60 Hours: First signs of the war on Mumbai

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November 26, 2008 | 9.30 pm, Colaba

The Maximum City was wrapping up a busy Wednesday. Team India was all set to beat England in a One-Day match. So Mumbaikars had a lot to cheer about. And as usual, South Mumbai's best known watering hole and tourist hotspot, Leopold Café, was bustling with life when at 9.40 pm two men got off a taxi.

“First the men were talking on the phone then at 9:40 pm they suddenly came in and threw grenades. One landed exploded and the other didn't explode,” Manager of Leopold Cafe Eric Anthony said.

The grenade blasts were followed by indiscriminate but lethal machine gun fire. Chand Pasha, a waiter in Leopold, speaks about how everyone initially thought it was gang war but soon “everyone began running in different directions. Even then no one thought that they were terrorists.”

Another waiter Prashant Tambe remembers how after the firing started, the customer on his table was shot in the chest. “Another customer was shot in the leg and a few seconds later I was shot in the hand and the tray flew out of my hands.”

The attackers were Abu Shoaib and Abu Umer. The attack on Leopold Café, their first deadly halt, was a success.

November 26, 2008 | 9.50 pm, CST Railway Station

Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus is Mumbai's busiest station. Rush hour here doesn't end till 10 pm. On the local side, thousands head home after work. On the main line, the Central Hall is crowded round the clock as passengers wait for their long distance trains.

At around 9.50 pm, Ajmal Kasab and Ismail Khan reached CST in a taxi. They got off and left an eight-kilogram RDX-laden bomb under the driver's seat.

Both entered a lavatory at CST Main and planted an IED there. As they approached the main hall, they threw a grenade.

CST Main Line Announcer Bablu Kumar Deepak recalled, “At 9:50 pm the Husain Sagar Express had left and at 9:54 pm the Indrayani Express had come from Pune to platform Number 13. I was announcing the arrival when suddenly I heard a blast. I turned and saw a lot of black smoke coming from near the platform.”

Kasab and Ismail then opened fire at the mass of people in the main hall.

“One man was firing along platforms 13, 12, 10 and nine. He was firing towards the main hall and not the platform,” Assistant Chief Ticket Inspector AK Tiwari said.

Innocent men, women and children claimed by the hail of bullets fell like cannon fodder.

“There was more crowd because a Patna train had been cancelled and the other train crowd was there too. Most people died in their sleep. They shot mercilessly, they killed in cold blood. They didn't even spare a dog. At the women's lavatory they shot a woman through her head,” Manager at Re-Fresh Food Plaza in CST Main Line Fongen Fernandes said.

Security personnel at the station were caught off guard. Inspector Shashank Shinde and his colleagues fought with courage but their antique 303 rifles were no match for the terrorists' AK 47s. By then Kasab and Ismail had killed 52 innocents in cold blood.

“There was no fear on the terrorists' faces. They were leisurely sitting down, removing a magazine from their bag and loading it,” Deputy Station Manager Sanjay Kumar Pandey said.

Railway announcers risked their lives to warn passengers away from the Main Hall, also ensuring the Suburban Line platforms were empty.

At 10:35 pm, Kasab and Ismail used a pedestrian bridge to move out, still firing they entered a bylane adjoining the Times of India building and the Anjuman Islam School and entered the adjoining Cama Hospital.

By then Abu Shoaib and Abu Umer had killed 11 people at Leopold - two of them foreign tourists. Twenty-eight others, including nine foreigners, were badly wounded.

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The carnage continued as Shoaib and Umer moved down the lane adjoining Leopold Café.

Owner of Chamunda Chemists Bharat Waghela lost his brother in the attack. He recounted how he saw the terrorists.

“When they fired at us I just ducked and the person behind me was shot and he died on the spot. The second person was hit on the shoulder with two bullets. The third was hit by splinters and he fell down. At that time I saw my brother lying outside the shop in a pool of blood and he was shouting. One of the terrorists was still further down the road, so I stopped for a while and then I ran to my brother and asked what happened, and he said he had been shot,” Waghela said.

In the confusion, few noticed the two terrorists moving towards the Taj Hotel.

With two locations clearly under attack, the scale of the terror strike was only just unfolding.

By 10:45 pm the Mumbai Police top brass was on the roads. Mumbai was facing an unprecedented attack but there was little clarity and no control.

The taxi which had dropped Kasab and Ismail at CST had by then reached suburban Vile Parle with another passenger. As the driver slowed down opposite the City Swan Club, the eight kg of RDX inside it blew-up killing both the driver and passenger.

And the second taxi used by Abu Shoaib and Abu Umer had reached the dock area of Mazgaon. It blew up too, killing the cab driver and his two women passengers.

It was in this confusion that Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar reached CST. But then, hearing reports of shooting at Cama Hospital, they got into a Qualis with three constables heading for the Cama Hospital back gate.

