Donate Now Jason Motlagh, Special to the Pulitzer Center
Virginia Quarterly Review
Over the past two years the Pulitzer Center has supported Jason Motlagh's reporting from south Asia, working in collaboration with print and broadcast outlets to produce extraordinary projects on India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Over the next four days, in an exclusive online report for Virginia Quarterly Review, Jason recounts in searing, unforgettable detail, in words and photographs, the terrorist attacks a year ago this week on the heart of Mumbai. We are honored to share this work with the readers of Untold Stories.
SIXTY HOURS OF TERROR, PART 2
The Express Petroleum station, near Nariman house, shortly after a time bomb had detonated there (Vinukumar Ranganathan).
III. "IT'S DO OR DIE"
November 26, 2008. Late Night. Nariman House.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Isaque Bagwan was sitting down for a late dinner at his Colaba home, hair still wet from a shower, when the phone
rang: gunmen were shooting up the Leopold Café. He grabbed his revolver and ran out to his car.
En route to the restaurant he heard an explosion in the near distance. The noise told Bagwan it was a bomb. One of the gunmen had hidden an explosive under a vehicle at the Express Petroleum station on Colaba causeway; its timer had triggered. Pump manager Ram Bhuwal Yadav, having locked himself inside his office after hearing the nearby gunfire, was thrown to the ground. Afraid the pumps would catch fire, Yadav sprinted outside; everyone was running away from the scene. Within seconds, Bagwan received another phone call from his superior, who directed him to reroute to the Jewish center at Nariman House, around the corner from the scene of the blast.
Expecting the worst, the decorated veteran made a quick stop at the police station to rouse a dozen constables who brought .303 bolt-action service rifles with them.
The team had to fight their way through the alley crowd to get closer. The gunmen were firing scattershot at the narrow street below, tossing an occasional grenade to stir the gathering panic. Rounds smacked on the pavement and ricocheted at random, pocking the walls of the Rex bakery opposite.
For more of Jason Motlagh's report, see his article in Virginia Quarterly Review.
For related reporting, see Simon Marks' "India's Global Ambitions," a series of reports for The NewsHour.