His swaggering image as he walked around Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus dispensing death was captured by Mumbai Mirror photo editor Sebastian D' souza, and was the first glimpse of the terrorists who have held Mumbai hostage over the last 48 hours.
Now we can also tell you who this man is and how he has become the vital link for investigating agencies to crack the terror plot.
His name is Azam Amir Kasav, he is 21 years old, speaks fluent English, hails from tehsil Gipalpura in Faridkot in Pakistan, and is the only terrorist from this audacious operation to have been captured alive.
An ATS spokesperson confirmed that the man captured was indeed the one photographed by us.
On the night of Wednesday-Thursday Azam and his colleague opened fire at CST before creating havoc at Metro and then moving on to Girgaum Chowpatty in a stolen Skoda, and where they were intercepted by a team from the Gamdevi police station. Azam shot dead assistant police inspector Tukaram Umbale.
But in that encounter Azam's colleague was killed and he himself was injured in the hand. He pretended to be dead giving rise to the news that two terrorists had been killed. However as the 'bodies' were being taken to Nair Hospital, the accompanying cops figured that one of the men was breathing.
According to sources, the casualty ward of Nair hospital was evacuated and the Anti-Terror Squad moved in to interrogate him. Azam who was tight-lipped initially, cracked upon seeing the mutilated body of his colleague and pleaded with the medical staff at Nair to save his life. "I do not want to die," he reportedly said. "Please put me on saline."
Ammunition, a satellite phone and a layout plan of CST was recovered from him. According to sources the young terrorist has given the investigators vital leads including how the chief planner of the Mumbai terror plot had come to the city a month ago, took picture and filmed strategic locations and trained their group and instructed them to "kill till the last breath." Every man was given six to seven magazines with fifty bullets each, eight hand grenades per terrorist with one AK-57, an automaticloading revolver and a supply of dry fruits.
Azam reportedly disclosed that the group left Karachi in one boat and upon reaching Gujarat they hoisted a white flag on their boat and were intercepted by two officers of the coast guard near Porbandar and while they were being questioned one of the terrorists grappled with one of the officers slit his throat and threw the body in the boat. The other officer was told to help the group reach Mumbai. When they were four nautical miles away from Mumbai there were three speedboats waiting for them where the other coastguard officer was killed. All the ammo was then shifted into these three spedboats they reached Colaba jetty on Wednesday night and the ten men broke up into groups of two each. Four of these men went to the Taj Mahal hotel, two of them to the Trident hotel, two towards Nariman House at Colaba and two of which Azam was one moved to CST.
Azam, who was at Nair hospital for nearly four hours, was taken away by the intelligence agencies in the early hours of Thursday to an unknown location after the hospital authorities had removed the bullet from his hand and declared that his condition stable. But it seems the police grilling was so intense that before he left the hospital for an undisclosed location he pleaded with the police and the medical staff to kill him. "Now, I don't want to live," he said.
THE FINAL SEARCH
Through Thursday, weeping relatives went from morgue to morgue, looking in that last place that one can look for one's loved ones
MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU
On Thursday evening, ground zero moved from Oberoi-Trident to the morgues of the city's government hospitals. With no definite list of those dead available, weeping relatives and anxious friends went from morgue to morgue, looking in that last place that one can look for one's loved ones.
At JJ Hospital, every time an ambulance pulled up, and a body was taken in, there was a surge of activity among the relatives. An identification, and one group would run after the trolley, the others would sit back for another half-hour wait, before another body came in.
A city pediatrician, for instance, sat waiting on a bench. "I'm looking for the body of my friend Rohinton she told Mumbai Mirror. "He had gone to the Trident to attend a dinner on Wednesday night. We waited for two days for news of him, but there was none. His wife and children are in denial, they are still waiting in front of the hotel, hoping he's going to walk out. But someone has to be practical. I've scouted all the lists of the injured, he's not on them. So now I've come here to check, without telling his wife. She would be horrified if she knew I was checking here."
She waited for a long while, then went away, perhaps to look in another morgue at another hospital. Here's hoping she will find him – perhaps among the injured… Rana, who works in a reputed private company, was going through much the same motions. His company chairman's son was dining at Trident on Wednesday night. He refused to give names but said, "For the last two days all of us staffers have been going from morgue to morgue in search of his body. Just an hour back, we located him here. He was shot on the first night itself, we could make out because his body is bloated and decomposing."
Another ambulance, another body, another surge of relatives craning. There was a breeze, bringing with it the smell of decomposition. The sheet blew off the face of a young girl's body. The horror of Wednesday night was etched on her face.
Then, there were those who got lucky. Seniya Mithaiwala was there with the body of her friend, Ami Thacker. Twenty eight-year-old Ami was a receptionist at Shanti Spa at Trident. She, along with a colleague, had been wrapping up the day's business and packing away stuff, when two gunmen had barged in and shot Ami in the neck and her colleague in the head. Both had died instantly. Two other girls had been packing up in an inner room. On hearing the gun shots, they had locked themselves up, and have been rescued later – one, last afternoon at 12.30 pm.
"The irony is that I was supposed to be on the night shift on Wednesday," said Seniya. "Ami called me and requested me to do the morning shift for her and said she'd do the night shift. It inconvenienced me and I had to stay over from the night before to do the morning shift. But I agreed. So actually, it was I who would have been at the spa, not Ami."
Seniya almost looked apologetic as she held Ami's weeping sister in her arms. Such is life. And death.
Meanwhile, it was business as usual. Cops yelled for relatives to move away, wheeled another body down to the post-mortem room… Another ambulance pulled up.
