Share your thoughts and firsthand accounts of the Mumbai attacks

Gunmen apparently targeting Americans and Britons carried out a series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai late Wednesday and early Thursday that left at least 78 people dead and more than 200 injured.

Witnesses interviewed by Indian and global television networks told of attackers sweeping through two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace (above) and the Oberoi Hilton, and separating American and British tourists from other guests for use as hostages.

Share your thoughts, experiences, and eyewitness accounts here.

Comments

[Call it like it is, for once]

Gee, could it be _Muslims_ behind these attacks? Let's not report anything definite about the culprits until we're 10,000% sure. Indeed let's "wait and see," lest we offend those same ten aggrieved folks and the college professors who support them.

An evil death cult is what it is. Wake up America!

[JR]

MUSLIMS all over the WORLD should be ASHAMED and OUTRAGED (something they never are at terrorsim) at this cowardly act. ENOUGH of ISLAMic fundamentalism. Why don't the Muslims return to the countries in the Middle East where they can practice Wahabism with no human rights for women. Enough with the Muslim double standard. ENOUGH ! SPEAk up MUSLIMS -- no excuses or waffling.

[jay kactuz]

Gunmen? What kind of gunmen? Do they by chance belong to some political party or social group or, hum, let me see, hum, err, maybe some religion?

Who could this be? Who would attack innocent people like this? Take a wild guess!

Kactuz

[Xenu]

Islam is the only religion that constantly has "violence" and "militants" attached to its name. This is fact, not just Republican war machine spin. They kill in the name of God, and they are proud of it. The fact that other Muslims just sit by and do nothing to stop the violence makes them just as guilty. Right now. Today. There are other Muslims out there who know these men personally, where they live, and every detail necessary to stop the violence and bring them to justice. Think about that. Whatever merit Islam may have once had, it's all gone now.

[Jack]

I know who did it. It's not Muslims. It's third world barbaric people, mostly from priviledged classes, who had their dreams crushed by the financial crisis, people who lost millions of dollars. They and the rest of the world blame America and UK for precipitating the crisis. Money is above the law, and these people act as they are above the police. In India, as in much of the 3rd world, a traffic accident is the fault of the poor, not the person making the error. Nowadays, we are blamed and hated with a passion around the world, simply because we air our dirty laundry. So while in USA criticism is good, third world people read our criticisms and use this as a means to justify their hate towards us, they have no knowledge or sympathy for those in US who lost their homes and livelihood. They blindly see USA as one monolithic dominating empire. So be careful what you say and do, what Americans discuss among themselves is being used against our nation.

[enough]

I think it's high time they need to change the world map a little... A nation called Pakistan needs to be erased from it for the very reason that 90% of the attacks world over had their origins in this country... Yes, it's a cliched fact, but a fact. A byproduct of the highly brainwashed (hence, brainless) mentalities, these barbaric acts only intend to spread the 'islam or nothing' principle and therefore should be brutally crushed.. No humanity for these guys for they deserve none.

[Xenu]

It's officially time to downgrade Islam from a "religion" to dangerous cult, and outlaw it altogether.

[Drew]

A reporter on CNN covering the attack from the studio just said that a week before today, security in the area had been lessened, for no particular reason...How convenient.

Now with that said, I find it veeeery Interesting that the Indian chief Intelligence for counter terrorism, was also wacked at the git go. Something is definitely amiss...

[m]

you guys are all idiots. i'm an American of Indian origin working in India, and let me just reassure you: none of you have the perspective to judge this situation.
britons and americans were targeted over other western tourists, but the majority dead are INDIANS. get over your navel gazing and start to see the world for what it is, something shared by all of us that we need to learn to share.
there are ways of dealing with islamic fundamentalists - just ask the young hindus and muslims here in india and they'll give you a bunch of ideas. instead all you white people talk amongst yourself about this evil dark-skinned group called muslims and how to deal with them. why don't you get some knowledge? educate yourselves. all you're doing is furthering the divisions between us and them, making it seem like a bad idea for americans to visit india or do business with the country. this is exactly what fundamentalists want.

[Troy, Santa Monica]

Where is the anger, outrage and protest from the "moderate" Islamic community? Just this week, Taliban thugs in Afghanistan targeted and maimed school girls with a horrific acid attack, a 13 year old rape victim is stoned to death in Somalia, and now Muslim gunmen slaughter innocent civilians in Mumbai... where are the denunciations from Islamic leaders? Why didn't Muslims march in protest of 9/11 or the London train bombings? Why hasn't the "moderate" Islamic community raised it's voice in anger over the events in Mumbai?!?!

Their silence is deafening!

[hmm]

So m, you come on here and spew hatred towards the evil light-skinned group called Americans. Nice job and showing some grand ignorance there. You somehow just assumed everyone posting on here is caucasian, eh? Wow, nice, you sound very intelligent.

[Phaxeal]

i am a muslim but i hate this kind of act. we don't practice this in our country. we respect other religion and their culture so don't blame to all muslim. we love Christians, hindus, jews , buddist etc...

[Mike]

Terrorism is common enemy for world. We must be unite and fight for this. I think US should lead on this and fight with this enemy. I saw some news on indian channel that they have full proof Pakistan's ISI involvment. If it is true then definitely UN must take action on this. I beliver most of the terrorist are muslim only. Now the question is not whether every muslim is terrorist now question has become is every terrorist is Muslim?

