Original subtitles

Narrator: Islamist terrorists are hunting down westerners

in India's most luxurious hotels.

A coordinated attack brings a city to its knees.

This was India's 9/11.

Narrator: Mumbai is in flames.

There is panic on the streets,

and as the death toll rises, confusion reigns.

Woman: They didn't know at any time

if it was gonna be someone to save them

or it was gonna be someone to take them out.

Narrator: Hopelessly outgunned, the local police are no match

for the heavily-armed terrorists.

An elite special forces unit Springs into action.

We can't use maximum force. It has to be precise force.

These are some extremely motivated and brave men.

Narrator: This is the dramatic story of operation black tornado...

...the mission that puts India's elite black cats

on the special-forces map.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

in a hijacked fishing boat,

a gang of islamist militants are heading for the city of Mumbai,

formerly known as Bombay.

Their intent --

to target westerners throughout the city

in a coordinated terror strike

that will result in an orgy of death and destruction.

Mumbai is the richest, most populated city in India.

It prides itself on its Western influence.

Mumbai is a busy, crazy, hectic, wild place --

an absolute assault on the senses.

[ Horns honking ]

Mumbai to Americans is considered a wealthy city,

home to bollywood,

home to luxury hotels, luxury boutiques.

It's considered an investment city.

Narrator: Between 8:00 and 8:30 P.M.,

a gang of 10 men, all heavily armed

and with provisions to last days,

slip ashore at this point

just minutes away from their intended targets

in the heart of the city.

[ Horn honks ]

The evening is like any other -- bustling and busy

as people hit the streets and relax after work.

British tourist harnish patel was enjoying a few drinks

with a friend at the world-famous Leopold cafe.

Leopold cafe is a very popular bar, cafe,

where a lot of westerners, locals, and tourists meet

for food and drink.

I'd often walk into the bar.

It was completely packed.

Narrator: Local journalist sourav mishra was also enjoying a drink

when he saw two visitors that weren't there for the beer.

But I saw people moving around, you know,

quite a few people moving around.

They seemed out of place to me.

Must have been 15, 20 minutes in.

Suddenly I heard a gunshot...

...and what sounded like a lot of glass dropping at once.

I just hear [Imitates gunfire] and then something hits me.

Narrator: Two gunmen are firing ak-47s from the doorways,

spraying the cafe with bullets.

A lot of shouting and screaming, people rushing around.

When I came out of the door,

I realized there's something which is holding me back.

Then I see that blood is going out of my body.

Patel: There were a lot of bodies.

The floor was just covered in thick, thick blood.

And then suddenly, everything went silent,

and clearly the guy was reloading.

And it was during that round that I was hit.

[ Indistinct talking ]

Narrator: After a sustained attack,

gunmen flee into the night,

leaving the dying and wounded to their fate.

Really, it was a case

of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Narrator: Across town, a taxi carrying two more gunmen

heads for the crowded central railway station.

The Victoria terminus would be akin

to an attack on grand central.

I think the targets were fantastically chosen.

I think if you look at the station,

that's the busiest station in Mumbai.

Narrator: Mingling with the people they intend to kill,

they walk through the crowded passenger hall.

At 21:53,

the gunmen pulled ak-47 assault rifles from their bags

and unleashed a devastating hail of bullets into the crowd.

[ Machine-gun fire, people screaming ]

104 people were injured, and 58 were killed.

Sood: My first reaction when I saw the shots,

I told my wife, I said, "this is not gang warfare.

This is a terrorist attack."

What took people by surprise

was the fact that -- the way Mumbai was chosen.

Very clearly designed

to show that nowhere is safe in India anymore.

Narrator: It is now clear

that Mumbai is under a sustained terrorist attack.

But no one knows who is behind it

or where they will strike next.

We begin with a mass terror attack

in India's largest city, Mumbai...

Narrator: Millions watch as the events unfold live

across India's news networks.

