fineleg Posted November 29, 2008 Posted November 29, 2008 They were barbaric and sadistic: NSG commando says The terrorists achieved what they wanted to and have managed to send out panic waves across the country though they were defeated at the end. While precise planning was the key to their success another reason why they managed to keep the security forces at bay for such a long time was because they had kept hostages with them. NSG commandos, who took part in the operation, told rediff.com that the terrorists were "sadistic and barbaric". "Although we cannot reveal the exact nature of torture meted out to hostages, we can say that the hostages were not given food or water for the entire three days," he said. The NSG commando says that some of the guards and the guests were tortured and some of them were bled to death. A guard and a guest were found dead in a room. They were stripped, beaten, their legs chained and were bled to death. This only goes on to show how sadistic they were by nature. The NSG is still unable to confirm how many people terrorists had been kept hostage. Not all were kept in the same room, the NSG commando said. Some hostages who were kept together were moved by the terrorists from floor to floor. Every time they wanted to move from floor to floor and shift the hostages, they hurled grenades to distract the NSG. The major part of the damage and torture of the guests were committed before the NSG stormed the building. As most of the guests hid in their rooms and bathrooms, terrorists stormed into their rooms and shot them dead. Only a handful of hostages (around25) were with the terrorists. The NSG commando says that it is highly unlikely that the terrorists could have given the hostages any food or water. The terrorists themselves had very little supply of food and we were aware that they on two occasions did manage to smuggle in food from the store room, the NSG commando also said. The hostages who were with the terrorists were kept in a room and were made to kneel down on the floor at all times. It looks like they killed at least five hostages every day. However, most of the hostages were killed on the last day of the operation when they realized that the battle was coming to an end. Barbaric Ba$tards. NSG would have wanted to finish these cretins quickly. They (NSG) moved slowly and cautiously because they wanted to SAVE THE HOSTAGES. Very tough choice for NSG. Its a tough choice for NSG - on one hand they are moving slow because they want to save hostages, on the other hand, it seemed clear these ba$tards wont let the hostages escape when end game neared.
fineleg Posted November 29, 2008 Author Posted November 29, 2008 A Commando's account: 'Terrorists gave up on Day 3, killed hostages' Vicky Nanjappa & Krishnakumar P | November 29, 2008 | 18:02 IST The 60-hour terror showdown finally came to an end at the Taj Mahal Palace on Saturday. As the entire world watched the drama unfold, National Security Guard commandos braved all odds to fight terrorists for nearly 60 hours in the Taj hotel. One of the commandos, who was part of the action, described to rediff.com how the drama unfolded and the ordeal they underwent to flush out the terrorists who had held the entire city ransom. The commando, who did not wish to be named, said the battle was over at 3 PM on Friday itself. The terrorists had started to lose motivation at 3 PM on Friday. In his own words, the NSG commando says woh log toh bore ho gaye. 'On day one, when we began the combat, these men were extremely aggressive. We had just entered the hotel and realised that they were in a very strong position. On the second day, it looked like they were losing ground. However, they did not seem to be giving up. 'The exchange was fierce between both parties and they resorted to hurling grenades several times in order to block the route for us. It was actually the third day that made the difference. The exchange of fire escalated and we decided to engage in the fire and not let up. This gun battle in fact broke them and we took the upper hand in the battle.' The mindset of the terrorist: � 'As I had pointed out earlier, these terrorists were aggressive by nature. They were running about and most of the time they were cursing us in Hindi. They looked determined to fight till the very end. However, on day three we saw their attitude sagging. 'We continued to fire at them and they retorted only with a single shot. That is how low their morale was. Unlike the first day when they were coming on to us and firing back, day three saw them taking cover most of the time. They kept hurling grenades at us. However, that too came down when we retaliated. 'The terrorists hardly spoke and we could never hear their conversation. On day three, when they realised that they were losing the battle they began screaming and cursing us in bad language. I think they were speaking in Hindi. The final assault: 'After we realised that their position had weakened, our next aim was to step in save the remaining hostages. But we realised that we had approached the end game and so did they. As the night wore on they began killing the rest of the hostages, who they had kept in a room. There was nothing we could do about it. 'When we realised that they had no more hostages left to use as a shield, we began increasing the pressure and began pushing them to a corner and got ready for an all out assault. By 6 AM on Saturday, we had them totally cornered. They were all killed in the ensuing exchange. 'During the last few minutes, both hurled grenades at each other and due to this a part of the building caught fire. The last of the terrorists was caught in the fire and he fell off the window and lost his life. The numbers: 'A total of 180 commandos were involved in the operation. Some of us took a break from time to time. Some of us briefly even went to the Nariman House to finish off the operation. 'During the operation at the Taj, we saw there were more than 8 terrorists. However, we do not know how many civilians were trapped in the building. Tactics and weapons: 'The idea of the terrorists was to continue fighting for as long as possible. They too were aware that their battle could be on only until they had hostages as human shields. They had with them AK-47s and hand grenades and it looked like they had a lot of ammunition on them. 'All through the battle they tried to keep us away from them. We also do not rule out that they were even trying to bring the building down by starting fires all over. We had at our disposal a host of automatic weapons and stun grenades, which we used with great effect to scare and disorient the terrorists.
varun Posted November 30, 2008 Posted November 30, 2008 'After we realised that their position had weakened, our next aim was to step in save the remaining hostages. But we realised that we had approached the end game and so did they. As the night wore on they began killing the rest of the hostages, who they had kept in a room. There was nothing we could do about it. That is .. sad. Why couldn't they do anything about it ? There were just 2 of them for chrisssake. I'm sorry but however much we want to give accolades to the commandos, but the sad bit is that there were 180 against 2, and we couldn't save a single hostage. I hope there wasn't any lack of planning.
fineleg Posted November 30, 2008 Author Posted November 30, 2008 That is .. sad. Why couldn't they do anything about it ? There were just 2 of them for chrisssake. I'm sorry but however much we want to give accolades to the commandos' date= but the sad bit is that there were 180 against 2, and we couldn't save a single hostage. I hope there wasn't any lack of planning. Varun, I too have the same feeling, I wanted to post similar thoughts to what you posted above. I did not want to post something questioning the NSG after they have sacrificed so much. But, I do have concern abt why they could not do anything when the cretins killed 5 hostages after every few hours or so. If they are anyway killing hostages, then should the NSG have just blasted the hideouts rather than go slowly and carefully. Slowly was mainly to save the hostages, who anyway the cretins were killing. NOT JUST killing, but they were TORTURING the hostages as written above. So, no point hostages enduring torture for a long time, while a slow operation is being performed.
Rajiv Posted November 30, 2008 Posted November 30, 2008 Its shocking to see this in Mumbai, always saw this in Iraq, Kashmir and Maderchotstan but in mainland is just too much to take
veer Posted November 30, 2008 Posted November 30, 2008 Varun, you can say that now since you know how many terrorists were there.. and no one survived.. but those two were 'unknown' factor when they went in there..
DomainK Posted November 30, 2008 Posted November 30, 2008 Yes, these things are coming to light only after the operation is over. At that time, the commandos would have no idea what was happening inside.
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