/ 28 November 2008

SAA flies crew back from Mumbai

SAA is making plans to bring home seven of its crew members who were holed up in Mumbai's Oberoi Hotel this week when it came under attack.

SAA is making plans to bring home seven of its crew members who were holed up in Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel this week when it came under attack.

They were evacuated earlier and had been met by airline staff and a South African diplomat.

”SAA will now ensure that the crew members are transported from Mumbai back to South Africa as soon as possible,” SAA said in an update.

Earlier on Friday, SAA brought home 141 passengers, including five of 12 stranded crew members.

The flight landed in Mumbai at 11.30pm Mumbai time on Thursday and the aircraft returned immediately with the passengers, landing before 7am on Friday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said she had spoken to them on Thursday evening to ”convey the thoughts and prayers” of President Kgalema Motlanthe, the government and people of South Africa.

”The crew indicated that despite their ordeal they remain in good health and expressed their gratitude to Dlamini-Zuma for the support they have so far received from the diplomatic corps and consular officials in Mumbai,” he said.

Meanwhile, the last guests were being evacuated room by room on Friday as the end of a siege appeared imminent, while commandos stormed a nearby Jewish centre where Israeli hostages were held.

Well-dressed guests, some dragging their suitcases, emerged from the Trident-Oberoi hotel and were escorted into waiting buses and cars. One man held a baby in his arms.

Police said 93 guests had been evacuated so far.

”They are evacuating everyone,” said one Indian woman leaving the hotel with her husband. ”Everyone is being taken care of.”

Army Commander Lieutenant-General N Thamburaj said at least one militant may still be holding two hostages in the luxury Taj Mahal Hotel, 36 hours after the brazen, coordinated attacks in the city that police said killed at least 121 people.

He told reporters that almost all guests and staff had been evacuated from the Taj and the operation would be wrapped up there in a few hours.

Gunfire was still being heard at the hotel and the Jewish centre, where hours earlier Indian commandos, their faces covered by balaclavas, rappeled from helicopters on to the roof to flush out another group of militants there.

At the centre, in a crowded part of the city, a Reuters witness said troops fired inside to provide cover as commandos made at least three sorties and took up positions on the roof.

Mumbai, a city of 18-million, is the nerve-centre of India’s growing economic might and home to the Bollywood film industry.

Hindu-dominated India, which has a sizeable Muslim minority, has been hit by militant attacks for decades. But this strike seemed aimed at crippling its ability to draw foreign investment.

Australia upgraded its travel warning for India on Friday, telling its nationals to reconsider any plans to go there ”because of the very high risk of terrorist activity”.

India’s markets closed on Thursday. The main stock exchange reopened on Friday, initially falling but soon recovering most of its losses.

Pinning blame
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pinned blame for the attacks on militant groups based in India’s neighbours, usually an allusion to Pakistan, raising prospects of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.

He warned of ”a cost” if these nations did not take action to stop their territory being used to launch such attacks.

An estimated 25 men armed with assault rifles and grenades — at least some of whom arrived by sea — had fanned out across Mumbai on Wednesday night to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including the city’s top two luxury hotels.

Police said at least seven attackers were killed and nine suspects taken into custody. Twelve policemen were killed, including the chief of Mumbai’s anti-terrorist squad.

At least eight foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, a Canadian, an Italian and a Japanese national, were killed. Scores of others had been trapped in the fighting or held hostage. Police said 279 people were wounded.

Pakistan group
The Hindu newspaper said at least three of the attackers taken into custody were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, based in Pakistan.

The group made its name fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and has been closely linked in the past to the Pakistani military’s Inter Services Intelligence agency, the ISI.

Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied any role in the attacks.

”It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country,” Singh said on Thursday.

”We will take up strongly with our neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them,” he said in a televised address.

Pakistan, condemning the assault, promised full cooperation.

The militants appeared to specifically target Britons, Americans and Israelis, witnesses said. About 10 Israelis were being held in several different sites, authorities have said.

The attacks brought the biggest chaos to the city since serial bombings in 1993, blamed on the city’s Muslim crime syndicates, killed 260 people and injured hundreds. – Reuters, Sapa