Author | Cathy Scott-Clark, Adrian Levy |
---|---|
Country | United States, India |
Language | English |
Subject | 2008 Mumbai attacks |
Genre | |
Published | Penguin Books in 2013 |
Media type | Print (paperback) |
Pages | 344 (Paperback) |
ISBN | 9780143420101 |
The Siege: The Attack on the Taj is a non-fiction book by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy. [1] It is an account of the 2008 attacks on The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, India, during the night of 26 November 2008. [2] [3] [4] It presents an insider view of the attacks based on extensive research by the authors. The book was first published by Penguin Books in 2013. [5] [6] It includes unreleased documents from the trial of Ajmal Kasab in India, including telephone conversations between the militants. [7] [8]
The book opens with a description of the day-to-day life of the rich and wealthy people of Mumbai. Sabina Sehgal Saikia, a highly regarded food critic working for the Times of India is present. A wedding reception is underway. Less than an hour after start of the party, the attackers bypass security and make their way into the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. They immediately start shooting, and people hide under the dinner tables. [9] The book is considerably more violent than other books in this category. [10] The authors describe the militants as "landlocked boys from impoverished rural communities, who knew only about chickens and goats". [11] The book claims that 26 different warnings had been issued by the R&AW, India's external intelligence agency, saying that the Taj, the Oberoi Trident and the Leopold Cafe might be targeted. [10] The book includes descriptions of how people were ambushed as they tried to escape, and of the days of violence that followed the initial attacks. [9] Interviews with many victims of the attack are included in the book. [7]
The Siege has received mainly positive reviews from critics. Dwight Garner of the New York Times said:
They are not the most gifted writers you will ever come across. I spent the first 50 pages of The Siege tallying clichés, dangling modifiers and awkward phrases. These very quickly stopped—or stopped mattering, I'm not sure which. The story they present steamrolls finicky objections. It's a tragedy and a thriller with concussive human and political resonance. I read it in what felt like three blinks. [12]
Firstpost reviewer Deepanjana Paul wrote:
The Siege is not a book you read for literary flair. It's written with the racing energy of a paperback thriller. There's just one significant difference from that popular genre: The Siege is all verified fact. Levy and Scott-Clark's reportage is outstanding, especially when you keep in mind how difficult it is to convince government departments like the National Security Guard to talk. [13]
The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.
The Gateway of India is an arch-monument built in the early 20th century in the city of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of King-Emperor George V, the first British monarch to visit India, in December 1911 at Strand Road near Wellington Fountain.
The Taj Mahal Palace is a heritage, five-star, luxury hotel in the Colaba area of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, situated next to the Gateway of India. Built in the Indo-Saracenic style, it opened in 1903 as the Taj Mahal Hotel and has historically often been known simply as "The Taj". The hotel is named after the Taj Mahal, which is located in the city of Agra approximately 1,050 kilometres (650 mi) from Mumbai. It has been considered one of the finest hotels in the East since the time of the British Raj. The hotel was one of the main sites targeted in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a terrorist attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi, India on 13 December 2001. The perpetrators belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) - two Pakistan-raised militant organisations. The attack led to the deaths of six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel, and a gardener – in total 9 – and led to increased tensions between India and Pakistan, resulting in the 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff. The five militants were killed outside the parliament.
The 2008 Mumbai 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 the nine attackers, with more than 300 injured.
Attribution of the 2008 Mumbai attacks were first made by the Indian authorities who said that the Mumbai attacks were directed by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants inside Pakistan. American intelligence agencies also agree with this attribution. Pakistan initially contested this attribution, but agreed this was the case on 7 January 2009. To back up its accusations, the Indian government supplied a dossier to Pakistan's high commission in Delhi. The Pakistan government dismissed the dossier as "not evidence," but also announced that it had detained over a hundred members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity linked with Lashkar-e-Taiba. In February 2009, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik agreed that "some part of the conspiracy" did take place in Pakistan.
The Leopold Cafe and Bar is a restaurant and bar on Colaba Causeway, in Colaba area of Mumbai, India, located across from the Colaba Police station. It was the location of one of the 2008 Mumbai attacks as it was one of the first sites attacked.
Sandeep Unnikrishnan, AC was an Indian Army officer, who was serving in the 51 Special Action Group of the National Security Guards on deputation. He was killed in action during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was consequently awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award, on 26 January 2009.
This is a timeline of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Adrian Levy is a journalist and film maker who currently writes for The Guardian.
The Attacks of 26/11 is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Ram Gopal Varma, based on the book Kasab: The Face of 26/11 by Rommel Rodrigues about Ajmal Kasab perpetrator of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The film stars Sanjeev Jaiswal in his film debut, playing the role of terrorist Ajmal Kasab, with art direction by Uday Singh. It also features Nana Patekar in a pivotal role. A seven-minute promo of the film was released over the Internet on 23 November 2012.
Rajvardhan Sinha is an Indian Police Service officer. In 2013 he was serving as additional commissioner economic offences wing, Mumbai. In 2015 he was appointed as the Joint Commissioner of Police of Nagpur, Maharashtra.In 2018 he was appointed as the Joint Commissioner of Police Economic Offences Wing Mumbai and is now presently posted as Special Inspector General of Police Maharashtra
Denzil Leonard Smith is an Indian film and stage actor and producer. Born to Anglo-Indian parents in Mumbai, he is known for his stage and screen roles as a character actor. Smith has acted in over 50 plays and 60 films.
Sabina Sehgal Saikia,, an Indian food journalist, restaurant reviewer, and editor for the Delhi Times in Delhi, India, was known for her column "Main Course." She was a victim of a 2008 Mumbai attacks on The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai.
Taj Mahal is a 2015 French-Belgian thriller drama film written and directed by Nicolas Saada. It was screened in the Horizons section at the 72nd edition of the Venice Film Festival. The story of the film makes explicit reference to the 2008 Mumbai attacks which have concerned The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
Hotel Mumbai is a 2018 action thriller film directed by Anthony Maras and co-written by Maras and John Collee. An Indian-Australian-American co-production, it is inspired by the 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai about the 2008 Mumbai attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India. The film stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Jason Isaacs, Suhail Nayyar, Nagesh Bhosle, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo.
Cathy Scott-Clark is a British journalist and author. She has worked with the Sunday Times and The Guardian. She has co-authored six books with Adrian Levy.
State of Siege: 26/11 is an Indian Hindi-language action thriller web series on ZEE5, directed by Matthew Leutwyler and Prashant Singh and produced by Abhimanyu Singh and Roopali Singh. The series is based on journalist Sandip Unnithan's book Black Tornado: The Three Sieges of Mumbai 26/11 about the military's Operation Black Tornado during the 26/11 terrorist attacks. The series features Arjan Bajwa, Arjun Bijlani, Jyoti Gauba, Vivek Dahiya, Tara Alisha Berry Mukul Dev and Naren Kumar in prominent roles. The series was launched on 20 March 2020 on ZEE5.
Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is an Indian Hindi-language medical drama streaming television series on Amazon Prime Video. The series was created and directed by Nikkhil Advani, along with Nikhil Gonsalves. The filming of the series took place in real locations that were part of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, including Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Gateway of India, and Leopold Café.
The Exile: The Flight of Osama bin Laden is a historical book by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark which was published on May 23, 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing..