The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai

by Cathy Scott-Clark

  Maria’s wife called. Their son was due to take a bus to Ahmednagar, five hours to the east. ‘Should he go ahead?’ she asked. ‘Let him go,’ Maria told her. ‘God forbid if this whole city is finished, we are all finished, then there is someone in the family who will be safe.’

  Two miles south of police headquarters, inside the Taj, Amit Peshave was hiding in a thicket beside the pool, wondering how much longer he could keep thirty-one guests quiet. A few were stoic, and praying. Some were terrified, fidgeting and crying. He was most worried about a drunken party of Indian MPs, who were throwing their weight around, loudly taking calls and threatening people. It would only take one act of inappropriate clowning to draw the killers over. He had tried the door to the transformer room, through which he had hoped to exit on to the street, but found it was locked from the inside. Somehow, he would have to locate whoever had the key. Peeking through the shrubbery, he could see through the pierced cement wall the lights of Merry Weather Road. It was eerily quiet. ‘Where the hell are the police?’

  An Indian couple quietly sobbed. Amit wriggled over. ‘Sir, madam, how can I help?’ The fretting husband explained: ‘Our six-year-old boy is missing.’ They had been dining in Shamiana and their son had gone to the toilet moments before the attack started. Now they were separated. Amit’s heart sank. The toilet was opposite the Harbour Bar, which meant the boy was trapped or dead. The woman struggled up. ‘I will go,’ she said. Amit pulled her back. ‘You will not. There are thirty-one lives here.’ She tried to slap his face and he clasped her hands. She began to call out her son’s name. ‘OK,’ Amit hissed. ‘I will find him.’

  Holding his breath, he stepped out on to the pool terrace and straight into the path of a gunman. Dressed in black, with a pudding basin haircut, he was different from the one Amit had encountered in Shamiana, and he seemed equally surprised to see the Taj staffer, his rifle momentarily slipping. In that split second, Amit pelted towards Shamiana, but the gunman recovered and loosed off three shots as Amit’s foot caught the paving, tipping him on to the grass, the rounds phut-phutting close by. As he lay there, the gunman aimed again. Glass crashed all around.

  He opened his eyes to see a spurt of bullets as the recoil dislodged the rifle, sending rounds smashing into glass windows and doors. Amit tried to get up. But the gunman pulled something from his bag, lobbed it and Amit heard it thud behind him. He rolled over and saw a matt-green grenade lying in the grass like a fallen coconut. He clutched his ears and stared, waiting for the explosion. But nothing happened.

  For the next forty-five minutes, Amit didn’t move, thinking maybe he was dead. He looked at the grenade lying innocently beside a hosepipe and gazed up into the sky, mesmerized by the carpet of stars but no moon. ‘I pray for my parents and all of my family,’ he whispered. He thought about the opportunities he had missed – past girlfriends and indiscretions. ‘I have had a good life.’ When he finally got his senses back and realized that the gunman had gone, he scrambled to his feet, and slipped inside the devastated Shamiana, telling himself that he was the luckiest man alive. The first thing he saw was Rehmatullah, lying dead. The waiter’s skin felt like cold, pressed meat.

  Bile rose in his throat but Amit pushed on, heading for the Harbour Bar toilets, as gunfire snarled. Two rifles shot up the corridor, grenades tossed to the right and left. The toilets were still way ahead, around the other side of the open lobby. Behind him thirty-one lives depended on him. He could not do it. Feeling like a failure, he turned and worked his way back to the bushes, rehearsing what he was going to say, crawling this time, hiding behind pillars and furniture, until he reached the silent poolside. As he slipped back into the thicket, he noticed one of his guests, a British man, was bleeding heavily from a gaping wound in his hand. His brow was beading, the colour leaching from his skin. He needed urgent medical attention. Amit had to find the man with the transformer room key.

  First, he sought out the frantic parents. ‘Sir, ma’am, I have tried. But I can’t get through. You said you believe in God. Now you have to pray that they won’t kill an innocent child.’

  Zone 1’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, Vishwas Patil, had slipped out of the PM’s security meeting at 9.10 p.m., with every intention of going back two hours later, when the group planned to complete its session. He had hot-footed it from the Trident–Oberoi to the cramped police apartment he shared with his wife and two young children, opposite the Brabourne cricket stadium, a few minutes’ drive north-west of Colaba. At 9.25 p.m., he was eating daal and rice that his wife had fetched from a nearby takeaway, when his mobile had started ringing.

  It was his boss, the Additional Commissioner (South). ‘Vishwas, there’s firing at Leopold’s.’ Three days before, Patil had visited the café on a follow-up inquiry, having discovered in July that an intelligence bulletin had named it as a potential target of a Lashkar attack. He had told the café’s owner to hire extra security, and had registered more than ninety cases against illegal pavement hawkers who converged outside, forcing them to move so as to limit the potential carnage from any bomb. ‘God sent me some signal,’ Patil told himself as he picked up his Glock and an unopened box of forty rounds. By the time he got downstairs, the Director General of Police (DGP), the most senior policeman in the state, had called. ‘Vishwas, go to the Taj,’ he ordered, trumping the earlier call. One of the DGP’s relatives and Maharashtra’s Additional Chief Secretary were stuck inside the hotel.

  As his Tata Indigo drove towards Apollo Bunder, a mile south, Patil loaded two magazines. He had applied for the Glock six months back. Now he had seventeen bullets in the clip, and a spare, with a few loose rounds in his pocket. He was thankful. A normal side arm for his rank was a six-shot revolver or ten-round pistol. His constables were protected even less well. After the bomb blasts of 2003, Mumbai police had raised the dedicated Quick Response Teams (QRTs), trained in commando tactics by the army. Though they were supposedly armed with AK-47s and 9mm pistols, Patil learned that not a single AK round had been purchased for three years and the QRTs had not done any firing practice since September 2007. The next tier of city defences was the optimistically named Striking Mobiles, teams of five or so, armed with rusty carbines and self-loading rifles, often without ammunition. It was well known they had to account for every round fired. After an encounter he would often see them on their hands and knees looking for the casings. The few who were issued with bulletproof jackets found they did not ‘cover vital organs’, with one classified report noting the plate design ‘was defective’. Long before tonight, he had warned his superiors: ‘Mumbai’s battle readiness is in doubt.’ And he had made the same point in the Oberoi hotel meeting earlier today.

  As his vehicle approached the glittering Taj façade, he thought back to how he had driven past as a young student, worrying that he would never be part of the world inside. These days he no longer cared. Looking up he saw guests silhouetted in the windows, waving or talking into their phones. Taking a snap decision, he directed his driver down a side lane and called the Taj’s security chief, Sunil Kudiyadi, hoping that the hotel’s beefed-up defences had held firm.

  Getting out in Merry Weather Road, Patil was amazed to see that the Time Office entrance was still wide open. Worried, he headed for the swimming pool terrace, wondering what else the Taj had scaled back on, as keeping this entrance secured was in the long list of measures he had submitted to the hotel. He marched in, several feet away from where Amit Peshave and his group of guests still crouched, dashing off to the far side of the pool before any of them could call out. ‘Alert everyone,’ Patil whispered to his 21-year-old wireless operator, who radioed Rakesh Maria in the Control Room. Patil spotted Kudiyadi emerging from the Palace lobby and waved him over. As he approached, words tumbled out. ‘Terrorists . . . are killing people.’ His Black Suits had been deployed all over the hotel but they were unarmed and terrified. ‘How did the gunmen get in?’ Patil asked bitterly. ‘Tower lobby and Northcote entrance, sir.’ The last time th
ey had seen one another had been at the security meeting in October.

  Kudiyadi explained that two weeks earlier the armed police picket had been dismissed from outside the Tower lobby. ‘They had asked to be fed while on duty and the hotel grew irritated.’ The Northcote side door had never been secured, despite assurances that it would be. Many of the agreed security steps had been dismantled as soon as Patil had gone on leave, the hotel arguing it could not be expected to sustain a war footing. Exasperated, Patil asked: ‘Where are the gunmen now?’ Somewhere on the upper floors of the Palace, said Kudiyadi. ‘It appears that they know exactly where they are going, sir.’

  ‘Take me,’ Patil said and Kudiyadi led him into the bottom end of the south wing and up a service staircase to the first floor. Gingerly they opened a door to look down the wing. Everything seemed peaceful. Crouching low, his pistol drawn, Patil heard sobbing. Creeping along the wing, turning left towards the Grand Staircase, he saw two injured women writhing on the floor outside the Ball-room, their hands shattered by bullets. Horrified, he motioned for two of Kudiyadi’s Black Suits to haul them back, while the radio operator called for medical assistance. Patil and Kudiyadi retraced their steps, taking the service stairs up to the second floor. As they poked their heads out, it also appeared deserted.

