‘I saw a frightened cop cry and run away’

DNA reporter Preeti Acharya, who was caught in the crossfire between the terrorists and police at the Taj hotel, narrates her horror
 
I was assigned to get eyewitness accounts from The Taj but ended up becoming an eyewitness myself to a gun battle between the police and terrorists.

I reached The Taj around 10.45 pm after visiting another attack site, the Leopold Café in Colaba. I saw policemen cordoning off the hotel to trap holed up terrorists.

No one was being allowed, but I somehow sneaked in. Once inside, I came to know that the terrorists were on the sixth floor. They tried to take people in rooms there hostage, but didn’t succeed as the rooms were locked.

Minutes later, policemen tried to reach the upper floors, but were stopped in their tracks by grenades hurled by the terrorists. I saw at least three grenades fly.

After the second grenade exploded, shattering glasses and shaking the entire hotel building, I was reduced to tears.

Seeing me shaking in fear, a constable offered solace. “Aap ghabrao mat, mar jaoonga par tumhe kuch naahin hone doonga,” he assured me but soon began crying as the terrorists opened another round of fire.

The policeman had realised his colleagues had left him alone and moved to the other side of the hotel. He told me his rifle could fire only one round and ran away leaving me and an Italian photographer (I later came to know Lorenzo Tugnoli) on our own.