<a href="http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/11/16/2611-ten-gunmen/#more-3925">Jason Motlagh, VQR</a>
Nearly one year after the terror attacks in Mumbai, what really happened during the three-day siege remains mired in confusion. Now, VQR is presenting what may be the clearest account yet of “India’s 9/11.” Over the next few days, it will be publishing a four-part, 19,000-word investigation by Jason Motlagh on its website. VQR editor (and MoJo contributing writer) Ted Genoways says that going long and deep was the only way to get the full story:
The product of multiple trips to Mumbai, interviews with survivors, pages and pages of police records, transcripts of intercepted phone communications between the gunmen and their handlers, video from closed-circuit security cameras, and reports in the Indian media, Jason’s account is a singular journalistic achievement. And no part of the reporting was simple. The gunmen all used aliases, and reports were often conflicting about who was where and when. Some witnesses spoke little or no English, the gunmen conversed only in Urdu, the distress calls from one location (a Jewish center) went out in Hebrew. Witnesses disagreed about timelines and sequences of events. Even police and prosecutors have often seemed confused and overwhelmed as they sort through evidence and present their case at the ongoing trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone gunman to survive the attacks.
Don’t take his word for it—the first installation of the special report, “Ten Gunmen, Ten Minutes” is gripping stuff—and worth setting aside some screen time or printer ink to dive into. Check it out.
