Local cops hold fort for NSG

The National Security Guard (NSG) and the marine commandos (marcos) may have finished the operations at the Taj Mahal Hotel but it was the police from Mumbai force who foiled the terrorists’ plans to enter the new building of the hotel. If the terrorists had succeeded, they would have cost hundreds of more lives. These were bigger plans that the terrorists had made. However, the local police ensured that the terrorists did not reach the first floor — which connects the old building to the new one — for seven hours.“The terrorists had formed groups of two to enter their targetted areas. Four of them entered the Taj Mahal Hotel. The plan was for two to enter the new building and two to enter from the old one,” said Mr Vishwas Nangre-Patil, deputy commissioner of police, zone 1, who led the police team inside the hotel.According to Mr Nangre-Patil, he entered with his team and went straight to the sixth floor of the building. The police wanted to have an upper hand over the terrorists. “We started firing at the terrorists who were on the fourth and the fifth floors of the building. They retaliated by throwing hand grenades at us. Their plan was to get to top floors first, assess the situation and then head back down. We engaged them by firing continuously at them,” said Mr Nangre-Patil.Two ballrooms in the new building of the Taj Mahal Hotel were packed with guests, one of which held the wedding reception of Amit and Varsha Thadani, “All the occupants of the new building were rescued in the night itself. The marcos came at 4.30 am while the NSG commandos came at 7 am and took over the operation,” said Mr Nangre-Patil. According to an Anti-Terrorism Squad officer, who was at the hotel, the NSG took over the operation and the task given to them was to rescue the hostages from the rooms. “The NSG guards told us which rooms had trapped people giving us the room numbers. We would then go into the rooms, take the guests into confidence and bring them to safety,” the officer said. Apart from that, the local police also gave cover to the NSG till the operation lasted.