Ahmedabad's richest man, Gautam Adani, saw terrorists firing away from just 15 feet away in The Taj lobby, while he was having dinner with Dubai Port CEO Mohd Sharaf. They had just finished dinner at Masala Craft and were chatting when the terrorists entered the lobby firing indiscriminately.
"Had we walked out soon after finishing dinner, we would have encountered the terrorists in the lobby. Thankfully, we decided to chat over coffee for five minutes in the restaurant after dinner and were saved," Adani Group chairman told TOI in Ahmedabad on Thursday evening.
There were about 50 persons in the restaurant at 9.50pm when attack started and lights were switched off. Panicky diners rushed in opposite direction and found themselves in kitchen. It is here that Adani spent next two hours. When his wife Priti called him up from Ahmedabad, warning him that she had just watched on TV that Colaba causeway had been attacked, he told her where he was trapped. Within minutes, Priti watched with horror the channels giving news about the siege on Taj. Staff helped Adani and other guests crowding kitchen to sneak out of kitchen basement and into open lawn. They were escorted into The Chambers, a business lounge in the new wing of the hotel where he spent the next couple of hours, talking with family and friends over phone.
"I was joking over the phone, thinking the worst was over," said Adani. But at 4am, where guests were trying to keep fear factor away, a grenade blast just outside lounge sent a scare. Adani rushed into the toilet escaping from a fresh burst of gunfire, only to find himself sharing the cramped space with two Africans.
Describing two terrorists he saw as very fair', he said things began to ease when the NSG moved in at 6.30 am. Adani said he was impressed with the professional way in which NSG went about the task. And he has come back convinced that like Israel, India should also adopt a zero tolerance policy' towards terror.
After returning to Ahmedabad at around, he found the whole Adani extended
No comments:
Post a Comment