In any such situation, the beginning is always marked with confusion and rumours. The first call I received on the night of November 26, 2008 was from Dr. K. Venkateshwaram, who was at the time Additional Commissioner of Police (south region). He told me firearms had been discharged outside Café Leopold, and a constable had been injured. I left for the spot and was at the Metro theatre junction when both the Commissioner of Police (the late Hassan Gafoor) and the Director General of Police (A.N. Roy) told me to rush to the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower in Colaba. Within minutes, I started getting calls from journalists, asking me a whole range of questions. Some of their queries were factually sound, while others were based on rumours. Some of my officers too fell prey to rumours, including an inspector with the Colaba police station who called me to tell me that a group of 100 men had attacked Mumbai.
A major challenge is to accurately pinpoint the location of the attackers in a large space. We entered the Taj at 9:51 p.m., and had our first confrontation with the terrorists at 10:03 p.m. It was a surprise confrontation and they managed to get away while retaliating to our attack. I fired three rounds from my Glock pistol, injuring one of the terrorists in his leg.
Finally, at 11:15 p.m., we had another skirmish with them, during which they threw a grenade at us from a higher floor and we retaliated with gunfire.
The major confrontation occured at 2.45 a.m., when they again attacked from above with grenades and gunfire. My bodyguard sustained three bullet wounds, while State Reserve Police Force constable Rahul Shinde, who was with me, was martyred. He was only 22 years old.
An important factor to remember in an urban terror scenario is that saving civilians lives takes priority over everything else for the police, while the attackers have no such compunctions. Therefore, an armed confrontation with terrorists in a crowded place would be a nightmare. The best people for the job are professionally-trained commandos, who are armed with guns like the MP5 submachine gun, which is precise and effective.
One thing I shall never forget is when we went back to the sixth floor to collect Shinde’s body. His eyes were open, his finger was still in the trigger guard and his rifle was pointing to where the terrorists had attacked.
(As told to Gautam S. Mengle)