Reporter: Well, this is clearly an unprecedented scale

of a terror attack on Mumbai and the center.

Narrator: One viewer is jyoti krishan dutt,

the director general of India's elite national security guard,

and after watching the events unfold,

he orders his black cat commandos to stand by.

Nicknamed the black cats because of their distinctive uniforms,

the national security guard commandos

are the ideal unit for the situation.

The national security guard was set up around the mid-1980s,

when India actually first faced the threat of urban terror.

Narrator: The black cats have two principal areas of expertise --

counterterrorism and counterhijacking.

And they are also experts in hostage rescue.

Raza: The nsg is a highly specialized force

designed and structured on the lines

of some of the world's key anti-terrorism special units

like the s.A.S., gsg-9, the U.S. Navy seals.

The men are all drawn from the Indian army.

Chandrawat: Everybody in the nsg who comes to join the mission

is a volunteer, right,

and he's put through a probation at manesar,

which is particular assault of Delhi.

Narrator: All recruits are put through a rigorous screening process,

assessing physical fitness, shooting standards,

and psychological profiling.

Raza: They look like people who have commando mind-sets,

and therefore are willing to do the unusual

in unusual circumstances.

So they look for people who are out of the box.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Those who are left in their patrol --

a brutal regime of physical training --

special-operations training,

like, for example, shooting practices,

building interventions, bus intervention,

Metro intervention, and bomb-disposal training.

And it takes anything up to one year

for a soldier to be fit to be employed operationally.

Narrator: Their extensive skills and specialized training

make the black cats India's elite special forces unit

and the ideal troops to take on the terrorists in Mumbai.

Mahalingham: They are daredevils.

They are first-rate troops, and I can vouch for that.

[ People screaming ]

Narrator: But the question is, how will they deal with a gang

of well-armed, committed terrorists

spread out across India's busiest city?

Narrator: Reports are coming in

of a series of gunfights and explosions.

Reporter: At 9:15, armed with ak-47s,

gunmen launched their first attack.

[ Gunshot ]

Narrator: The city is under a prolonged and remorseless attack

from an unknown number of highly armed

and rapidly mobile terrorists.

One did not exactly know where and what was happening,

and whatever information we were getting was from the media.

Narrator: The Leopold cafe has been hit.

So has the main train station.

Now there are reports of gunfire

at a local hospital and police station.

Time bombs left in taxis by the terrorists

detonate in different parts of the city.

Reports are already coming in

that 74 people have been killed and 147 wounded.

I think within one hour, one hour and 15 minutes,

I was absolutely sure that this was a huge story --

possibly the biggest terror attack in India.

Narrator: At this stage,

the authorities have no idea what is going on.

Instead, the best intelligence is from social media.

It was really the first time

that Twitter played a very big role in our news coverage --

people posting links to cellphone images,

people who were giving firsthand accounts.

Narrator: From the sheer number of messages,

the scale of the attacks and sense of panic on the ground

is obvious.

But with so much conflicting information,

it is impossible for the authorities

to build up an accurate intelligence picture.

BBC correspondent mark dummett

would scramble to the scene of the attacks.

It was stunning.

It was shocking that this was going on in India.

It was so confusing,

because it was taking place in lots of different locations.

I mean, at that stage,

even the government had no idea what was going on.

Narrator: The sudden assembly of the world's media

means that there is now mounting pressure

on the Indian authorities.

It later became clear that grabbing worldwide attention

was a key part of the terrorists' plan.

It was meant to last a long time.

It was meant to attract the attention of the world.

Gunfire, explosions, and terror in Mumbai.

The timing played perfectly into a Western news schedule.

Reporter: 119 people have been killed

and 315 wounded, including three Americans.

Remember, it happens at night in Mumbai.

It's daytime in New York.

Narrator: The global media coverage adds to the sense

that the Indian government has lost control of the situation.

1,000 Miles away in Delhi,

India's elite black cat commandos are on standby

and waiting to deploy.

