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26 questions on 26/11 that were never answered
A Ganesh Nadar on the enduring mysteries swirling around the 26/11 attacks five years later.
1. Most Colaba residents did not know there was a Chabad House, a Jewish centre, in the area. How did two terrorists know exactly where to go, even if David Headley provided maps and instructions? It is not the easiest place to locate in Colaba's bylanes.
2. Can ammunition in a haversack last 68 hours, as it did at the Taj?
3. The 10 terrorists took cabs to the Taj, Leopold, the Oberoi, Chabad House and CST, but only two cabs exploded. What about the other three cabs? Have the police questioned the drivers of the other cabs?
4. Someone called the Colaba police station to report that ten men had got off a boat and were walking ashore. Who answered that call at the police station?
5. The police knew the duo (Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail) which shot up CST were in Cama Hospital and also when they left Cama Hospital. Why were Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and the others not warned that the terrorists were on the road?
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26 questions on 26/11 that were never answered
7. There were initial reports of a woman in a burkha who walked with the terrorists on the way to Chabad House. Did such a woman exist?
8. The route from Machimaar Nagar, where the terrorists landed, to Chabad House is one few Colaba residents would know. How did the terrorists know?
9.When the police knew the terrorists were talking to their handlers in Pakistan, why were phone jammers not used to stop the calls?
10. Why did the police not maintain records of guests leaving the Taj? How did they know if the terrorists's accomplices were not among them?
11. Why were the television channels not told to back off till the operation ended?
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26 questions on 26/11 that were never answered
11. The NSG commandos could have taken the first commercial flight leaving for Mumbai and reached the city quickly. Why did they wait so long for a special flight?
12. Why were NSG commandos taken to the three sites in BEST buses, braving the Mumbai traffic? Why were helicopters not used to fly them to South Mumbai from the airport?
13. What did the Marcos, the naval commandos, achieve at the Taj on November 27, 2008? Why have no accounts of their operations been revealed?
14. On the first night, why were security personnel not dropped on the roof of the Taj when the terrorists were on the lower floors?
15. Is it true that ammunition was stored in some rooms at the Taj, which the terrorists later had access to?
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26 questions on 26/11 that were never answered
16. Even accounting for David Headley's information about the Taj, how did the terrorists know the room where the close circuit cameras were being monitored? They set it on fire so that the police would not know where they were.
17.The toilet at the CST where Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail unpacked their weapons is not the most well-known location even to locals. How did the killers know how to make their way there?
18. A lady injured at the Leopold cafe insisted that she has seen one of the terrorists in Colaba two nights earlier. Was this claim ever verified?
19. David Headley and Tawahhur Rana set up a recruitment centre in Tardeo, central Mumbai. How did the two foreigners set up a business so easily in Mumbai where there are multiple licenses to be obtained?
20. Why did the immigration agents at Mumbai's Sahar airport not smell a rat when David Headley came in and out of the city so many times? Were they fooled by his Caucasian looks?
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26 questions on 26/11 that were never answered
21. Why did the Mumbai police's chain of command disintegrate on 26/11? Was then police commissioner Hasan Ghafoor the only officer responsible for poor leadership, as some have alleged?
22.If there were three terrorists at the Leopold that night, where was the fourth terrorist waiting? Was he already in the Taj?
23.The bodies of many victims at the Taj were said to be brutalised. Do we know how it happened, considering the terrorists were fending off a determined group of brave Mumbai police officers??
24. How did Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail know the roads of south Mumbai? Where were they headed in the stolen Skoda? Were they headed to Raj Bhavan or the chief minister's home?
25.Why did the Taj management ignore Deputy Commissioner Vishwas Nangre-Patil's warnings of an attack and insistence on greater security at the hotel?
26. Who were the 10 chuhas (mice) who are said to have helped the terrorists? Did they work for Dawood Ibrahim?