Mumbai top cop recalls 26/11 encounter with terror

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Mumbai: Duty calls and sometimes unexpectedly. On the night of 26/11, Additional Commissioner of Police Sadanand Date had his closest encounter with death. His day was over and it was time to go home, but at 2150 hrs IST, he received a call about firing at various locations in south Mumbai.

"On 26/11, my shift was over and I was about to hit the sack when a colleague of mine, ACP of the Worli division called me at said, 'sir have you heard about the firing that has taken place at multiple locations in south Mumbai?' I said no. Then he said 'it is on the (news channel) ticker'. So then I switched on the channels and I saw a ticker coming about firing at CST, Taj Hotel and Oberoi Hotel," Date recalls.

ACP Date initially rushed to CST but discovered soon that the problem was at the Cama hospital.

"When we reached in front of that building, I saw two dead bodies and I was informed that on the fourth floor, nurses were calling for help. Then I decided that this small force of eight officers and men must go to help the hospital staff," says Date.

The hospital staff guided ACP Date to the terrace where two terrorists - Kasab and Ismail - were hiding.

"I reached the top floor and I was wearing a bulletproof jacket so I said to my men I would walk in front; there was another colleague of mine who had a bulletproof jacket. So a few of us decided to go to the terrace. You call it luck or you call it presence of mind, whatever, but as we were about to enter the terrace area, I said we should not go walking like this when we don't know what is there. So I told my colleague, 'let us go down to the sixth floor and search for some metallic things'. So we went down and picked up two metal clips. The door of the terrace was half ajar so I threw in the metal clips and as soon as they hit the floor, there was a burst of automatic weapon fire. I think there the story began, really," Date says.

Still oblivious of the magnitude of the attack, he held fort even as two of his men fell.

"The first point when I really realised that this was not an ordinary criminal attack but was a terrorist action was when I saw a grenade before it burst like a green ball. When I saw the grenade I said this is a different thing altogether," he states.

"When all this thing was going the first injury that I really noticed was to my eye. There was some temporary blackness when that first grenade explosion took place. There were some splinters still in the eye. Besides that, my leg was hurt when the fourth grenade was thrown towards us. There was a lot of blood loss and that was the real pain that I sensed. Later on when I was picked up, I realised I had injuries on my chest, my throat, my knees, all over the body," he adds.

Sadanand Date kept the terrorists engaged for more than 50 minutes, but could not stop them from moving out of the hospital, a moment he still regrets. And it was only after the terrorists left that the enormity of the attack hit him.

"There was a constable - Mr Khandekar - who was seriously injured around the throat and he needed water. There was water cooler there but no cup, so I made him drink from my palms and he kept saying, 'sir please take me to the hospital'. I knew the situation outside was equally grave from my wireless. There was really no time to spend on panic decisions. That was kind of tough and there was a whole lot of pain. At one point I thought that I might loose my consciousness," he recalls.

A year has passed since that night of terror, some wounds are healing but some are still raw.

"I am not that typical daring super-hero kind of a police officer. I am a regular police officer and many people say I don't look like a police officer. I was very pleasantly surprised and you know reassured because those 50 minutes when bullets were literally flying and grenades bursting around us, fear or the thought of death did not really occur to me. I just knew my job at that point of time was to keep fighting. I had injuries and I could sustain that pain. I didn't curse at the pain, I was not even angry. I knew that I had a job to do and one must draw satisfaction from one's job," Date says.