The Hindu Business Line : Ammunition, dry fruits, credit cards and currency…

The terrorists seem to be familiar with the lay out of the hotel, while the commandos battling them were unfamiliar with it and were handicapped. The commandos had to depend on an employee of the Taj hotel to guide them on the second day of operations.

Terrorists launched attacks in 10 locations in Mumbai on Wednesday night, including the Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels and Nariman House. Throughout Thursday and most of Friday, commandos fought the terrorists in these three locations.

Describing in detail the operation, the leader of the Navy’s elite Marine Commandos – his face masked and wearing sunglasses – said his team saw about 15 bodies in a single room. The rooms and corridors were splattered with blood.

He said that the commandos also had to find their way in the dark as all the lights had been switched off, whereas the terrorists had become accustomed to the darkness. The commandos entered a room in which they thought the terrorists were holed up, cautiously only to be met with gun fire.

They retaliated. Later, they realised that the room opened on to the terrace and immediately took steps to block that exit route. “One of our commandos was injured,” he said in a voice without any emotion. They knew all the entry and exit points, he added.

But when they entered the room from that side, they found it empty except for a rucksack.

The rucksack, said the commando, contained some ammunition – Chinese-made grenades and AK 47 magazines, dry fruits, at least seven credit cards from various banks, a Mauritius identity card, and currency notes – about $1,200 and Rs 6,840.

Briefing the media in the afternoon after the operation ended at the Trident, NSG commandos said that two terrorists had been killed and the hotel was completely under the control of the NSG. The hotel staff was helping the guests to come out. In some instances, the guests continued to remain locked inside their rooms out of fear and were being convinced by the staff that it was safe to come out.

At the Trident, a large quantity of arms and ammunition had been recovered from the site – including two AK-47 rifles, seven fully loaded magazines, over 400 rounds of spare ammunitions, a 9mm pistol and unexploded grenades, he said.

Mr J.K. Dutt, Director General, NSG, said that the forces had cornered the two terrorists on the eighth floor. Some of the foreign guests had been rescued and the hotel staff were checking and counting the guests. The NSG was in the process of ensuring that there were no more terrorists hiding in the Trident. The forces were in the process of sanitising each and every room, he said.

Reacting to a question on the offer of help by UK and Israel, Mr Dutt told a television channel that the NSG is capable of handling this threat and much more. The safety of the hostages had been upper most in the minds of the NSG. That was the reason that the security forces had taken this long to eliminate the terrorists.

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