But until the director general j.K. Dutt

is tasked by the government

to launch a counterterror operation,

they are powerless to intervene.

In Mumbai, the situation is escalating.

Two hours into the attacks,

the terrorists target two of Mumbai's most famous hotels --

the oberoi trident and taj palace,

home to around 830 guests.

These two five-star, swanky hotels

that Hollywood stars to big deal makers stay in.

So, you get a lot of bang for your buck.

More specifically, you get Americans, you get brits.

And we know that that was really the goal here --

was not just to send a message to the Indians,

but also to send a wider message to the international community.

[ Sirens wailing, explosion ]

Narrator: Reports come in of shootings and explosions

at the city's iconic taj palace hotel.

I think the image that's burned into everyone's mind

of this incident, of this event,

is that of the taj palace hotel

and the flames coming through the roof.

Whenever anybody talks in Mumbai terror,

this is the shot -- taj on fire.

[ Wailing continues ]

Narrator: With Mumbai's greatest landmark up in flames,

the terrorists are delivering a clear message --

nowhere is safe.

The fear factor was very high,

which is always one of the very first goals

of these kinds of attacks.

Narrator: Mumbai's first line of defense

is the local police force.

But this coordinated attack totally exceeds their training,

and they are overwhelmed.

Some of the senior policemen had been caught up in the violence

and the head of the antiterrorism squad from Mumbai

being shot dead.

[ Gunfire ]

When you are dealing with, you know, hard-core,

highly motivated terrorist who are willing to die

and who have been well-trained, well-equipped,

it is difficult to handle those guys

if you're a normal policeman.

Narrator: Until the black cats are called in,

the only other special forces on hand

are a few units from the locally-based marine commandos,

the marcos.

But they can do no more than try to contain the situation.

The naval commanders are not meant to operate

in these situations.

They are for a different purpose altogether,

so therefore, the militants had the freedom

to move anywhere inside the hotel.

[ Sirens wailing, whistle blows ]

Narrator: With the city's police in complete meltdown

and no one to stop them,

the terrorists continue on their rampage

at the oberoi and taj palace hotels.

[ Machine-gun fire ]

After setting rooms on fire and indiscriminate shootings,

the gunmen hunt down more valuable targets.

They were targeting British, American, European travelers.

Narrator: The hotels are full of westerners and v.I.P.S.

This presents them with the possibility

of extremely high-profile hostages.

British businessman Tim reid was trapped inside the oberoi hotel.

When I heard the terrorists getting closer to me,

my legs were shaking uncontrollably,

and all I could think about

was how painful might it be to be shot,

how quickly would it end,

and thinking about my family and my 8-month-pregnant wife.

[ Sirens wailing ]

Narrator: 1,000 Miles away in Delhi,

the director general of India's elite counterterrorism unit,

the black cats, is aware of the developments.

He has been impatiently watching the unfolding scenes on TV,

desperately awaiting government authorization to deploy.

There was a reluctance on the part of the government in Mumbai

to come to terms with the level of attack that was taking place.

Narrator: As the death toll rises,

83 people have been killed.

90 minutes after the attacks begin,

the phone finally rings.

[ Telephone rings ]

A formal request comes in from the ministry of home affairs

just before midnight.

The black cats are at last operational.

200 nsg troops suit up and do weapons checks.

From the time the word "go" was given

to the time you reach an aircraft,

you should be there within half an hour.

So within 70 minutes, you should get airborne.

Narrator: Then they race to the airport.

But they are based outside Delhi,

1,000 Miles from Mumbai.

It's going to take three hours to get there.

En route, they must start planning the operation.

But they still don't know who they're up against,

how they're armed, or what their aims are.

At this point, their only source of information is the press.

Gunfire can be heard from inside the Taj Mahal hotel --

another sign that the attackers were well-armed

and well-prepared

to launch what some here are calling India's 9/11.

Narrator: Mumbai, India.

