Posted on 11/29/2008 11:17:52 AM PST by Leisler
It is the photograph that has dominated the world's front pages, casting an astonishing light on the fresh-faced killers who brought terror to the heart of India's most vibrant city. Now it can be revealed how the astonishing picture came to be taken by a newspaper photographer who hid inside a train carriage as gunfire erupted all around him.
Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus. "I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the platform to try and get a shot but couldn't get a good angle, so I moved to the second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by," he said. "They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but theydidn't seem to care."
The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. "I first saw the gunmen outside the station," Mr D'Souza said. "With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles.
"Towards the station entrance, there are a number of bookshops and one of the bookstore owners was trying to close his shop," he recalled. "The gunmen opened fire and the shopkeeper fell down."
But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D'Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. "I couldn't believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn't run, we told them to stay put."
The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D'Souza added: "I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera."
Even for the police the anti-gun liberals are out to get them. There's no reason officers should have a long gun in their vehicle. They would if I was mayor or Governor.
I’ve spent a lot of time in India and have seen the inside
of several police stations in Mumbai, Puni, Acra, to name a few. One thing that is noticed immediately is the high level
of pencil pushers to the number of actual beat cops. The level of training is nothing compared to any small town cop here in the US. Another thing to remember is the fear of
any civil worker in India of doing the wrong thing. Nothing
is done without CYA and waiting for orders from above. In a strange or unusual situation, these people will refuse to act for fear of coming under scrutiny and the possibility of losing their rice bowl.
Most of them were issued the FAL. When firing a FAL in full auto, they don’t generally fire it from the shoulder because the massive recoil pushes you all over the place anyway. They’re trained to walk fire into the enemy on FA, if I recall correctly.
Terrorists all over the world seem to always make the same mistake - they spend a lot of money on rifles, ammo, and explosives and never anything on support gear like night vision devices, armor, or breathers.
They obviously aren’t stupid, not all of them anyway, but they are crazy. Unfortunately, they will learn over time.
“But what angered Mr D’Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. “There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything,” he said. “At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, ‘Shoot them, they’re sitting ducks!’ but they just didn’t shoot back.”
What was wrong with the armed policemen? Were they in on the conspiracy?
Orwell wrote about that in his 1930’s essay, Shooting An Elephant.
Basically, they came and got the white guy to shoot a rouge elephant because no one wanted to take responsibility.
That is the nature of bureaucracy, anywhere. It is its core reason for being, for taking away decision making from the individual. People thinking was thought to be a primitive and unscientific way to organize things. So bureaucracy was to have an answer, a rule for everything. If it isn’t in the rule book, then paralysis ensues. You can not have people who have given themselves over to a numbing process, suddenly wake up and become quick, independent thinking actors.
i was watching this live on IBN.com the reporter said several times that the police ‘had not yet been given permission to shoot’. there’s where the problem is. :\
“From the description, these were not trained commandos. “
From other decriptions they were trained. perhaps not to the level of our special forces or isreali though.
They weren’t some schmucks off the street is what I heard.
I can absolutely tell you with all my body, brain, and heart, if I had been in that station with a gun....I would have been firing rounds.
Added to favorites.
Sounds like the got their training with the Columbine police department.
Columbine was an entirely different situation. The SWAT team was acting according to policy, and if their actions amounted to cowardice, it was institutionalized cowardice.
In Mumbai, you had beat cops suddenly faced with an overwhelming military style assault. One might think that a sense of duty would require them to respond, but it would have taken great bravery, and a willingness for self-sacrifice. It would have been an outside chance to take out even one of the terrorists before going down.
Those guys were meth heads and wanted to die
Not true, if they wanted to die, they wouldn't have been robbing a bank, or wearing body armor, using pretty major firepower. They thought they would get away with it...As they had before.
In the the North Hollywood BofA robbery, both suspects were not only armed with auto weapons, thousands of rounds of ammo, but were wrapped in body armor in addition to home made trauma plates...LAPD was not only out gunned, but the suspects were pretty well protected...
With 18 minute both suspects were dead, as officers literally went head to head with them even though clearly outgunned.
Basically, these guys were/are nutters.
There is probably some Koranic injunction against equipment. Further, I don't think the mechanical skills and arts of Muslims is all that high. These aren't Germans.
Two poorly trained idiots shooting from a trunk of car....basically caused panic...not too many years ago.
Get the typical American gun owner within 300 yards and give them a good rifle, and they could paste 3 inch groups on the gunmans' noggins all afternoon.
mark
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