Mumbai photographer: I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera. Armed police would not fire back
Jerome Taylor talks to the photographer whose picture went around the world
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Sebastian D'Souza
A gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008. Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India's financial capital, killing people, taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege Thursday, police said. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility. AP
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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."
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Comments
159 Comments
I would never ever count on a policeman to keep me safe. The upperclass who do, do so at their own peril. They probably haven't had to deal with police on a firsthand basis enough to know any better.
Posted by Orange | 22.12.08, 18:42 GMT
Crime prevention by anyone but the victim is impossible.
Unless you an afford an armed guard 24/7, or would even want that
Posted by birgit | 13.12.08, 13:53 GMT
Don't let anybody take your gun!
Posted by peter | 08.12.08, 21:22 GMT
And this is exactly why I live in the state of Virginia where we are allowed to openly carry our firearm on our side in plain view.
Posted by Michael | 05.12.08, 19:36 GMT
Just goes to show that you can't rely of the police to protect you. You must be ready and able to defend yourself from well armed evil doers. Practice often, keep your powder dry and don't obey the laws that put you at a disadvantage to criminals.
Posted by Thomas | 05.12.08, 00:44 GMT
Andy said, "concealled weapons are not the solution to terrorist attacts!" He is right with that point. My question to him is, what is the answer? What would he recommend? Just curious.
Posted by Tom | 04.12.08, 19:14 GMT
Andy, First, studies and tests have shown that a bullet hole in the fuselage would not cause rapid depressurization of the cabin. A bullet hold in a passenger window could and has sucked a passenger out of the window however, as unfortunate as the loss of that life might be, it would be better than the loss of hundreds of lives in the aircraft and 1000s on the ground. Sooo....think before you spout your mouth. Second, almost all of what you hear in the media about violence in America is grossly overstated and not balanced with the good. Having lived in Europe and elsewhere abroad, I can tell you I feel as safe in America as I ever did in Europe. Third, where you have freedom, you will have bad people who have the ability to do bad things. You also have people who are able to defend themself if necessary. Fourth...you bringing up weight and lack of selfdiscipline indicates to my you already have a great contempt for Americans. It sounds like the problem is your intollerance.
Posted by Tom | 03.12.08, 23:01 GMT
Why do cowards insist that everyone be forced to act as cowardly as they are. Many of these deaths are on their heads.
Posted by TomS | 03.12.08, 21:10 GMT
Don't you guys think all this drama was done for the death of "Hermant Karkare"?
Posted by Mobin Abrar | 03.12.08, 20:37 GMT
Hey andy, Come to reality buddy... tighter restriction laws dont work for the problem because the problem is criminals and criminals dont follow laws. Come on back to us in reality bud not the fairytale land you live in.
Posted by barry | 03.12.08, 20:09 GMT
Andy,
Your comments are not fact-based, but rather stem from your own weakness. No one, and I mean no one has the right to demand that free people of good will be disarmed so that those who choose to be helpless can feel "safer." I suspect that if it were you rather than agents of the State assigned the task of confiscating others' weapons, you'd be somewhat less enthusiastic about your desire to render everyone as defenseless as apparently are you. By the way, unless I missed something, the article upon which you are commenting was talking about terrorist attacks in India; your concern over our Second Amendment rights and our weight problems in America, while touching in their sincerity, needn't we wasted upon those of us who remain unafraid to live in freedom.
Posted by Mike Glaser | 03.12.08, 19:36 GMT
if one passenger had a gun in 9/11 attacks, they would have most likely blown a hole in the fussilage and almost certainly avoiding nothing at all other than a slightly quicker death. Think before you speak/shoot your mouth. Excuse the pun, but come on, concealled weapons are not the solution to terrorist attacts! Tighter gun restrictions are in order if america wants to tackle its internal gang/terrorist problem. Imagine a country where you can walk in off the street and walk out with a gun. Unless americans are hugely self disiplined..and lets face it, their weight average suggests they are far from it, guns should not be so easily obtainable. Hence your ludicris rates of gun crime and murder.
Posted by andy | 03.12.08, 11:51 GMT
Another reason every person in the world should carry a gun. Had the civilians been armed with guns perhaps they could have defended themselves instead of relying on cowards to defend them.
Don't let the Nazis, fascist, and communists (or anyone else for that matter) take your guns and leave you defenseless. If they already have, take them back by force.
Posted by Ben | 03.12.08, 03:45 GMT
From reading various accounts of Indian police actions and inactions It seems as though there's a cultural problem in India with utilizing violence to stop violence. Police carrying bamboo sticks is Not an impediment to terrorists bent on mascaraing civilians. But any change in direction needs to come from the top down. Stop meditating to the exclusion of real world defense measures, or die.
Posted by bluecollarbytes | 03.12.08, 02:01 GMT
I think we are not being fair to the police at the scene. I saw cctv footage of a police officer move from one side to the other of the main enterance( about 6 m wide) into the station in full view of the terrorists. He took a bolt action .303 rifle from the policeman hiding in a side passage, stepped into full view of the terrorists who were armed with automatic weapons and opened fire! Bloody terrific!
Posted by Romanoz | 02.12.08, 22:30 GMT
not all the cops ran. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7760690.stm these two guys with one .303 between them held off two of the gunmen in the train terminal, at least delaying them
Posted by Josh | 02.12.08, 20:39 GMT
Paul in Belfast,
Ghandi was indeed a great man, but you do him a great disservice by showing how little you actually understand his struggle.
Peaceful resistance works only against men with consciences. These men can be shamed into compliance because peaceful resistance turns their moral compass against them. It works only as a concerted movement against a large entity.
Peaceful resistance does not work against nihilists, opportunistic criminals, fanatics, and sociopaths. It's a shame that you can't understand the difference.
Posted by Nopal | 02.12.08, 19:17 GMT
Just like the four airplanes on 9/11 that could have been saved if even one of the passengers on those flights had been carrying concealed some people only figure it out too late that the only one that can protect you is yourself. Unfortunately some people are so dumb that they never learn.
Posted by Rocketman | 02.12.08, 19:08 GMT
This is the result of a society that demonizes guns and then expects it's police force to magically take up a weapon and defend citizens who are complicit in the demonization! What goes around comes around. This country needs to partner with the National Rifle Association quickly!!!
Posted by Jenny | 02.12.08, 19:03 GMT
This is coming from a United States Police Officer's perspective...
There will be no hiding police officer's in the United States!!! These cowards will die and die very quickly in the U.S. The terrorist are evil and are motivated my the Devil himself. My wish is that all of this will stop, but I know it was all foretold long ago. Concerning police officer's... Romans 13:4 - "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
Posted by Ron | 02.12.08, 17:12 GMT
159 Comments