Back to Search ResultsIncident Summary:
11/26/2008: On Wednesday evening at about 2150 , two assailants threw a grenade inside the landmark Leopold Café and opened fire with a rifle. At least 7 people were killed in the attack on the café. Farhang Jehani and his brother, whose family have owned Cafe Leopold for decades, were both watching a cricket match on a TV in the upstairs bar when the gunmen lobbed the grenade inside. This is one of eight coordinated attacks occurring at various locations in Mumbai that killed a total of 171 people and wounded 250 over the course of three days. Deccan Mujahedeen, a previously unknown group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The claim has not been confirmed. Officials suspected Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) were responsible for the attack, although a spokesman for the LeT denied its involvement. Ajmal Kasab, an assailant captured on 11/26/2008, told authorities that the attack was a plan devised six months prior that hoped to kill 5,000 people, targeting whites who were preferably Americans or British. According to Kasab, the assailants posed as students during a visit to Mumbai during the previous month to familiarize themselves with the city’s roads and to film the “strike locations”. Kasab confessed to being a member of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), belonging to the LeT’s Fidayeen (suicide squad). He also identified the masterminds of the attack, who were detained after a raid on an LeT camp on 12/07/2008 and formally indicted on 05/12/2009 for their involvement in the attacks. In May 2010, Kasab was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the attacks.Overview
GTD ID:
200811260009
When:
2008-11-26
Country:
India
Region:
South Asia
Province/administrative
region/u.s. state:
Maharashtra
City:
Mumbai
Location Details:
The attack took place at the Leopold Café in Mumbai.
What
| Target Type: Business | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name of Entity | Leopold Café | ||
| Specific Description | The Leopold Café | ||
| Nationality of Target | Israel | ||
| Hostages | No |
| Ransom | No |
| Property Damage | Unknown |
| Extent of Property Damage | Unknown |
| Value of Property Damage | Unknown |
How
| Type | Sub-type |
|---|---|
| Explosives | Grenade |
| Firearms | Automatic Weapon |
| Weapon Details | |
| Grenades were used in the attack. AK-47s were used in the attack. | |
| Suicide Attack? | Yes |
| Part of Multiple Incident? | Yes |
| Criterion 1 (more) | Yes |
| Criterion 2 (more) | Yes |
| Criterion 3 (more) | Yes |
| Doubt Terrorism Proper (more) | No |
| Additional Information | This was one of eight related attacks (Event IDs 200811130010, 200811260001, 200811260002, 200811260005, 200811260003, 200811260006 and 200811260010). A leading commander of the LeT group, admitted he advised the terrorists by telephone as the attack unfolded. Controllers in Pakistan watched live television and warned the gunmen of the arrival of Indian commandos, according to evidence amassed by the FBI and handed over to the Pakistani government. The American agency had decoded Skype calls over the internet that were made between the gunmen in the two five-star hotels and a Jewish hostel in Mumbai with their Lashkar controllers in Pakistan. Talking in colloquial Punjabi, the controllers repeatedly told the attackers to “Aag lagao” (“Light the fire”), which has been interpreted in India as a way of maximizing casualties. During the conversation, the men were also instructed to kill all the Israelis who were held captive in the Jewish hostel, but to spare all the Muslims. He confirmed that the 10 assailants were trained in Pakistani Kashmir and then travelled by boat from Karachi to Mumbai. The available sources listed the injuries for these attacks cumulatively as 250, so these figures have been distributed evenly for the incident in which no specific casualty information was given in order to preserve statistical accuracy in the database. |
Who
| Group Name | Group Sub-name | Claimed Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Deccan Mujahideen | No | |
| Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) | Fidayeen | Unknown |
| Number of Perpetrators | 2 |
| Number of Captured Perpetrators | 0 |
| Total Number of Casualties | 9 Fatalities / 76 Injured |
| Total Number of Fatalities | 9 |
| Number of U.S. Fatalities | 0 |
| Number of Perpetrator Fatalities | 2 |
| Total Number of Injured | 76 |
| Number of U.S. Injured | 0 |
| Number of Perpetrators Injured | 0 |
Sources
| Press Trust of India, "Ismail Killed tTree Cops at Cama: Ajmal," Press Trust of India, November 12, 2008. |
| New York Times, "At Least 100 Dead in India Terror Attacks," November 26, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/world/asia/27mumbai.html?scp=30&sq=mumbai&st=cse |
| BBC Worlwide Monitoring, "How Mumbai Attacks Unfolded" BBC Worldwide Monitoring, November 2, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7757500.stm. |
Copyright © 2009-2022 University of Maryland
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
An Emeritus Center of Excellence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Data and Privacy | End User Agreement | Contact
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
An Emeritus Center of Excellence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Data and Privacy | End User Agreement | Contact