By dawn on Thursday the 27th of November,

hundreds of journalists had arrived

at the besieged taj palace and oberoi hotels,

where up to 830 guests are staying.

I remember the rope line coming up outside the taj

for the journalists.

In hindsight, it wasn't very safe.

It was not -- the distance was not very far.

[ Gunshot ]

You know, some of the bullets, you know, sort of flew overhead.

You know, so maybe we shouldn't have been there.

[ Gunfire ]

Biswas: And we knew it was serious.

The taj were under siege.

The other hotel, oberoi, was under siege.

People were trapped inside.

I think everyone was in shock.

People didn't know what was gonna happen next.

Narrator: In the absence of any official government announcement,

people begin speculating as to who is behind the attacks.

Originally when we first reported the story

on the very first day,

the fact that there were multiple targets

and multiple sites involved,

these were all Al-qaeda hallmarks.

Narrator: But whilst the black cats are in transit,

there's a breakthrough.

Indian intelligence intercepts cellphone conversations

between the gunmen and their controllers.

From this,

they learn the controllers are based in Pakistan.

Now they know who is behind the attacks and what their aims are.

This was an attack by l.E.T., a Pakistani terrorist group

also known by the name lashkar-e-taiba.

And their whole mission is to campaign

for the mujahideen in Afghanistan

and also for the release of muslims and to free kashmir.

Narrator: The region of kashmir in the northwest of India

also borders Pakistan,

and its ownership has been heavily disputed

by the two countries for over 60 years.

The general impression in the west

was that the lashkar-e-taiba

is a kashmiri liberation organization.

It is not.

It's a Pakistani jihadi organization.

Narrator: This militant organization

had been involved in previous attacks on Indian soil,

including train bombings

and an attack on the parliament building in Delhi.

Reporter: An islamist attack on India's parliament in 2001

left a dozen people dead

and prompted India to send a million troops

to the Pakistani border.

The lashkar has three enemies...

...the christians, the Jews, and the hindus.

It's also a philosophy that Al-qaeda believes.

Narrator: Now they know who's backing the attacks.

The security forces know

the terrorists' mission won't end in surrender.

They came to die, perhaps.

And when you are in that state of mind,

then it becomes very tough to deal with the guy.

Narrator: Just how fanatical the terrorists are

is made clear by intercepted cellphone conversations

between the terrorists and their Pakistani-based handlers,

transcripts of which were later declassified.

Man: Everything is being recorded by the media.

Inflict the maximum damage.

Keep fighting. Don't be taken alive.

[ Machine-gun fire ]

Kill all the hostages except the two muslims.

Keep your phone switched on so we can hear the gunfire.

Kill them!

The gunmen at first were firing an incredible number of rounds,

and they seemed to be very heavily armed.

I heard the gunfire getting closer and closer

and fully expected them to find me.

[ Machine-gun fire ]

Narrator: In the lobby of the oberoi hotel,

guest Tim reid watched

as nine staff and three guests are gunned down.

Miraculously, the gunmen pass right in front of Tim.

At that point, they must have been,

you know, five, six, seven feet from where I was,

but they weren't looking for me.

They were looking at the restaurant.

Narrator: As 13 diners are being murdered in the restaurant,

Tim makes a desperate break for it.

Reid: You know, you're running,

and you're hearing gunfire behind you,

not knowing if at any moment you might, you know,

feel that pain and fall to the ground.

When I ran out of the oberoi hotel onto the street,

there was thousands of people panicking,

running one way,

and then running again when the next grenade went off.

Narrator: 3½ hours into the attacks, and chaos and confusion

continue to grip the population of Mumbai.

And the terrorists have one other target.

This is the chabad house --

a Jewish community center and synagogue

located in a five-story building

down a densely populated, narrow street.

[ Speaking Hebrew ]

Narrator: It's home to American-born rabbi gavriel holtzberg

and his wife, rivka, who is six months pregnant.

