STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's Morning Edition from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Two news reports from the same source offer a sense of the tangled situation in Mumbai. Earlier today, an Indian general said the giant Taj Mahal Hotel was totally flushed out of the militants who attacked it. A short time later, according to the newspaper The Hindu, a massive explosion and gunfire were heard just outside that same hotel. This is still a story in progress. Numerous buildings were attacked, and gunfire has stretched into a third day. In a moment, we'll ask where the evidence may lead investigators. First, we'll get a sense of what the attacks mean for Mumbai. Kalpana Sharma is an independent journalist in Mumbai. Welcome to the program.
M: Hello, yes.
INSKEEP: What have you seen today?
M: The latest that we have heard is that there is still one gunman inside the Taj Mahal Hotel. And every half an hour or so, you'll hear an explosion, and there is an exchange of gunfire. But the Trident and the Oberoi, which are two hotels next to each other, have been cleared.
INSKEEP: And how has it affected the city to have military operations on the streets now for a third day?
M: You know, the military operations are really restricted to one small district at the southern tip of Bombay. I think a lot of people outside India don't understand that Bombay is a very big city and in fact, offices are working, the stock exchange was working today. So just again in the southern tip of Bombay, there has been a little bit of panic and people have shut down. But at the same time, this kind of attack has been really chilling. And in fact, right now the cable networks in, again, in the southern part of the city, have been switched off.
INSKEEP: Excuse me. The authorities have shut off the cable TV networks so that people aren't getting the latest news, which might be inaccurate - that's the fear?
M: Yeah, in the southern part of the city. They just switched them off.
INSKEEP: Kalpana Sharma, I understand that you had been reporting on some of the victims of this attack, in particular, a man who was a state anti-terrorism chief. Who was he?
M: So this was a new development, which had only taken place as of the last two or three months. And he was under attack from a lot of the Hindu right-wing politicians. In fact, just the night this happened, I was told by a senior policeman that he was really upset, that he was being attacked and questioned about his integrity. And just that night he got killed. I mean, it really is one of those strange things that - here is a man who is attacked from both sides. He was on the hit list of the Mujahideen groups, and he was also being criticized by the Hindu right-wing groups. And he gets shot three times in the chest.
INSKEEP: And, of course, you're referring to the division between some Hindus and Muslims in India. If he's the chief of the anti-terrorism squad and he was shot three times in the chest, I wonder if that suggests something of how he led. He did not send men into a building, it sounds like he went himself.
M: Yeah, yeah. He was exactly that type of person. He led the whole group. The television was showing him getting ready to go into one of the hospitals, which is located between the train station, where these gunmen first opened fire and a big clock in, where there's a cinema hall. And apparently, one of these gunmen came and just indiscriminately sprayed bullets. And Mr. Karkare was in his car, and he was shot as a result of this. And two other very senior policemen have also died. So, altogether so far 14 policemen have been killed over the last 40 hours in the city.
INSKEEP: Kalpana Sharma is an independent journalist in Mumbai. Thanks very much for your insights.
M: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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