Find out how Mumbai's police force reacted to the November 2008 terrorist attacks with a selection of quotes from Dispatches: Terror in Mumbai.
VT Station
Mumbai's main railway terminus, VT station, was one of five locations that came under attack. Two gunmen entered the station and opened fire indiscriminately. Policemen on duty at the time stood watching the massacre unfold; many of them hid. One who didn't was Sudham Pandarkar (pictured above):
'There were 15 to 20 policemen present, but we had no idea what was going on, or what we could do about it. Our brains were not working, we froze. We didn't know what to do.
'[Police inspector Shashank Shinde] said 'You five men with rifles, come with me. There are terrorists over there - we must shoot them.
'[Another unarmed police man Ambadas Pawar] told me he was an off-duty cop. He wanted to shoot at them, so he took my rifle and fired.
'Before we could reload, he came - the one who's been captured, the terrorist Kasab. He fired and the bullet went through my chest. Then there was silence and Shashank Shinde and Ambadas Pawar were lying there dead, both of them.'
Police headquarters
At Mumbai's police headquarters no one knew who the gunmen were or what they wanted. Mumbai's most famous detective, joint commissioner Rakesh Maria, was in charge of the control room.
'We received calls from our mobiles that it appears that they are moving towards the police headquarters. So in addition to looking at the control room we also had to fortify this complex...'
'There was a taxi blast at Mazgaon, there was a taxi blast at Ville Parle, there were rumours of an attack at JW Marriott at Juhu, there is attack on the Four seasons in Worli, so we felt the whole city was under siege, under attack...'
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