Armed With Just Pistols, Mumbai Police Saved Many

MUMBAI, India, Dec. 4, 2008— -- The terrorists who attacked the historic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station in Mumbai last week were thwarted by a smattering of police officers belonging to the city's Railway Protection Force, authorities said today.

Sub-Inspector Kiran Bhosale told ABC News how he and Inspector Sandeep Khiratkar and Constable Jhullu Yadav took on the two terrorists and prevented them from taking hundreds of people hostage inside the train station.

Initially mistaking the sounds of firing for firecrackers, which are popular at many Indian celebrations, Bhosale recalled the moment when he realized that two gunmen were inside the station.

"I took up the pistol and took up some bullets" before heading toward Platform 1, he said. On the way there, he said, "I suddenly saw two terrorists with AK-47 ... and I saw there were hundreds of people standing towards the opposite side of the station."

"There were two options," he said, "whether I shoot on them or whether they shoot on me and I started sudden fire on them and because of this, they started fire on me."

Bhosale's split-second decision might have saved hundreds of lives by distracting the two attackers from their murderous rampage.

Yadav attacked the terrorists from one side of the station while Bhosale and Khiratkar shot at them from the other side. The two men evaded police fire and got out of the station.

After they escaped from the station, according to Hassan Gaffoor, the Mumbai police commissioner, the two attackers "were at a loss what to do and therefore they went towards Cama hospital and they fired in Cama hospital."

"But when our additional commissioner of police Mr. Date faced them and fought with them, after injuring him very badly and killing his officer, they tried to escape" but failed, Gaffoor said during a news conference attended by ABC News.