AN Indian 9/11 - that was the mission of the Mumbai attacks.

Details of the well-planned terrorist siege were revealed by Indian officials interrogating the sole surviving terrorist, Azam Amir Kasav, in a report on Indian TV station Times Now.

Azam, a soft-spoken 21-year-old from the Faridkot region of Pakistan, claimed to be a member of Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He described how he and 39 other fellow 'jihadis' were behind the coordinated attacks, but only named eight of them, saying they were Pakistanis.

A defence official present at Azam's interrogation told Times Now: 'The entire idea was to replicate the JW Marriott at the Taj.'

In September, at least 55 people were killed when a lorry packed with explosives all but destroyed the five-star hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan.

He added: 'They wanted to reduce the symbols of economic strength to rubble, the Taj and the Trident, so they cannot be rebuilt. They talked of a 9/11 to bring down the buildings.'

1. TRAINING:	2. SURVEILLANCE:	3. HIJACKING:
Months before the attacks, Azam and eight other operatives pose as students. They rent a room in Mumbai's Coloba market. All of them have received special training under terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba called Daura-e-Shifa, which converts a routine terror strike into a specialised commando raid.	A few weeks before the attacks, they book rooms at the two luxury hotels - the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident. They take pictures and film all their targets. Some explosives are slowly brought into the hotels.	On 21 Nov, they travel by boat from Karachi to Porbandar, a coastal city north of Mumbai. There, they meet with a large Pakistani vessel to pick up ammunition. They then hijack an Indian fishing trawler, the Kuber, and use it to sail to Mumbai waters.
4. LANDING:	5. SPLITTING UP:	6. FAKING:
Upon reaching Mumbai on Wednesday night, they kill the Indian crew and use speedboats to reach the mainland. Once ashore, a resident spots them jumping out of the boats in twos, each carrying two haversacks.	They split into four groups, heading off to different destinations, including the Taj, the Oberoi and the Chabad House, where several Jewish families live. To get there, they hijack cars, including a Skoda and a police van, or board taxis.	As police swarm the station, Azam pretends to be dead. But as the bodies are being brought into Nair Hospital, an alert policeman notices that Azam is still breathing. He sounds an alert and the casualty ward is evacuated. Azam is tight-lipped at first when officers interrogate him. But when he sees his dead friend's body, he pleads to medical staff to treat his wounds: 'I do not want to die. Please put me on saline.'
7. ATTACK:
Azam's group heads to Cafe Leopold and opens fire at passers-by. The group then heads to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, firing indiscriminately and lobbing grenades. Azam is believed to have fatally shot anti-terrorism police chief Hemant Karkare. One of Azam's comrades is killed, whereas Azam's hand is injured.		Graphics: TNP

This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 30, 2008.