MUMBAI: Two battle zones won. One to be conquered.The combined team of National Security Guards, the navy’s Marcos and army continued its relentless battle against the highly-trained fidayeen at Taj hotel after liberating Oberoi Trident in the afternoon and Nariman House late at night on Friday.
The holding power of the fidayeen surprised even the NSG commandos who lost the young and decorated Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havildar Gajender Singh. Unnikrishnan died battling six fidayeen holed up in the Taj while Singh fell to enemy bullets at Nariman House.
The Taj was like a battlefield with grenade explosions rocking the rooms to the left in the front portion of the hotel even as intermittent gunfire was heard till around 7 pm. The fidayeen then shifted position to rooms inside.
Sources said that the US had given information of an attack from the sea in the first week of September while the Coast Guard was alerted on November 18.
Sources told Express that a satellite phone and a GPS system has been found on Kuber, the fishing trawler used by the fidayeen.
The GPS was started on November 13 at the Karachi port. The satellite phone was used to call the LeT area commander of Muzaffarabad, Yusuf Muzammil.
The agencies have also recovered an Australian SIM card from one of the dead terrorists,which was also used to call Muzammil.
A senior NSG officer confided that given the armament, ammunition and rations at their disposal, the operation at Taj could last for another couple of days, but also added that dramatic turn of events or miscalculation by fidayeen can bring it to an a sudden end.
The commandos resorted to a cat-and-mouse game and sought to exhaust the fidayeen through continuous sporadic bursts of fire from carbines and AK 47s. “If the fidayeen have the surprise element, the commandos have time, numbers and strength of firepower on their side,” said A K Mitra, former director general of NSG.
The NSG was also wary of storming the Taj hotel because of the possible use of RDX by the fidayeen to blow up building when pushed to a corner.
