Bank executive recalls 26/11 nightmare

MUMBAI: A private bank chairman who was taken hostage at Taj Hotel during the 26/11 terror attack narrated his experience before a special court
on Thursday. The witness, who cannot be named for security reasons, told Judge M L Tahaliyani that his captors had `whipped' and `interrogated' him.

"The gunmen asked me whether I was an architect or a scientist, but I told them I was a teacher. On hearing this, one of the terrorists, who was speaking on a cellphone, got angry and asked me how could a teacher with salary of Rs 25,000 stay at the Taj,'' said the witness, who was a guest at the hotel.

The banker said he was whipped with what seemed to be a rope. "I could not do anything as I was lying on the ground face down,'' he said in reply to queries posed by special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

The witness, who was in his room at the time of the attack, said he had been alerted by the hotel reception about the events that were unfolding. He also saw reports of it on television. So, when he heard someone knocking on the door around 11pm, saying `room service', he stayed put. "Suddenly I heard gunshots outside the door, and the door was flung open,'' he said. The banker was then taken outside and made to knock on the doors of adjoining rooms, but no one responded.

"All this while, one of the terrorists kept speaking on a mobile phone and seeking instructions from the other end,'' the witness said. The gunmen even noticed a sacred thread around his torso, and asked whether he was a Brahmin. After some time, four employees of the hotel were also brought in as hostages and all of them were tied up and ordered to lie down.

The banker said around 3am they heard a blast. By then the gunmen had left their room. He managed to free himself and the four hotel employees -- who had tied blankets together to form a makeshift rope -- climbed down from a window. The banker said he was nervous and went down to the third floor. "Around 6am on November 27, I was rescued by fire brigade officials,'' he said.

On Thursday, the court also questioned a man who had translated notes found on the bombs planted by the terrorists behind the Taj. The notes were believed to be in Urdu, but the witness said he was not a professional translator. He had relied on a dictionary and a friend while translating the notes.

Source:: TimesOfIndia