More on this story. “Transcript: Mumbai gunmen were commanded by phone,” from the Associated Press, January 7:
“We have three foreigners, including women,” the gunman said into the phone. The response was brutally simple: “Kill them.” Gunshots then rang out inside the Mumbai hotel, followed by cheering that could be heard over the phone.
The ruthless exchange comes from a transcript of phone calls Indian authorities say they intercepted during the November Mumbai attacks. They were part of a dossier of evidence New Delhi handed Pakistan this week that it says definitively proves that the siege was launched from across the border.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that he did not believe the gunmen were acting alone, and Pakistani state agencies must have had a hand in the attacks.
The dossier made no mention of any Pakistani officials or agencies.
Indian leaders have made clear they do not want a military conflict with Pakistan, and Pakistan’s intelligence chief said there will be no war over the Mumbai attacks. […]
“We may be crazy in Pakistan, but not completely out of our minds,” Pakistan’s intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, told German news magazine Der Spiegel. “We know full well that terror is our enemy, not India.”
The Mumbai transcripts, which were obtained by the newspaper The Hindu, show that the 10 gunmen who carried out the attacks were in close contact with their handlers throughout the siege. India says the handlers directing the attacks that left 164 dead were senior leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group.
“There are three ministers and one secretary of the cabinet in your hotel. We don’t know in which room,” the handler told a gunman inside the Taj Mahal hotel at 3:10 am on the first night of the attack.
“Oh! That is good news. It is the icing on the cake!” the gunman said.
Shoot Jews, save Muslims
The handlers told another team of gunmen who had seized a Jewish center to shoot hostages if necessary.
“If you are still threatened, then don’t saddle yourself with the burden of the hostages. Immediately kill them,” he said.
He then added, “If the hostages are killed, it will spoil relations between India and Israel.”
“So be it, God willing,” the gunman replied.
Six Jewish foreigners, including a rabbi and his wife, were killed inside the Jewish center.
Later in the night, nearly 24 hours after the attacks began, the handlers urged the gunmen to “be strong in the name of Allah”
“Brother, you have to fight. This is a matter of prestige of Islam,” the handler said. “You may feel tired or sleepy, but the commandos of Islam have left everything behind, their mothers, their fathers.”
The gunmen were told several times not to kill any Muslim hostages. […]
But as for the unbelievers:
“Keep your phone switched on,” a handler said in the midst of the siege, “so that we can hear the gunfire.”
More excerpts: “‘Aag lagao,’ LeT told Mumbai killers,” from the Times of India, January 2 (thanks to Infidel Pride for the translations):
[…] According to sources, details of Voice over Internet Protocol calls between the jihadis holed up in the Taj and Trident hotels and Nariman House and their Lashkar bosses in Pakistan provide a chilling account of the remorseless efficiency with which the massacre of innocents was choreographed.
Conversations between the terrorists and top Lashkar leaders, identified as Zarar Shah, Abu Hamza and Abu Qafa, is now a crucial part of the clinching evidence of Mumbai attacks being a handiwork of the ISI-backed Pakistani terror tanzim.
Though the Lashkar leaders used VoIP to mask their identity and the origin of calls, cooperation from foreign agencies, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, helped Indian investigators access the call details. […]
Terrorists were repeatedly exhorted to start fires. “Aag lagao, aag lagao” [“Set (it) on fire”] is the instruction that the terrorists were repeatedly given at all the three sites of attack from their bosses who, obviously, intended to maximise casualties.
The Pakistan-based leaders told their wards at Nariman House to kill the Israelis. The terrorists were also asked to spare Muslims in the two hotels — a directive which conflicted with the task of indiscriminate firing assigned to Mohammad Ajmal Kasab and Ismail at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Cama Hospital and other places that led to the death of 39 Muslims. […]
The banter gave way to some seriousness after the arrival of commandos. “Fauj aa rahi hai, cover lo” [Troops are coming, take cover]. But there was no display of panic, with the Lashkar commanders, confident that flushing out the terrorists was not going to be easy for the NSG jawans, asking them to eat khajoor, not to get tired and take turns to sleep. “Thakna nahin hai” [Don’t get tired], was one of the instructions as the LeT leaders were clearly aware that the fidayeen squad was ready to die fighting. […]
One of the bosses did not seem perturbed or even concerned when told by a terrorist that he had been badly injured. “Aakhiri waqt aa gaya hai, namaaz ada karo” [The last moments have arrived, recite the namaaz], said the composed voice at the other end, according to sources. Invoking jihadi logic, the handler asked the wounded terrorist — “do you have a message to give”?