26/11 - MUMBAI'S TRYST WITH TERROR
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60 Hours: First signs of the war on Mumbai
Published on Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 03:23, Updated on Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 12:50 in India section
Tags: Mumbai Terror Attack, Cafe Leopold
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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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