Constable Arun Jadhav reaccled, “One hand grenade was lobbed from the terrace of Cama Hospital. Ashok Kamte responded by brush firing towards the terrace.”

Inside Cama Hospital, Additional Commissioner Sadanand Date with a handful of men were already battling Kasab and Ismail.

“The first point when I realised that this is not an ordinary criminal attack but a terrorist action was when we'd rescued an employee of the hospital and I was questioning him. I saw a grenade being lobbed at us that ricocheted against the lift and for a second I saw that grenade before it exploded, like a green ball, and I said, this is a different thing altogether,” said Date who lost two colleagues and was injured as Kasab and Ismail kept firing and throwing grenades.

“This exchange of fire lasted for about 50 minutes. The terrorists were at a height on the terrace and we were trying to hold them on the sixth floor, and to my counting they lobbed six grenades at us and hundreds of AK rounds. From that close distance if you receive AK fire, you don't have many chances of survival,” Date added.

Now just outside Cama Hospital, Kasab and Ismail needed a getaway vehicle. They turned into the Badruddin Tyebji Marg, spotted a government vehicle and shot the driver. Just then, the Qualis carrying Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar screeched into sight. Spotting Kasab they fired but then came the fatal turn.

“From between the two constables sitting in front of me, I saw two persons, one short and the other tall firing at us. I raised my gun and started firing back at them,” Arun Jadhav said.

Ismail, hidden behind a tree, sprang out firing. The three officers were caught off guard. Ismail was able to hit all six policemen in the Qualis. The terrorists threw the policemen out of the Qualis and sped away.

“Salaskar sir had been shot, we'd all been shot. Before that I thought everyone was acting and that we were all alive. One of the terrorists opened the driver side door and threw Salaskar sir out,” Arun Jadhav said.

Close to midnight, Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar succumbed to their injuries. As the news spread, the Mumbai Police and the nation went numb.

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A huge crowd of bystanders and media had by now gathered at the Metro Cinema Junction. An injured Kasab and Ismail in the hijacked Qualis raced towards the junction firing indiscriminately at the crowd, killing two and injuring many.

Around 12 that night Constable Arun Chitte approached a CNN-IBN journalist along with his cameraperson and insisted they stand at a distance. Within five minutes Kasab and Ismail in the hijacked police Qualis passed and fired in their direction. Chitte, who saved them, died on the spot.

As Kasab and Ismail sped on, the Qualis, with two punctured tyres, began wobbling. They had to abandon it. They forced a Skoda to stop, its owner Sharan Arasa and his two friends were thrown out but mercifully spared.

“They could have just pulled the trigger and it would have been over right there. I don’t know why they let us go. Probably they were just too much in a hurry, they didn't even look back. They just sped out of there,” Arasa recalled.

By now, police barricades had come up across the city. The hijacked Skoda being driven by Ismail headed straight into one of them.

Assistant Police Inspector of DB Marg Police Station Hemant Baudhankar said, “Around 12:15 am we got a message from the control room that the terrorists are fleeing in a Skoda car and that they are heading towards Girgaum Chowpatty. Immediately the senior inspector called me and told me to ensure that double barricades are up.”

November 27, 2008 | 12.30 am, Girgaum Chowpatty

Spotting the barricade, Ismail switched on the windshield water spray to keep the police from spotting them. He then tried to turn the car around.

Assistant Police Inspector Sanjay Govilkar said, “Around 12:30 am, a Skoda car came towards us. It stopped about 50 feet behind the barricades. The driver turned on the headlights, the water spray and wipers. We all were screaming at them to get out of the car. The driver tried taking a right turn but the car rammed into the divider.”

A cornered Ismail began firing as the police rushed at them. Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Ombale was approaching Kasab. As he grabbed at him, the already injured Kasab struggled but was able to pull the trigger of his AK 47 hitting Ombale and his colleague Sanjay Govilkar.

“The person to the left of the driver pretended that he was surrendering and slid down from his seat. He then grabbed the AK 47 near his feet and started firing. ASI Ombale was very close to him, so he took most of the bullets, and one brushed past me,” Govilkar recalled.

“Ombale ran with great speed towards him and he fired at the exact same time and Ombale fell on him,” Baudhankar said.

Despite multiple bullet wounds, Ombale hung onto Kasab till his colleagues were able to overpower him.

“Later the rest of the staff near the barricades started beating the terrorists with lathis. They pinned him down and seized his weapons,” Baudhankar said.

After four hours of mayhem, Kasab and Ismail were both in custody. The Mumbai Police's first success.

“The only positive thing that came of that tragedy was that we were able to capture a terrorist alive and this has become an example for the world to see,” Govilkar said.

But even as Kasab and Ismail were being rushed to the hospital four other pairs of terrorists were moving unchecked and already beginning to wreak havoc at three locations, turning them into terror battlegrounds for the next 56 hours. Mumbai was about to find out the war had actually just begun.

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