It took 60 hours of sustained operations by 477 commandos drawn from different security forces to neutralize the terrorists and rescue the hostages from the terrorists at the Taj and the Oberoi hotels and the Nariman House in Mumbai. The operations were spearheaded by the commandos from the National Security Guards helped by commandos from the Rapid Action Force, the Army and the Navy with the Mumbai police including the Anti Terrorist Squad providing logistic support.

It was the Mumbai Police which bore the brunt of this ruthless attack sacrificing some of its finest officers including the Anti Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare , Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Amte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. The Mumbai Police was soon joined by Rapid Action Force and Army commandos.

The National Security Guards commandoes arrived next morning followed by Naval commandos. However, two Naval commandos were part of the initial retaliation. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havildar Chander were the two NSG commandos who laid down their lives in this operation. The Mumbai Police lost 14 and the NSG lost two of their celebrated officials.

The nation salutes these brave hearts as also the employees of the hotels and all those who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks and the operations that followed.

Two consecutive nights on the edge…that is what Mumbai went through after about 20 terrorists entered Mumbai through the sea route and unleashed terror on Wednesday night. Within an hour of its first strike at 9.15 pm, the terrorists had struck 12 spots at 10 locations with automatic weapons and grenades and turned Mumbai into a battleground and a long nightmare. The attacks seemed to have affected the resilience of the Mumbaikars who preferred to lock themselves in their homes for the first time.

There is a speculation about the number of terrorists involved in this attack. The number could be anything between 12 and 20. The Maharashtra chief minister, Vilas Rao Deshmukh, who rushed back from Kerala claimed the number as 20. However, the security forces felt that the total number would be fewer than that.

Nine terrorists were killed in the operation and one captured. The only captured terrorist is believed to come from Faridkot in Pakistan. During their attack, the terrorists were heard communicating amongst themselves in a dialect said to be a mixture of Punjabi and Urdu which is used in Pakistan. They were probably trying to create some confusion about their identity when they claimed that Deccan Mujahideen was responsible for the attacks and that they belonged to Hyderabad in India.

Nobody went to sleep in Mumbai. Neither security forces nor the media, nor, even the Mumbaikars, who have been on their feet all through this ordeal. The terrorist who laid siege of the Taj and the Oberoi hotels and the Nariman House kept them awake with intermittent gun fire and grenade explosions. The attack and the operations that followed left over 156 dead and over 300 injured. The maximum number of deaths were reported from the CST with 47 deaths followed by the Oberoi hotel with 30 deaths.

The main targets were the heritage and tower wings of Taj and the Trident and the Oberoi hotels, the Nariman House, the Cama Hospital, Metro Cinema, the Chatrapati Shivaji (Victoria) Terminus among others. The targets picked by the terrorist were clearly places which had huge crowds and important people so that they may inflict maximum damage.

The terrorists are believed to have arrived by a trawler called ‘Kuber’ owned by an Indian which was found abandoned in Por Bunder. The trawler was hijacked in Pakistan water about 14 days ago. The attack is believed to have been carried out British citizens of Pakistani origin. The operation seems to have been funded by Maulana Abdul Bahri of Saudi Arabia.

The fire and ambulance services chipped in their bit. The assistance rendered by the hotel staff to the guests both at the Taj as well as the Oberoi was exemplary.

The terrorists allegedly used a rented house near Nariman House to stockpile arms and ammunitions as it is just 2 km from the Taj and Oberoi hotels and close to the coastline via a fishermen’s colony which gave them free access and cover to move around unnoticed with their baggage.

The Oberoi Trident was the first site to be sanitized. About 30 bodies were found there, 24 on Friday and 6 on the night of November 26. The commandos tried to capture the two terrorists alive but they had to be killed as they were lobbing grenades and about 200 hostages have been evacuated. Two AK-47 rifles and one pistol were recovered from the terrorists.

Earlier the NSG chief J.K. Dutta said that the tower wing of Taj hotel had been cleared and that the sounds of explosions being heard are that of the commandos using mild explosives to force open the doors of rooms to which they do not have keys or occupants are reluctant to open the doors out of fear. The Director General of Maharashtra Police A.N. Roy announced that a large quantity of RDX was recovered from the Taj hotel.

Nariman House saw several explosions and gun shots through the day. There were at least two hostages in the Jewish Rabbi and his wife. The rescue operations included air dropping of commandos on the roof of the building. The bodies of five civilians including the Rabbi and his wife have been recovered along with the bodies of two terrorists.

The Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor rubbished reports that there was firing in the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal. He assured journalists that Mumbai is safe. He also said that the coastal belt of India has a porous border that needs to be plugged effectively.

Pakistan government made a U-turn after its prime minister Yusuf Gilani agreed to send Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence chief to share information on the terrorists. The External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, explained that the final word on the culprits can be given only after the investigations are over, the prima facie evidence seems to indicate that the terrorists had a Pakistani connection.

Strangely, the guardian of Marathi Manoos, Raj Thackeray and the likes of him who claimed that Mumbai belongs to his father (Mumbai Mere Baap Ka Hai) in response to the police statement that Mumbai Kissi Ke Baap Ka Nahin Hai and the father (Baap) himself were conspicuous by their absence and silence through this entire drama. Now it is up to the Mumbaikars to decide as to how they would like to deal with these self-proclaimed godfathers of Mumbai.

After hints of magnanimity by the opposition party, things boiled down to petty politics at ground level when the opposition leader L.K. Advani traveled to Mumbai separately after agreeing to accompany the prime minister Man Mohan Singh. After, trying to put the ATS on the dock for unearthing evidence against Sangh Parivar in the Malegaon blasts, the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s visit the ATS chief’s residence to pay homage to this great hero betrays the hypocrisy in its ranks. The wife of the ATS chief was clearly displeased to see him at their residence after all the baseless charges the Sangh Parivar had leveled against him.

The NSG chief announced that the Taj hotel was under control after three terrorists were shot dead. But, he was cautious enough to mention that a final word can be given only after the entire hotel is sanitized. The number of suspected terrorists however does not match up to the number of terrorists accounted for so far. There is some speculation that a few of them might have escaped under cover of darkness and may be holed up in the city.

This terrorist attack has exposed several chinks in the armour of our security network. Once the dust settles on this episode, we need to sit down and take stock of our shortcomings and really do something about it. This terror attack is not like any other that we have seen in India. And, sadly, it might not be the last one. So, we need to pull up our socks and put a foolproof security system in place at the soonest. Let us ensure that there is no politics in doing this.

After all this, can we say that the nightmare is over? Certainly, not! This one incident has cut Mumbai to the core of her heart. And, it will take a long time to heal.