Information from the intercepted cellphone conversations

prove they are seen as key targets by the controllers.

Man #1: Every individual you kill there is like killing 50 elsewhere.

Get rid of those people. Kill them.

You never know.

Firing may start, and they may be left behind.

Man #2: By God's wish, it is all quiet. No movement here.

Man #1: No, no! Not right!

Narrator: The controllers urge the terrorists on to kill Jews.

Man #1: Have you done the job or not?

Man #2: I will do it now in front of you.

I was waiting for your call.

Man #1: Do it in the name of God.

Do it in the name of God.

[ Woman screams ]

[ Gunshot ]

You killed one?

Man #2: Both together.

Narrator: Rabbi holtzberg and his wife, rivka,

are murdered,

along with their unborn child.

Four others are taken hostage.

They got Americans who also were Jews,

so in one fell swoop, they sent a whammy of a message.

They had even said later that an American Jew or a Jew alone

was worth 50 of anybody else.

Narrator: Meanwhile, across Mumbai

in the luxurious taj hotel,

the terrorists can be heard enjoying themselves

in the intercepted cellphone conversations.

Man: Did you see the paintings on the wall?

The bathrooms have gold taps.

There are tvs with 13 screens.

Obviously they were kind of overwhelmed by the luxury,

and the taj, of course, is really the epitome of luxury

in terms of hotels in India.

It's ironic that human life was not considered valuable,

but that wretched TV was.

Narrator: The level of coordination is revealed

as the controllers issue orders.

Man: I can't see any flames on the television pictures.

I said set fire to them.

[ Telephone rings ]

Narrator: Arriving in Mumbai at 5:00 A.M.,

eight hours after the attacks began,

j.K. Dutt and his senior black cat officers

set up a command post and start planning their operation.

The command comes in to tell you what the task is.

Thereafter, the place and time of the operation

is decided by the post commander.

Narrator: Dutt and his team quickly assess the situation.

They know they are dealing with three locations --

the two hotels and the Jewish outreach center.

Mahalingham: The targets were split,

and the main target, the taj hotel,

was a huge, big area.

Narrator: But they are hampered by a lack of information.

There are no detailed floor plans of the hotels available,

and no one even knows how many terrorists or hostages

are still holed up in each location.

Mumbai was administratively in a state of paralysis

for some time,

and no information was provided to them

actually of the target area,

so they had to do a lot of guesswork and improvise,

which took a huge amount of time.

Narrator: What makes it worse is that their enemies

clearly know the locations better than they do.

To my mind, somebody didn't vacate the place.

Taj palace was a specific target.

The trident was a specific target.

Chabad house was a specific target.

[ Sirens wailing ]

Narrator: The problems become clear

when the black cats try to establish a perimeter

around the target buildings.

The locations had been well chosen.

All are in heavily built-up areas.

Right in the center of Bombay

with roads, population, buildings --

all sorts of things all over the place.

Narrator: The chabad house is in a narrow street.

With one entrance, it is easy to defend

and difficult for the black cats to storm

without endangering the lives of hostages.

We cannot go with all guns blazing in a scenario like this.

No, certainly not.

You can't use maximum force. It has to be precise force.

Narrator: The hotels, on the other hand,

have multiple entrances and exits.

Hotels are even more difficult to clear out

because there are hundreds of rooms,

and you have to go from room to room to room.

Narrator: Even worse, the eyes of the world are upon them.

Orders are given to minimize collateral damage,

and yet, somehow,

the black cats have to hunt down the terrorists.

Narrator: It's the second day of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Pressure is now mounting

on India's elite counterterrorism unit,

the black cats, to pounce.

The terrorists can definitely not win.

Let's get that absolutely clear.

Sood: You've got to hit them hard and immediately,

so that he knows that either he's gonna be captured

or he's gonna die.

Narrator: With the lives of hundreds of guests and hostages at stake,

meticulous planning and preparation is vital.

Guttman: I think it's very hard to imagine

the kind of logistical challenges that were involved

in locking down all of these sites.

