Major Iqbal

There had been many terrorist attacks in Mumbai since the 13 coordinated bomb explosions that killed 257 people and injured 700 on 12 March 1993.

The 1993 attacks were carried out in revenge for the earlier Bombay riots, in which a large number of Muslims were killed.

On 6 December 2002, a blast in a BEST bus near Ghatkopar station killed two people and injured 28.

A bicycle bomb exploded near the Vile Parle station in Mumbai, killing one person and injuring 25 on 27 January 2003, a day before the visit of the Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the city.

On 13 March 2003, a day after the 10th anniversary of the 1993 Bombay bombings, a bomb exploded in a train compartment near the Mulund station, killing 10 people and injuring 70.

On 28 July 2003, a blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar killed 4 people and injured 32.

On 25 August 2003, two bombs exploded in South Mumbai, one near the Gateway of India and the other at Zaveri Bazaar in Kalbadevi.

At least 44 people were killed and 150 injured.

On 11 July 2006, seven bombs exploded within 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, killing 209 people, including 22 foreigners and more than 700 injured.

According to the Mumbai Police, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

A group of men sometimes stated as 24 and at other times 26, received training in marine warfare at a remote camp in mountainous Muzaffarabad in Pakistan.

Part of the training was reported to have taken place on the Mangla Dam reservoir in Pakistan.

The recruits went through the following stages of training, according to Indian and US media reports:

From the recruits, ten were handpicked for the Mumbai mission.

They also received training in swimming and sailing, besides the use of high-end weapons and explosives under the supervision of LeT commanders.

According to a media report citing an unnamed former Defence Department Official of the US, the intelligence agencies of the US had determined that former officers from Pakistan's Army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency assisted actively and continuously in training.

They were given blueprints of all the four targets – The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Oberoi Trident, Nariman House, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

The terrorists first hijacked an Indian fishing boat and killed 5 who were on board.

The first events were detailed around 20:00 Indian Standard Time (IST) on 26 November, when 10 men in inflatable speedboats came ashore at two locations in Colaba.

They reportedly told local Marathi-speaking fishermen who asked them who they were to "mind their own business" before they split up and went in two different ways.

The fishermen's subsequent report to the police department received little response and local police failed to act.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) was attacked by two gunmen, Ismail Khan and Ajmal Kasab.

Kasab was later caught alive by the police and identified by eyewitnesses.

The attacks began around 21:30 when the two men entered the passenger hall and opened fire using AK-47 assault rifles.

The attackers killed 58 people and injured 104 others, their assault ending at about 22:45.

Security forces and emergency services arrived shortly afterwards.

Announcements by a railway announcer, Vishnu Dattaram Zende, alerted passengers to leave the station and saved many lives.

The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11 attacks) were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant Islamist organisation from Pakistan, carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.

The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday 26 November and lasted until Saturday 29 November 2008.

A total of 175 people died, including nine of the attackers, with more than 300 injured.

Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Palace & Tower, the Leopold Cafe, the Cama Hospital, the Nariman House, the Metro Cinema, and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College.

There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle.

By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj Hotel had been secured by the Mumbai Police and security forces.

On 29 November, India's National Security Guards (NSG) conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining attackers; it culminated in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Taj Hotel and ended the attacks.

The bombing occurred on the 10th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

Before his execution in 2012, Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving attacker, disclosed that the attackers were members of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and were controlled from Pakistan, corroborating initial claims from the Indian Government.

Pakistan later confirmed that the sole surviving perpetrator of the attacks was a Pakistani citizen.

On 9 April 2015, the foremost ringleader of the attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was released on bail and disappeared; he was arrested again in Lahore on 2 January 2021.

In 2018, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif questioned the Pakistani government's allowance of those who committed the attacks to cross into India.

In 2022, one of the masterminds of the attack, Sajid Majeed Mir —who had been earlier claimed to be dead by the Pakistan Government— was convicted for funding terrorist activities by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan.