INDIA: Prominent Indian doctor recounts being held in Mumbai Taj Mahal hotel during recent seige

Record ID: 352446

  • Title: INDIA: Prominent Indian doctor recounts being held in Mumbai Taj Mahal hotel during recent seige
  • Date: 2nd December 2008
  • Summary: COMMANDOS RUNNING TOWARDS TAJ MAHAL HOTEL VARIOUS OF TAJ MAHAL BURNING ON THE MORNING OF THE SIEGE (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAEG0HLYQK4TKLGS8I86DK4ZXBS
  • Story Text: One week on from the Mumbai attacks, a prominent Indian doctor tells how he hid in a hotel room for over 20 hours while gunmen seized the Taj Mahal hotel.
    After escaping from Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel which was seized by militants seven days ago, Dr. P.N. Wasvani revisits the scene.
    He looks at the window of room 912 where he spent 20 hours while gunmen had control of the of the luxury five star hotel.
    Last Wednesday's (November 26) rampage on the Taj Mahal hotel, the luxury Trident-Oberoi hotel, a railway station, a Jewish centre and a café killed 183 people during three days.
    Dr Wasvani had only been at the Taj Mahal hotel, one of Mumbai's most famous landmarks, to see a patient.
    When he and his nurse went down the lift to leave, a hotel employee shouted at them to retreat, because there was a gang war going on.
    At first the doctor and nurse heard nothing, unusual for such a busy hotel, but then they heard gunshots and quickly got back in the lift and rushed to their ninth floor hotel room.
    "From when I reached the room I locked the door and I informed my wife immediately (and said) that 'this is such a thing that has happened in Bombay, and you don't worry I am safe in room number 912, and I'll keep you informed and as soon these mobiles will be jammed so don't worry if I'm not able to communicated with you.' She phoned me after five minutes and said this is not gang war this is a terror strike and this has happened at many places in Bombay and so you please stay put and she was very nervous and disturbed."
    He said while his mobile phone battery lasted, he was talking to his brother who told him not to worry the National Security Guard were on the way and it would all be over in an hour.
    But Dr Wasvani was there a total of 20 hours and it was another 40 hours before the special commandos killed the militants inside and regained control of the burning hotel.
    "I had given up hope that I'd live. Because after some time someone told me that they had been able to recover 8kg of RDX from the front door and 10 kg RDX from the rear lane which I know, near Taj. So I had given up hope that I would live. I couldn't think. It was just black out for me. And then how this 20 hours passed, I don't know."
    The doctor recalled that in the initial hours the hotel had been optimistic that the attacks would be over quickly and order would be resumed.
    But he knew differently.
    "The first thing I did was contacted - on intercom I contacted the hotel people. They said, 'Ok, you should lock the door don't open for anybody.
    Keep the fridge near the door and please don't open the door and stay put until we ask you to evacuate the room. We'll communicate with you.' I told him we are not communicating. Soon this phone will be disconnected. And this is what had happened, exactly what happened."
    Mumbai police say they are interrogating many suspects but had not arrested anybody other than the one Islamic militant captured alive.
    Mumbai's Police Commissioner also scotched speculation that more than 10 militants had been involved in the rampage.
    Senior investigators have said a former Pakistani army officer led the training organised by the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which made its name fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
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