  Close to the Grand Staircase, they edged around a pillar and spotted men armed with assault rifles ascending to the third floor. Patil counted three, possibly four. A few good shots might end this now, he thought, judging the distance between them at around thirty feet. He aimed his Glock and squeezed off some rounds. The gunmen ducked, before spinning around, directing a prolonged burst back towards them, chiselling into the marble. He was outgunned. These were no amateurs.

  A few metres along, inside room 253, Amit and Varsha Thadani sat on the bed in their party outfits, clutching each other, listening to the volley of shots. They should have been enjoying their wedding reception in the Crystal Room but instead were discussing whether to create a bunker or make a run for it. Minutes earlier, Amit had opened the door, blustering about ‘taking them on’ and Varsha, his new, doll-like wife, had dragged him back. ‘There’s a strong smell,’ he told her. She knew it was gunpowder and began to cry. She could not stop thinking about their friends and family who probably were downstairs in the Crystal Room and the lobby, including her brother. Were they hurt or trapped or worse? Where was Amit’s mother? She was supposed to have brought up the wedding jewellery half an hour ago and wasn’t answering her mobile.

  Her new husband could appear lumbering, the way he shuffled his large frame around town; however, Amit was anything but. Friends knew him to be methodical and wily. He was also calm. He got up, turned off the lights and put both of their phones on silent. Varsha went into the bathroom and began quietly calling up relatives and friends, while he stared out of the spyhole, working out their options. ‘Look, don’t be so tense, this is just a small thing,’ he murmured. ‘Once it’s over, our party can continue.’ His phone whirred. It was his brother, telling them to leave. ‘Too late for that,’ he said. Amit went back to the spyhole and recoiled: ‘I think I just saw a gunman walk by.’ He raced over to the window, looking down to see if the police had arrived. The only thing that caught his eye was a brightly lit yacht, out in the water. ‘Should have hired a boat,’ he said.

  Out on the Alysia, its gleaming white lines festooned with scarlet Edmiston Company banners, Nick the yacht broker and his son had been greeting guests when mobiles started to trill at 9.48 p.m. One of the guests had switched his on to speaker and everyone crowded round to hear a crackle and pop of gunfire. ‘It’s my chauffeur, parked outside the Taj.’ They could hear the driver speaking: ‘Sir, there’s a gunfight. Can I move the car?’ In the UK, the driver would have run and not called, Nick thought. Ratan Kapoor, the Delhi socialite, came over. ‘Look, it’s a normal kind of Mumbai thing,’ he said. ‘It’s a heated city.’

  Reassured, Nick went below deck to talk to the staff about serving dinner. The guests took another glass of champagne as an explosion echoed across the water and a ripple of excitement ran around the yacht. ‘We’ve got the best seats,’ one man joked, as the waiters put the finishing touches to a huge teak dining table with raw silk napkins, silver cutlery and Bohemian crystal. Nick was worried about Andreas, whom he knew to be a risk taker, and asked the captain to call him: ‘Tell him we’re sending the tender over’ – as another explosion woofed throughout the city, and he felt the blast vibrate in his chest.

  Undeterred, the guests sat down for dinner, taking calls and texts. ‘Fighting inside the Taj,’ one man whispered. ‘Isn’t that serious?’ Nick asked. He stared at the shoreline. He was fond of this hyperactive city, but irritated by its lackadaisical attitude to security. ‘Don’t worry,’ said Kapoor. ‘Everyone on the yacht is feeling safe and luxurious with lots of champagne and French food. You’re the host. This is an important party.’ The captain came over, frowning. ‘Mr Liveras says he’s fine and to tell you, “Enjoy the dinner.” He’ll be back later.’

  Nick took Kapoor to one side. ‘We might just get away with it,’ said Kapoor weakly, as someone rang to ask him if Friday’s party was still going ahead. ‘Ya, sure. This will blow over and then you’ll be here, dancing with me, cheek to cheek.’ Nick went into the main saloon and tried to find Sky News. While the crew played with the settings, he read text messages from London. ‘It’s a terror attack.’ And another: ‘They’ve entered the city from the water.’ He thought: My God. We are sitting targets.

