183 people, including 22 foreigners, killed in Mumbai terror

New Delhi, Nov 29 (UNI) As many as 183 people, including 22 foreigners and 20 policemen, have lost their lives and 282 wounded even as the the worst ever terror attacks in India have been successfully repulsed by liquidating all terrorists and capturing one.

''Operation Black Tornado, which began on November 27, has been successfully completed. All operations in Mumbai by the NSG at all the three places -- Hotel Taj, Hotel Oberoi and Nariman House -- are completed and they are being sanitised,'' said M L Kumawat, Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Home Ministry today.

He said that bodies of nine terrorists have been recovered, while one has been captured alive. He said that the security agencies have enough evidence that the captured terrorist was a Pakistani national and his interrogation was on. However, he refused to give details about the information gathered from interrogation of the terrorist.

A lot of arms and ammunition, including two AK 47 rifles, two pistols, nine magazines of AK 47 Rifles, mobile phones has been recovered from Nariman House, while from Hotel Oberoi-Trident two AK 47 Rifles, two pistols and hand grenades have been recoverded.

In Taj Hotel, recovery process was still on, he said.

Among the foreigners killed, three each were from Isreal and Germany, two from Canada, one each from the US, UK, Japan, Australia, Italy, China, Thailand, Mauritius and Singapore, while nationalities of five were not yet known. Twenty-three foreigners have also been injured in the terror attacks.

Among the 20 policemen killed, 14 were from Maharashtra, two each from NSG and Home Guards, one each from State Armed Police and RPF.

As many as 141 civilians have also been killed in the terror attacks.

Lauding the NSG for doing a tremendous job in flushing out and liquidating terrorists, Mr Kumawat said that the NSG was incharge of the 'Operation Black Tornado', while the Army, the Navy commandos and the state police provided ground-level support.

Denying that there was any delay in movement of NSG commandos, he said that it took a few hours in bringing them from Manesar to Delhi and airlifting them to Mumbai and from there to the spot of operation.

However, in future, to avoid any delays, so that the crucial 'Golden Hour' of any terror attacks was not lost, the Centre has decided to raise the NSG type forces in bigger states and metropolis soon. These state forces would swing into action immediately after the terror attacks and would take care for the first three-four hours afte which NSG commando would take over, he said.

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