10.03 pm

Firing begins inside the Taj at the Gateway of India. The two shooters from Cafe Leopold have been joined by two others in the Taj. None of them has taken the front entrance, it is believed they knew how to enter through a side entrance known to very few, via the kitchen. This is the beginning of what will be a 60-hour siege during which the world will see horrific sights of a beloved Mumbai — and Indian — icon in flames.

10.15 pm

Even as the Mumbai police and the Maharashtra ATS rush into action, cops from across South Mumbai assemble at various points and ATS chief Hemant Karkare reaches CST, there is a burst of gunfire outside the Oberoi Hotel at Nariman Point. Two gunmen stride into the hotel lobby, killing almost all staff members there. Two loud explosions follow in the next half hour. With that begins the two-day siege of the Trident -Oberoi.

10.20 pm

Nariman House, the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement becomes a target. A gunshot startles the family of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and others inside the recently renovated five-storey Jewish centre in a Colaba back lane. The pale yellow building, with its synagogue, kosher dining room and friendly rabbi, is said to have been a magnet for Israeli backpackers looking for a place to celebrate holidays while on vacation, and an important religious center for Mumbai’s small Jewish community. Someone must be lighting firecrackers, thinks Sandra Samuel, a maid at the centre. And then, suddenly, a gunman comes up the stairs. Sandra and another employee duck into a room and hide in terror as explosions and gunshots rattle the building through the night. The next morning, she will be able to run out with the rabbi’s 2-year-old son. “They destroyed everything, the lift, the dining room, everything,” she says later.

... contd.