Narrator: In his final briefing to his officers,

j.K. Dutt, the head of India's national security guard,

has four key points -- no loss of innocent life,

try and take the terrorists alive,

minimize collateral damage,

and screen hostages

to prevent terrorists slipping through the net.

With the plans finalized,

black cat commando squads are deployed

to the Jewish chabad house and the two five-star hotels.

Leaving the police and marine commandos

guarding the perimeter,

the black cats swing into action,

and at 6:20 A.M., they enter the oberoi hotel.

Operation black tornado is under way.

So the nsg had to make its way through multiple rooms,

multiple floors like all five-star hotels.

Narrator: With no detailed plans of the hotel,

they are forced to improvise.

Chandrawat: It's a massive building, right?

And whatever information they got on the hotel and its layout

must be from the hotel staff.

Narrator: The nsg use the service stairs

and climb to the 21st floor.

We generally prefer

to tackle a target from a higher to a lower ground.

Narrator: Now they start a top-down sweep of the hotel.

They move down through the building,

clearing each floor as they go,

gradually herding the terrorists into a corner.

But it isn't easy.

You have to identify these people,

otherwise you will end up killing some guest

inside the hotel.

Narrator: Armed with German heckler & koch mp5 submachine guns,

the men begin their meticulous room-by-room search

of the hotel.

As guest are rescued,

they're shepherded to safety outside.

Transcripts from the intercepted cellphone conversations

between the terrorists and their controllers

reveal what happened.

Eight hours after entering the hotel,

at 2:00 P.M., on the 18th floor,

the terrorists are finally cornered by the black cats.

Man #1: The room is on fire. I'm in the bathroom.

Man #2: Try breaking out using a grenade.

Man #1: I've used up all the grenades.

Man #2: Be brave. Don't be afraid.

God and heaven are waiting for you.

Man #1: God willing.

We try and capture the terrorists alive

if it is possible so that you could get maximum information.

But if it is not possible, so be it.

Narrator: Part one of operation black tornado

to free the oberoi hotel

is a success.

Although 24 guests were murdered,

both terrorists have been killed and 143 guests rescued.

A mile away, across the city, the black cats are in a standoff

with the terrorists at the Jewish center.

Having locked down the perimeters,

they're unwilling to storm the building

and endanger the lives of the hostages.

They are further hampered by the media,

who are inadvertently providing free intelligence to the gunmen.

What was very interesting about the way these attackers operated

was the fact that they were monitoring the press.

Biswas: It was all live.

There was no time delay

between what was being shown and what was being reported.

Narrator: This meant

the controllers were able to alert the terrorists

to the helicopters buzzing the building.

After carefully analyzing the intercepted traffic,

intelligence agents believe

all the hostages may have been executed.

In the full glare of the cameras,

they launch an aerial assault.

The people who organized this operation

were watching those tapes

and telling people inside on mobile phones that,

"look, guys, there is a commando operation,

aerial commando operation, coming in."

Narrator: At 7:30 A.M.,

nsg commandos fast rope from an Indian air force helicopter

onto the roof of the chabad house.

The assault is captured on the cellphone intercepts.

Man: Firing has started.

I think there is a helicopter on the roof.

Take cover! Move now! Do it! Do it!

Narrator: With suppressing fire from the terrorists

and covering fire from snipers,

they begin hunting down the terrorists.

Man #1: They're firing into our room.

These people knew.

I have been hit! I have been hit! Pray for me.

Man #2: Where have you been hit? Where have you been hit?

Man #1: In my side and in my leg.

[ Machine-gun fire ]

Narrator: After a fierce gun battle,

both terrorists lie dead.

The black cats have scored another success.

The terrorists in the oberoi hotel have been neutralized.

So have the terrorists in the Jewish chabad house.

The black cats now face their greatest challenge --

the imposing and iconic taj palace hotel.

