'I fought with terrorists at Nariman house'

In a crucial evidence in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, an eye witness told the trial court on Tuesday that he had fought with two terrorists at Nariman house and miraculously escaped their bullets.

"They fired at me, but I ducked and escaped the bullets," Kamal Singh, who had entered Nariman House with a stick to confront the militants, told prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. Singh is the only civilian who had challenged the ultras at Nariman House, Nikam told PTI. Singh, a security guard of a private firm located near Nariman House in South Mumbai, said he heard firing shots from the five storey building on November 26 .

"I mustered courage and entered the building with a bamboo stick. On reaching first floor I saw two persons perched on the second floor facing in the opposite direction," Singh said. "I inquired from them what was the matter. One of them turned towards me. He was holding a gun. The other looked at me and said Kafir aa gaya (the infidel has come)." The terrorists then fired at him. However, he ducked and managed to escape the bullets. "I then climbed down the staircase and came out of the building as I was very scared," he said. According to the prosecution, eight people were killed in the attack at Nariman House. The terrorists had not only opened fire at the structure but also fired at people in nearby buildings as well.

The witness said the two terrorists were shot down by National Security Guard commandos in a pitched battle and he had identified their bodies at J J Morgue on January 7 this year. According to the prosecution, the slain militants were Babar Imran alias Abu Akasha and Nasir alias Abu Umar. Besides firing at people in and around Nariman house, the duo also planted bombs -- one on the ground floor of the building and the other near a petrol pump -- which exploded.

Another witness, a police sub-inspector said he too had heard sound of firing from the direction of Nariman House and rushed there. While he was running towards the building, he heard a sound of powerful bomb explosion. "I realised that this must be a terror attack because I had heard about similar terror attacks at hotel Taj Mahal and Cafe Leopold," the police official told prosecutor Nikam. A worker at the petrol pump near Nariman House also deposed saying he had heard sound of a bomb explosion from a nearby place and under its impact the office of the pump was damaged.