  By 10.50 p.m., the DCP Zone 1 was back down in the Tower lobby and his wireless operator was on the radio: ‘Zone 1 Sahib is in Taj. He needs help.’ After the exchange of fire on the Grand Staircase, they had lost the gunmen and Patil needed reinforcements to comb the vast, unfamiliar hotel. He grabbed two young constables, standing idly by a State Reserve Police Force van. ‘How many rounds?’ he shouted. They had ten shots each. ‘Not enough,’ he said to himself, shaking his head.

  A spatter of bullets ripped up the porch canopy. He was sure from the muzzle flash that the gunmen were shooting from a third-floor guest room. Patil spotted Karambir Kang, the hotel’s General Manager, who had just got back from Land’s End. The two men knew each other from the Taj security consultations and Patil was tempted to have a go at him right there in the street, but now was not the time. Karambir, looked ashen. ‘My wife and sons are on the sixth floor,’ he said, walking over, his eyes red raw, his immaculate suit dishevelled. What could Patil say? ‘Sir, we need hotel plans.’ Karambir said he would hunt around. He tried the CEO, who was trapped in his office, and called Chef Oberoi. Between calls he kept glancing up at the southern corner of the sixth floor, where his family were waiting for him. He came back to Patil: ‘The hotel blueprints are with someone who cannot be found. We are still looking.’ The DCP was irritated: ‘We can’t think of evacuating until we have located the gunmen, and for that we need to know where we are going.’ Karambir said he would ask Ratan Tata, the owner.

  Clutching a bottle of water, Karambir contemplated how his family should not even have been here at all. A few months back they had decided to shift to a private apartment and Neeti had stocked up on interior-decorating magazines, excited to be moving out of the hotel. They were supposed to have been in at the beginning of the month, but the contractor was still not finished. Karambir cursed the delay, but tried to banish his darkest thoughts. He said to himself: ‘You are the face of the hotel. You are the representative of the Tata family.’ Everyone was looking at him and what they saw needed to inspire hope.

  On the lobby steps, Patil spotted his batch-mate Rajvardhan. He was just the kind of hard head he needed and Rajvardhan did not need any persuasion to enter the stricken hotel. Slipping into the now silent lobby, where bodies lay strewn about, he made his own thumbnail assessment. ‘Random injuries, multiple head shots, a slew of ammunition.’ He was sure his earlier gut feeling was correct: Pakistani fidayeen. He called out the first stages of a plan: evacu
ate the ground floor while the gunmen are elsewhere, set up an improvised command post beside the Shamiana, close and guard all the exits to stop them escaping and blockade the lifts. He commandeered a service revolver and nine rounds. ‘Call me up when you are ready,’ he shouted to Patil, vanishing down a corridor, the weapon gripped in both hands.

  Up in the first-floor kitchens, straddling the Palace and the Tower, Chef Hemant Oberoi had had a plan. After his restaurants had been thrust into the front line, guests and diners scattering all over, many of them had been brought, or made it on their own, into the parallel world of the service areas. The American hedge funder Mike Pollack, his wife Anjali and their friends had locked themselves into the chef’s store of Wasabi, on the first floor of the Palace, and Andreas Liveras was on the ground floor, eating lentils, spinach and cottage cheese on an upturned handi in Masala Kraft’s prep room, keeping everyone’s spirits up by cracking jokes.

  Chef Oberoi realized that his Kitchen Brigade could, unseen by anyone front of house, probably utilize the hotel’s labyrinth of service lifts, stairs and passages to move guests into one central and protected location. He called Karambir Kang, who was pacing outside the hotel, to sound him out. The hotel’s invitation-only Chambers club was ideal, he argued. Consisting of a suite of rooms, a bar and a library, it occupied a large area on the first floor, between the Crystal Room and the kitchens, overlooking the Gateway of India. It was not marked on hotel brochures and only the most frequent Taj visitors would have noticed it at all, perhaps glancing at the discreet plaque beside the Tower’s lift buttons as they headed up to Souk, although the stop could only be accessed by staff, or by using a club key. Karambir agreed. The Chambers was an invisible refuge. He suggested Chef Oberoi begin immediately, starting with the people who were nearest to the Chambers, the wedding reception guests in the Crystal Room.