Terror, Tragedy, Truth ANTHONY MARAS’ HOTEL MUMBAI
I was due to arrive at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India, at 6pm on 26 November 2008. I am able to remember the exact date more than a decade later because, on the very same day, the city was wracked by coordinated terrorist actions that escalated into a three-day siege. A few months earlier, the effects of the global financial crisis had culminated in widespread economic instability on both macro and micro levels, with unemployment at an all-time high. Rattled by these troubling developments and concerned about my own precarious employment situation, I made the decision to cancel my flight and instead remain in London. I can distinctly recall the special BBC announcement that fateful Wednesday, interrupting the broadcast to report on the attacks: around 9.30pm, two men armed with AK-47 rifles had opened fire in the passenger hall of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, killing fifty-eight people and injuring another 104. The incident at the station was the first of twelve carried out by ten men from the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba: one of the largest Islamic terrorist organisations in South Asia, estimated to have several thousand members. Over the course of four days, approximately 174 people were killed (including nine of the