Guttman: I think for Americans,

the taj palace hotel could be equivalent to the park Plaza,

the Waldorf astoria.

Raza: Because there are hundreds of rooms

and you have to go from room to room, floor to floor,

it's an enormous task.

Narrator: Guests inside the hotel

include v.I.P.S and politicians,

their caliber and status compounding the difficulty

of the operation.

Not only are they potentially valuable hostages,

they're amongst the world's elite.

Any mistakes here will be hugely embarrassing.

What is important for the troops there

is to make sure that whenever they use their weapon,

they do use it properly

and that no collateral damage

or no innocent civilian is killed.

In this kind of a scenario,

killing a terrorist does not become a priority.

Priority is to take the hostages out.

Narrator: The nsg assess their options.

They can't simply storm the hotel.

They need a methodical approach.

But for this, they need detailed floor plans.

Yet once again, they don't have them.

Raza: The problem was

that the nsg was not provided with any maps of the location,

'cause apparently those maps are not available

either with the hotel or the civil administration.

Narrator: The only information the nsg could pick up

were basic hotel room guides.

They didn't show service lanes, passages, or corridors.

However, the terrorists clearly knew

the taj palace layout inside out.

I give full marks to the planners there

sitting across the border.

They had this operation meticulously planned

months in advance.

They say all warfare is based on deception,

and they were completely able to surprise everybody.

Narrator: The black cats realize

the terrorists could use their superior knowledge

of the taj's layout to their advantage.

By only operating from areas with multiple exits,

they will be difficult to contain.

So, with the odds stacked against them

and not even knowing how many gunmen they are facing,

the black cats prepare to move in.

Once they'd given the word "go," they don't look back.

They don't say that, "I don't have intelligence."

Whatever they have, you make do with that,

and you just get on with it.

Narrator: Trying to locate the terrorists

and free the hostages

means breaking into and clearing all the rooms.

Every step was an obstacle for them.

I know for a fact a lot of those were jammed.

Therefore, you will have to prepare an explosive device

to break open the entrance.

Narrator: This is a painstaking process.

It will take time to thoroughly check each area.

And in a hotel with over 500 rooms,

this could take days.

That had to be done very methodically and carefully,

and that is why they took a lot of time.

[ Pounding on door ]

Narrator: To make matters worse,

hotel guests had been told to lock themselves in their rooms.

Most people are too scared to open their doors,

terrified of who may be on the other side.

Narrator: As the Mumbai terror attacks move into their third day...

[ Explosion ]

...the battle for the iconic taj palace hotel is raging.

They came to cause maximum damage,

and because it was a televised operation,

the whole world is watching for 60 hours,

they wanted to prolong it as long as possible.

Narrator: India's elite black cat commandos

are battling an unknown number of terrorists

who are well-armed and highly mobile.

Here was India sending in its top troops,

and I suppose we thought it would be over pretty quickly.

Narrator: But with over 500 rooms to clear

and hundreds of terrified guests hiding throughout the building,

this cannot be a quick operation.

What we didn't know is when it would end.

And by the time the siege went on and on and on,

we realized this was getting very sticky.

[ Explosion ]

Narrator: Moving through the hotel,

the black cats need to keep their tactics fluid

and respond to situations as they arise.

When you're a soldier, you go into an operation,

you will give your best for the first 12 hours.

After that, you start tiring out.

But despite that, they went on and on,

and I take my hat off to them, what they did.

I think they were against all odds.

Narrator: By midnight on the 28th of November,

the black cats have been fighting for 30 hours.

Please don't shoot us! Please!

They have rescued over 200 guests

and led them through the corridors to safe areas.

Now they can focus on the remaining terrorists.

We are going through the entire hotel,

through the corridors, through the rooms.

Until we are able to check each and every room,

I will not say that my operation is over.

Narrator: With 90% of the hotel now cleared,

the black cats believe they've cornered

the remaining terrorists in one wing of the hotel.

Heading up a staircase, contact is made.

