I WAS THERE...

Two armed young men calmly walked into CST... opened fire on seeing me click photographs

Mirror photographer Satish Malavade almost got shot at CST

    Iwas on the way to Colaba after being told about firing near Leopold Cafe when I heard gunfire near CST. I got off my bike, parked it and entered the subway that led to the railway station. Passengers were running away from CST via the subway. My attention was drawn to a man sitting on the footpath. A closer inspection revealed he had been hit by a bullet. I again made my way towards CST, this time on road. Policemen had already reached the spot and were asking passengers to evacuate. I was warned about gunfire and told to turn away.
    I sneaked up the stairs to peek inside the station. I saw two men, holding guns, calmly walking towards the platforms for suburban trains from the section where long-distance trains depart. I began shooting pictures even as they walked through the metal detectors to enter the lounge. On seeing me shooting pictures, one of the men opened fire at me and a constable beside me. Thankfully, the bullets did not hit us. Some more cops immediately dragged me away from the spot. From the accounts of passers-by, I gathered that there were at least 6 armed terrorists in and around CST.
    AT CST: I SAW A MAN
    COLLAPSING AT
    THE ENTRANCE
    As soon as we heard the sound of gunfire outside our VT office, I went down with our photographer Sachin Haralkar to see crowds running towards the CST foot overbridge.The securitymen were pulling down the shutters at the main gate of the Times of India building. I walked past the VT bus stop and was at the entrance to the subway on the Times of India side when across the road, I saw three policemen standing close to the CST entrance and firing.
    Some photographers were trying to take cover behind the subway arches and shoot pictures. Then I saw a man lying on the road... I can't say if he was injured, or just trying to take cover ... I saw him moving...
    People in the crowd said he had been injured in cross-firing and was moved out of the firing line by one of the photographers. Then I heard two more shots and two loud bangs from deep inside CST, which sounded much louder than the firing. To my horror, I saw a man wearing black clothes running out and collapsing at the CST entrance. He was taken away in a police van.
    When an almost empty bus arrived at the bus stop, all the people taking cover in various places jumped out and got into it, and the bus quickly left.
    I tried to look for cover as I saw the same three policemen firing towards the CST entrance. The crowd started running towards the Times building... by the time I entered the building through the small gate in the shutter, the crowd behind me had fallen behind and an armed policeman had taken position near the building.
    — Sumedha Mahorey
    INSIDE CST:
    TWO MEN WERE
    FIRING OUTSIDE
    PLATFORM 1 & 13
    After hearing that there were blasts outside Olympia Coffee House, Colaba, I went outside to investigate. I dropped by to check at CST station and saw people hiding inside trains. Announcements were being made asking people to remain inside the trains and not to venture out.The entire suburban platforms were empty. At the long-distance platforms, we saw some people lying down on the ground.
There were two men there, carrying rucksacks, who were firing outside platform 1 and 13. They were also throwing hand grenades. On seeing us, they started running after us.We fled and the police also started running in the same direction. We hid near the Cannon pav bhaji stalls across the BMC building and saw a grenade explode outside the BMC building.Two people were firing and we saw them move towards the Cama and Albless Hospital.
A blast has also been reported in a taxi near the Santacruz airport on the Western Express highway at around 10.pm. Two reportedly died on spot. — Abhijeet Sathe
    CST STATION: COP TOOK SHOT FOR ME
    Igot a call from Taj Mahal Hotel informing me of the firing there.While leaving the Mirror office, on a bike, Satish Malavade and I heard blasts inside CST. We parked our bikes there and on stepping inside saw two men firing. After clicking their pictures, Satish and I tried stepping out of the station. That's when the terrorists followed us. Meanwhile, the cops were busy asking people to leave the station immediately. Had they not done that the toll would have been much more. The terrorists followed us and the cops outside.
    The GRP started taking their positions outside CST and we too took our positions. I found myself standing next to a man in civilian clothes. On being asked he told me he was with the GRP. He asked me to sit down saying, "The terrorists are coming this way. Sit down." The next moment there was a gunshot and he said he had been hit.
    I crawled five meteres towards Flora Fountain and asked the cops to take him to a hospital. Nobody was ready. Eventually two cops and one man in plain clothes came with me and took him away to the hospital. Had the cop not pushed me down, I might have been the one to take that shot.
    — Raju Shinde LEOPOLD CAFE: 2 MEN WITH AK-47S FIRED INDISCRIMINATELY
    Iwas buying medicines from a chemist shop next to Leopold Cafe, when the firing occured within 20 metres from him.
    "When I heard continuous gun shots, I thought them to be noisy fire crackers. But when I saw two men lying injured and bleeding on the road next to the footpath, I learnt that two men with AK-47 weapons were firing indiscriminately at people outside the Cafe. A foreigner lady was also injured, other than three others who were taken into shops that had downed shutters immediately. I could hear hand grenades being thrown too. It was unfortunate that the Colaba police was a stone's throw from there and despite it being the most secure area of the city, for almost 15 minutes, there were no cops on the scene."
    — Businessman Ajay Pancholi

This photograph was taken by Satish Malavade immediately after the terrorist (on the right) shot dead a man (left) at CST station

The man in the white shirt is the GRP man who asked Raju Shinde to sit and was then hit by a bullet

There was a blast in a taxi on a service road, off the Western Express Highway near Vile Parle, at 11.30 pm. There were two people in the vehicle at that time and both died