US 'warned India over Taj Mahal hotel attack'
Tuesday, 02 Dec 2008 09:29
US 'warned India over hotel attack'
The United States warned India earlier this year that the Taj Mahal Palace hotel was a potential target for a terrorist attack, reports claim.
ABC News quotes an intelligence source in claiming that US agencies warned their Indian counterparts in October of a potential attacks "from the sea against hotels and business centres in Mumbai".
A second source also apparently confirmed that specific locations, including the hotel were given in the warning.
ABC added that in November Indian intelligence intercepted a satellite phone call to a number in
Pakistan known to be used by the leader of the group Lashkar-e-Taiba, thought to be responsible attacks at the weekend which left almost 200 people dead.
The head of the group which owns the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, Ratan Tata, told CNN that they had indeed received a warning that an attack might take place.
"We did have some measures too, you know, where people couldn't park their cars in the portico where you had to go through a metal detector," he said.
"But if I look at what we had, which all of us complained about, it could not have stopped what took place.
"They didn't come through that entrance. They came from somewhere in the back."
Up to 188 people were killed in the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai which saw gunmen attack seven separate sites in the Indian city.