[ Gunfire ]

It's an ambush.

They're caught in the crossfire.

The black cats have a senior man killed --

major sandeep unnikrishnan.

Spurred on by his death, the black cats press on,

forcing the terrorists to fall back.

[ Gunfire ]

[ Sirens wail ]

In the early hours of Saturday, the 29th of November,

56 hours after the terrorists entered the hotel,

there are a series of loud explosions.

[ Explosion ]

But for the world's media assembled outside,

it is unclear what is happening.

We were given briefings by the chief of the commandos.

When we first exchanged fire,

we could have got those terrorists.

But for trying to avoid the casualty of the civilians,

we had to be that much more careful in our fighting.

Information was very scanty, was very sketchy,

because it was a siege situation.

The commandos had gone inside,

and there was a lot of fighting going on.

[ Gunshot ]

It was slightly strange.

We were reporting on a battle which was going on in a building

just a few hundred yards in front of us.

We couldn't see the battle because it was all inside.

Narrator: But one thing is clear --

for the terrorists, every second on TV is a victory,

as the intercepts show.

Man: The atmosphere is good.

After watching the TV reports,

the whole city is feeling the destruction.

More than 250 are injured across the city.

You have worked well for God.

Narrator: Finally, after two straight days of fighting inside the hotel,

the black cats have cleared entire floors

and are pressing the terrorists hard.

Our commandos are so very well-trained,

there is no question of the terrorists escaping.

So, the problem is find out where he is,

spot him, and fix him.

Narrator: By now, the black cats have also learned

one critical piece of information from the intercepts.

There are four terrorists in the hotel,

and they're steadily eliminating them.

Raza: People began to count one more knocked out,

one more knocked out.

So, the body count was being kept track of.

That was a sign things were coming to an end.

Narrator: By dawn on the 29th of November,

the siege is in its end game.

There are just two terrorists left,

and they're cornered on the first floor.

[ Machine-gun fire ]

In an intense exchange,

the black cats fire a hail of bullets

into the terrorists' position.

Outgunned and outmaneuvered,

the terrorists' deadly onslaught of murder and mayhem

is finally over.

After three days and the death of 170 innocent people,

as well as the serious injury of 304 more,

the city is left with terrible scars.

How dare somebody from across the border

come right into the heart of the country

and kill innocent people!

For what?

The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent,

but terror will not have the final word.

People of India are resilient.

People of India are strong.

The comparisons to 9/11 are fair.

I think they're valid. I think this is India's 9/11.

I think if any good came of this,

it's that India was forced to have a day of reckoning.

Narrator: There are clearly lessons to be learned.

The government took too long to react,

and called in the elite commandos far too late.

The nsg apart, India as a whole learned a few lessons.

One is that we must have a more decentralized system

of dealing with terror attacks.

Narrator: Since then, changes have been made

to India's counterterrorism plans.

Well, we are better prepared, yes.

We're better prepared than we were then.

But I hope to God it's never tested.

Narrator: Operation black tornado was a success for the black cats.

The nsg were really up against it.

They were confronted with an enemy

that had a number of hiding places,

a lot of armory,

and they did a great job to take them.

Narrator: Even though they had minimal intelligence

and faced a well-prepared enemy, they defeated the terrorists.

I remember seeing the nsg commandos

in their sort of black overalls,

looking absolutely exhausted.

You know, I was in no doubt that these were

some extremely, extremely motivated and brave men.

Raza: Out of 100-odd men deployed,

they knocked off 10 heavily armed terrorists.

So, the nsg's ratio of killing terrorists

in such an operation

in my mind would be perhaps one of the highest in the world.

Chandrawat: It's a great organization.

It has always come out, you know, with flying colors

in any operation they've been deployed.

And it is to their credit

that they did this job with minimum number of casualties.

Narrator: Operation black tornado shows terrorists and the world

just what the black cats are capable of

and the lengths they'll go to to get the job done.