2008 Mumbai attacks

The 2008 Mumbai attacks, also known as 26/11, were a series of twelve coordinated Islamic terrorist attacks carried out in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, from 26 to 29 November 2008 by ten members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani Islamic terrorist organisation. 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 Terminus; Trident Hotel, Nariman Point; Taj Mahal Palace Hotel; Leopold Cafe; Cama Hospital; Nariman House; Metro Big Cinemas and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. In addition to the mass shootings, an explosion occurred 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 conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining terrorists; it culminated in the death of the last remaining terrorists at the Taj Hotel and ended the attacks.

Before his execution in 2012, Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving attacker captured by the Mumbai Police stated and confessed that the terrorists were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and were controlled from Pakistan, corroborating initial claims from the Indian Government. Initially denying the claims, Pakistan later confirmed that the sole surviving perpetrator of the attacks was a Pakistani citizen. The subsequent capture and interrogation of David Headley, a Pakistani-American DEA informer, and Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin and a former Pakistan Army Captain, who was Headley's partner, pointed to the involvement of rogue officials of Pakistan Army and ISI in the terrorist attacks, who provided support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Furthermore, Headley was also accused of traveling to Denmark to scout the offices Jyllands-Posten, which had published cartoons of Muhammad, and a nearby synagogue. The capture of Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Hamza in July 2012, an Indian national radicalised by Lashkar-e-Taiba, provided further clarity to the plot.

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 Mir —who had earlier been claimed to be dead by the Pakistan Government— was convicted for funding terrorist activities by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan. Consequently, several masterminds such as LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, were convicted for terror financing in 2021–22, as Pakistan went into an economic crisis after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) threatened the Government of Pakistan to be put in the FATF Blacklist for failure to comply on money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Known as one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Mumbai and across India, the 2008 attacks caused extensive property damage estimated at over $1 billion through fire, grenade attacks, and gunfire; although the human casualties were lower than in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, which were also carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba and killed 209 people while injuring more than 700, the attacks had a significant impact on the city’s infrastructure and security measures. The attacks strained diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, and made a huge impact on law enforcement and security officials to deal with such scenarios in the future. The attacks also caused a major political impact on the then ruling government led by the United Progressive Alliance, as the same year, several other cities suffered from Islamic terrorism, which were also perpetrated by Pakistani terror groups.