Dud RDX forced militants to dump return plan

The 10 terrorists who created mayhem in the city last week had come with a plan to escape after causing maximum damage to life and property in a terror blitzkrieg of only a few hours. But they had to change their plans when their most lethal weapons of destruction — five RDX devices — failed to go off, a police officer, who is part of the investigations, said.

Commandos of the National Security Guards had found the five devices — two each outside the Taj hotel and Nariman House and one at the main gate of the Trident hotel — during their operation against the terrorists. The devices were later defused by the bomb disposal squad of the city police. The first hint of the terrorists’ original plan came from Mohammad Ajmal Mohammad Amir Kasab, the only terrorist to be arrested, the officer said.

The explosive devices were supposed to go off at a predetermined hour, the senior officer said. The loud explosions and the chaos and commotion that would have followed would have given the terrorists an opportunity run towards the sea and escape in inflatable boats.

But the plan went awry when the RDX devices failed to explode and one of the terrorists got arrested. Their leader at Nariman House, who was getting updates through news channels, then instructed his men to continue with the attack, the officer said.
The terrorists had planned a quickfire operation of only a few hours and later escape under the cover of darkness.

But things did not turn up as they wished, he said.