's throat and dumped his body in the trawler. They then used their own skill to come to shore." "After landing at Fish Market at Cuffe Parade near Colaba, they formed four groups and hired taxis to reach to their destinations. A group of two young terrorists entered Hotel Oberoi, four into Hotel Taj Mahal, two stormed into Nariman House while the rest entered the CST railway station from its mail trains' gate. Their plan was just to cause maximum damage and return with hostages protecting themselves," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police, crime branch. As the hostage drama began at around 9.30pm, Kasab along with his accomplice, Ismail Khan, started random firing at CST railway station while the three other teams had began firing at Oberoi, Taj and Nariman House. Kasab, who sustained a bullet injury in his hand during an encounter with the police near Cama Hospital, was captured near Girgaum Chowpatty while Ismail was gunned down. Police recovered a satphone, a GPS tracker, and Indian currency of Rs 6,200. The satphone contains a dozen international numbers. Kasab, cops said, had come to Mumbai for the first time. Cops are still probing if the same terrorists had planted bombs in two taxis that exploded at Byculla and Vile Parle. The terrorists, said police, wanted to launch an attack which would have international ripples. "They were to return after completing their plan," said Maria. He said they all were trained in the same batch in a terror camp. "We have recovered 10 AK-56 rifles, 10 9mm pistols, two explosive devices of eight kg each etc. Kasab and Ismail had fired at Leopold before coming to CST. They all are highly-trained terrorists but it would be difficult to say which terror group they belonged to. We have also recovered 10 fake ID cards of some Indian colleges from the terrorists," said Maria. He said the terrorists had packed huge quantities of dates, almonds and raisins, which they ate during the three-day gun battle.