India blasts, hostage situation, kill, injure hundreds

Dear Friend and Reader:

We are tracking the ongoing terrorist attack in India that has so far killed 87 people and injured hundreds. Westerners were targeted and two hotels are under a hostage siege in Mumbai (previously called Bombay), the commercial capital. Here is live feed to NDTV video if you want to follow the story as it develops. CNN is reporting that Mumbai is under martial law. The Army was called in to assist local police.

Terrorists struck at 10 separate locations and focused on taking Brits and Americans as hostages. To the best of our research, the attacks began at 9:30 pm local time Wednesday night.

Hemant Karkare, India’s anti-terrorism chief, was shot dead in one of the attacks. The 54-year-old, said to be known for his fair investigations, died in a shootout with terrorists at the Taj hotel. He was probing the earlier Malegaon blasts case, and was hit by three bullets in his chest. It seems that his assassination was clearly part of the terrorists’ plan.

The attack comes in the final hours of Pluto in Sagittarius, as if religious extremists were taking a last opportunity to use the energy of this 14-year transit. It also occurred one day before a powerful New Moon, which using Vedic astrology is taking place in Scorpio.

The Western charts for the event involve an extraordinary alignment between the time the shooting began at 9:30 pm local time, India’s independence chart and the progressions to India’s independence chart.

The chart for the time that shooting commenced puts Eris directly on the midheaven — the top of the chart, emphasizing the most violent attributes of this planet, which was named in 2006. The progressed Sun within India’s chart is precisely opposite this point. It seems inevitable that this will throw the Indian government and to some extent the nation of a billion people into turmoil, as well as distract the attention of the U.S. media from the economic bailout that was estimated by today’s New York Times at a staggering seven trillion dollars. Continuing news reports of another hostage situation at another location that involves several Jewish and Israel nationals. This is clearly a well master minded attack, not just on a country but a statement against the world.

News reports from India say that little known outfit “Deccan Mujahideen” claimed responsibility for the attacks. Pakistan’s foreign ambassador has proposed a hotline to the Indian intelligence agencies with Pakstani intelligence forces, which could be an unprecedented breakthrough for the highly fragile relations between the countries.

However, in looking for an answer as to who would organize such an attack, an obvious suspect is Dawood Ibraham, an underworld czar, the most wanted criminal in India, also responsible for the bomb blasts that occurred in Mumbai in 1993; he is believed by many to live in Pakistan now, though the government of that country does not support this claim. An attack on this scale, wiping out India’s highest anti-terrorism official, would need immense planning, financing and inside intelligence.

How, for example, was Karkare caught in the line of fire, unless someone knew he would be there?
We are developing this story live. Check back Thursday as we add details.

– Eric Francis & Priya Kale