The probe into the Wadi Bunder taxi — MH 01 J 5308 — has recorded the time of the blast between 10:20 pm and 10:25 pm, with the cab having travelled from south Mumbai to Wadi Bunder through P D’mello Road. The terrorists who attacked Leopold’s Cafe and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel had taken this cab from Badhwar towards Colaba, leaving a timer bomb beneath the front seat before getting off.

This taxi was later hired by Zarina Samshuddin Sheikh and her daughter, Reema Rabiul, from Dana Bunder on P D’mello Road to Wadi Bunder in Mazgaon. “After dinner, my wife and mother-in-law set out for Wadi Bunder. I saw them off in a taxi at around 10 pm, and by 10:25 pm they were gone,” said Mohammad Rafil Shaikh.

Earlier, at least five eyewitnesses saw eight persons alight with their luggage at the new makeshift jetty at Badhwar Park in Cuffe Parade, the point where the terrorists’ sea-route from Karachi ended. Two other men remained in the same boat and took it towards the Nariman Point stretch.

“The boat operated on a Yamaha engine of 40 horse power (hp), taking not more than a minute to reach Nariman Point,” recalled Parshuram Maher, one of several witnesses who have deposed before the police. “The other two men got down at that point and walked in, crossing the barricade.”

Among the others who gave the same statement are fishermen Bharat Tandel, Ajay Mistry, and scrap dealer Anita Rajendra Uraiyar. They all recalled that each terrorist carried two plastic bags, along with backpacks.

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