Actor's sister, brother-in-law dead in Trident shootout
Ashish Chowdhry's sister Monica, brother-in-law Ajit were dining there on Wednesday
VICKEY LALWANI
Actor Ashish Chowdhry's sister Monica and brother-in-law Ajit were among the many hostages killed at Trident Hotel in Mumbai. The security forces recovered their bodies on Friday after the flush-out operation at the Trident ended on Friday evening. On Thursday morning Ashish had told news channels, "Monica and Ajit were at the Trident for dinner last night (on Wednesday night), but now they are not answering any calls."
The couple, who was held hostage by the terrorists at the Trident Hotel on Wednesday night, was reportedly shot in the leg first and then in the head. Monica and Ajit are survived by their two children - - son aged 8 and daughter aged 5. On Friday evening we visited Ashish at his parents' home in Cuffe Parade. A friend of Ashish told Mumbai Mirror, "Ashish is shattered. He will not be able to talk to any one at this point. The bodies of Monica and Ajit have been sent for post-mortem and it is unlikely that the family will receive the bodies before afternoon." For Ashish, his parents and eight-month pregnant wife Samita Bangargi it indeed is an irreparable loss.
Gallerist Kalpana Shah's husband killed at Oberoi
He was on a business dinner at the Kandahar
VISHWAS KULKARNI
Art dealer Kalpana Shah, who usually cuts an exuberant, confident figure on the event circuit, was a distraught woman on Friday, as was everyone who had come to condole her. On Wednesday evening, Pankaj Shah left home to take some business associates out for dinner at the upscale Indian restaurant, Kandahar, one of Oberoi's culinary gems. He never returned. Pankaj Shah's ordeal was a long, hellish one indeed, as the only surviving member of their dining table, Mr Apurva, recounted when rescued at 4 pm yesterday. After taking a large number of diners from Kandahar and Tiffin hostage, the terrorists soon began counting them out, since it is only possible to tag along with those many and fight the commandos. Thus, these diners were taken to the terrace of the hotel, lined up, and then shot dead in the line of fire. Apurva survived because the man lined up next to him fell on his body rather violently, knocking him off once the execution began. The terrorists then moved on, but Apurva thus lay there with the dead, pretending to be dead, his neck badly grazed by a bullet. Then at 4 pm, when the rescue operations evacuated him, he informed Shah's family that his friends, Pankaj Shah and their lawyer friend, had not been as lucky.
Kalpana Shah's nightmare was one of 30 hours of anxiety and praying, since her husband's cell phone was not accessible since Wednesday evening. "Through all those hours, I was not praying just for him, I was praying for everyone stuck in this hostage crisis, I was praying for each and every person stuck in this hellish scenario. And now this..." said a devastated Shah to a family friend, before both broke down inconsolably.
Artist Brinda Miller was in constant touch with Kalpana Shah throughout the crisis via SMS. "Kalpana was prompt in responding to SMS-es from well wishers during the crisis. However, by Thursday evening her optimism was beginning to fade. When I texted her yesterday to ask her whether Pankaj was okay, she texted back, 'Only in my dreams.' That's when I wondered if she was beginning to lose hope," said Miller.
Aside from his wife, Pankaj Shah is survived by his mother, Rukminiben Shah, his son, Sarjan Shan, and his daughter, Sanjana Shah. It was a sad, grim moment for a woman who has always been known for her optimistic, chirpy disposition, and well-wishers who had gathered could barely keep from hiding their own sorrow.
Kalpana Shah has been running Tao art gallery for the most of this decade, having worked with prominent artists such as Chintan Upadhyay, Hema Upadhyay, among others. Her gallery has launched many names in the art market. The art fraternity present at Shah's apartment included Sangita Jindal, founder of Art India magazine, gallerist Punita Thacker of Hacienda, and artist Kahine Arte-Merchant. Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty too visited Shah's apartment to offer his condolences.
Family friends had gone to the Oberoi to collect Shah's body, even as relatives and friends were pouring into the lavish Worli apartment, horrified by the outcome of India's worst terrorist strike ever, and hopelessly sad for this deeply personal tragedy. "I don't know what I am going to say to her now after all this. There are no words for a moment like this," said Brinda Miller, her eyes welling up.
Oberoi chef saved guests and family
Emanuele Lattanzi, Executive Chef of the Vetro first helped the guests exit, then reentered to save his wife and child
KIRAN MEHTA
The Vetro, Oberoi was spared any casualties thanks to "emergency drills conducted approximately every two months at the hotel," said Lattanzi, an Italian national employed with the hotel.
When the first shots were fired, the matre d' immediately bolted shut the doors of the restaurant and ordered its approximately 25 guests and 15 staffers to make their way to the kitchen.
The staff of the hotel then led the guests safely through the kitchen to an emergency exit. Once outside, they made their way to the parking lot of the Inox from where they were assisted by the authorities.
This however did not solve a larger problem that Lattanzi was facing: his wife and 6-month-old baby girl were still at the Oberoi, and the terrorists were at large.
Initially in room No. 1002, on the first floor, Lea Lattanzi, his wife, made her way to Room No. 1025 on the same floor, to find strength with another staff member. Together they managed to keep the baby calm. Chef Lattanzi, extremely anxious about his baby daughter, requested the Indian authorities to allow him inside to deliver milk to the baby.
He said, "I know my daughter's sleep patterns and knew that she would wake up at 7 am. I also knew that there was no milk and hence she was hungry from the night before. There was no way that my wife and baby were going to make their way outside as it was unsafe due to the random firing."
With a commando leading the way, Lattanzi re-entered the Oberoi. "I was then ordered by the commando not to leave the room until they came for us." Chef Lattanzi again exited the Trident at 11 am on Friday with his family safe in his arms.
Continues Chef Lattanzi, "The Indian army and NSG forces have done a remarkable job. I am grateful to them for bringing us out of there alive."
Source:MumbaiMirror
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