Not only the Mumbai City, but the whole nation and other countries were shock to see and hear the news of the Terror Blasts in the city of Mumbai on 26th Nov. 2008. I was planning to go to Vashi with my cousin from Kalbadevi around 21:30 hrs. My cousin Sachin, who owns a mobile phone shop, was completing his pending work and we got late to leave for CST to take a train to Vashi. Fortunately, we managed to escape the terrifying situation at the CST. My close friend Rahul Tripathi witnessed the very first blast at the Taj Mahal Hotel (New), sharing his experience below.
Hi,
My name is Rahul Tripathi.
Me and my cousins left Bade Miya hotel after having our dinner and went walking to the Gateway of India. As we were admiring the Gateway in the dark, lighted in the night. Later, we went right in the front of the new Taj Mahal Hotel and were discussing about the history of the hotel, I heard the first gun shots fired. As my cousin is an Ex-Army man, he instantly said that this is a gunshot, shot from some weapon which can be fired continuously and also one shot at a time. I told him that this is Mumbai dude, it must be wedding crackers but after that moment what we saw was that something I and my brother had never witnessed in my whole life as yet.
At the main reception gate of the new Taj some people started running and calling the taxi drivers who were standing along with us went to a taxi driver and asked him as to what was happening...he said "SHAYAD BHAI LOGO KI GANGWAR KI FIRING CHAL RAHI HAI".....i moved behind and while moving behind we heard some more gun shots inside the hotel....and finally from outside what i saw was terrifying......someone threw something(possibly a hand grenade) towards the reception of the new Taj and a big explosion took place right in front of our eyes....all the taxi drivers and the hotel staff came running out.....this was not the end.
We came towards our car that was parked just near Cafe Mondegar...while i was trying to take out my car..a mob of around 50 people came running towards me...what the hell......i came out and saw one man running out of Cafe Mondegar, bleeding from his cheek....something hit him so powerful that he could not re-collect what it was ... not a bullet as for sure ...or else he would have being dead.....still no clue what was happening.
Finally i drove my car outside the lane and when i hit the main road Opp. Delhi Darbar hotel, there were empty BEST buses were standing and i was in between two buses. I was just above 10 meters away from the Leopold Cafe and what i saw was again fire shots....this time it was the police ....all wearing bullet proof jackets and firing at someone inside the hotel....What i understand that these bastards went running from Leopold Cafe firing, towards Taj and went inside the Taj from back side.
From there somehow, after waiting in the car for around 20 minutes we rushed towards our home from metro and when i reached home at C.P.Tank I saw the news that terrorists took away one police jeep and fired and killed a few more innocents bang on the metro cinema junction.....just a few moments after we passed.
Regards
Rahul Tripathi.
Thanks & Regards.
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