Liberation of Taj exposes massacre in cold blood
MUMBAI: The four AK-47 and Blackberry-wielding terrorists in the Taj Mahal hotel killed virtually anyone and everyone they saw—staff members,
guests, young and old, men and women. This attack on Mumbai could, in fact, be the deadliest terrorist assault on India.
The last bullet in ‘Operation Cyclone’ —as the commando operation at the Taj was christened—was fired at 8 am on Saturday. After that there was sepulchral silence. Unlike in the Trident & Oberoi hotels, no one walked out alive from the Taj, confirming every Mumbaikar’s worst fears.
The government has still to come up with figures for the number of people in the Taj but a volunteer who was handed over the bodies by the NSG said the final figure he signed on was 99. But the toll is expected to be higher once the heritage building is sanitised: It’s said the NSG could be taking time to remove the bodies as they could have been booby trapped. NSG chief J K Dutt dodged the question when asked about the Taj toll at a late evening press conference.
The state government’s figure for the overall toll (including Taj, Oberoi Trident, CST and Nariman House) at 5 pm was 172, including 18 foreign nationals. The number of those injured was 239, including 22 foreigners. Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor had said on Friday that the toll was expected to cross 200.
TOI in yesterday’s edition had reported that army officers were worried that the terrorists might try to blow up the Taj, and while the electronic media ran with that speculation through Saturday, there was no official confirmation of any such plan.
Dutt said the sanitising operation would be over late Saturday night or early Sunday. It’s feared the final toll could cross the official 1993 serial blasts figure of 257.
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its really riveting to see this kind of situation