[commoner]

There is no reason to point fingers at any general group of peoples.
These terrorists are just violent people, regardless of how they want to justify their actions. Least we Christians get too carried away with some phony sanctimonious thoughts, the reality is that we also have a terrible bloody past. Between the Crusades, the Inquistions, the Salem Witch trials, the Branch Dividian, the Ruby Ridge folks, and the Jones Towners, Christians could easily be criticized. I would say that all of these mentally imbalanced people just use religion as an excuse to do what they want to do.

World leaders need to come together and make sure everyone is trained and has good equiptment and has plenty of support when these situations occur. Not only are precious lives lost, but countries lose their credibility as stable nations, and, who wants to visit or do business where violence is a way of life. If leaders are apart of the problem, then the world community needs to bring them to their knees with sanctions and military force if necessary.

May G-d's Peace be upon all of His people.

[God Bless India]

It is a shame that such incidents keep happening again and again in India. We all Non Resident Indians feel the pain and anguish but feel helpless to do anything..

The Politicians in India and US are both responsible for the rise and continued rise of Islamic Terror. In US because -- they have kept ignoring Pakistan as the breeder of terror and focused attention to Afganistan and Iraq. The Politicans in India are to be blamed because for their vote bank poilitics they keep appeasing the Muslim voters in India and do not enact any tough anti-terror laws.

[AK]

I hope India reacts better than we did in the US (c.f. some of the posters above). Judging from the one comment by an Indian American (m) and the Indians I know, I think India will show maturity of civilization that we lack here in the US. India is one of oldest, if not the oldest, human civilizations. Christians and Muslims are relatively new religions/civilizations, and both have been pretty violent (for the sake of the historically challenged on this site, Nazi Germany was Christian and I'm pretty sure they killed more people this century than Muslims did). I wouldn't mind getting rid of religion in general, but I don't think it's possible to single out one as being more violent than the others. They are all forms of large scale brainwash that can be used to violent ends in the right circumstances. I'd include extreme nationalism and patriotism in with religion as well.

I wish India the best in dealing with this tragedy. It is awesome to hear that many of the shops in the areas affected have already opened up. That kind of defiance reminds me of New Yorkers I've talked to about 9/11, in contrast to much of the rest of our country, which was wetting it's pants, pointing fingers, and rushing to war.

[John]

Muslims vs. Hindus, Muslims vs Jews, Muslims vs Christians, Muslims vs Buddhists, Muslims vs Atheists, Muslims vs Westerners, Muslims vs Easterners, Muslims vs Africans, Muslims vs Europeans, Muslims vs Americans, Muslims vs Indians, do you get the pattern yet?

[TOM KELLY]

I AM AMUSED AND DISGUSTED BY THE AMERICAN MEDIA CLINGING TO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS BY STILL CALLING THE TERRORISTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA AND IN CUSTODY, MACHINE GUNNING PEOPLE, AS "ALLEDGED" GUNMAN. IT KIND OF EXPOSES THE SOFT UNDERBELLY THAT PERSISTS IN OUR LIBERAL COMMUNITY, IN OTHER WORDS, THEY STILL DON'T GET IT.

[Abhay Khajuria]

We must have a strong agency like FBI in India. We are pathetic when it comes to technology, however our politician have loads of money when it comes to election campaigns & their own security. The attitude of our government & police force is like any another government clerk sitting in office and waiting for things to happen on their own. And we as public have become used to of all this. It's high time for a revolution to happen and this is just impossible with out us. Its the time for the public to start putting pressure on government and start asking question on regular basis....

Jai Hind !!!

[drzohebshaikh]

i am a muslim & the people who commited this henious act were not muslims but frustrated youths of a Totaletarian country who were brain washed by a psychopath mulla to fulfill his own political ambitions. as far as muslims voiceingtheir opnions are concerned, the darul-uloom the most conservative islamic religious body had most recently declared terror attacks as unislamic. plz do not blame the entire community for barbarian acts of a minority & i speak for all muslims that we never did, never do, & never will support this " jihadi " terror.

[Moksha P]

I think the a terrorist would measure victory not only by the number of buildings they bring down, not only by the number of lives they take but by the number of intelligent people who start prescribing to the very blind hatred and ignorant prejudice they blame the terrorists for.

[taurus]

a nation with all the facilities and techncal knowledge aspiring to become a super power had no knowledge of these tragic attacks in which human beings died. this is to be condemned at all levels.the murderers have no religion they are murderers of humanity.
surprisingly within qne hour of attack all the indian agencies blamed pakistan and isi, how did they get this information within few hours which they were unable to collect in months , the lone terrorist apprehended was also not arrested by then, from where they were getting the information of sea route ships etc.
it was certainly a very well planned story by congress for the up coming elections.

[Jaap den Haan]

There is this story that Jamshetji Tata, who was refused entrance into an English hotel in the 19th century because he was a native, built the Taj Mahal hotel, and after it was completed, there was a sign at the entrance, a curse, like ''Mad dogs and Englishmen not allowed", in the same style the English hotel forbade "Dogs and Indians". The story further says that the sign was taken away after inquiry from Lord Curzon, the British Viceroy, who ordered the other sign to be taken away as well, from the English hotel. Still, guests have not always behaved.

[Abhay Khajuria]

This is for - "drzohebshaikh" thanks Brother we want ppl like u who can groom the coming generation, otherwise, we all know where our future lies....

Be God with all of us ....

Jai Hind !!!