‘Thought it was crackers… terrorist Ajmal Kasab was firing ’: 26/11 Mumbai attack victim

Heading for her uncle’s last rites, Poonam Singh and her son were also shot and injured by Ajmal Kasab at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT)

The Mahanagari Express leaves platform 15 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and on November 26, 2008, Vikhroli-resident Poonam Singh, her two sons, her father and brother were going to take it to attend an uncle’s last rites in her hometown.

Ajmal Kasab entered Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station and started firing indiscriminately during the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.(File Photo)

They reached the station early and were waiting for the train to arrive when Poonam heard explosions. She thought someone had set off fireworks. “There was the India-England cricket match that day,” said Poonam. “I thought we would have won, which is why crackers were being burst.”

Actually, they were bullets being fired by terrorist Ajmal Kasab who walked around CSMT, shooting passengers at random. Poonam and her family were among those who got caught in his line of fire. “A bullet hit me on the back of my shoulder and I lost consciousness,” said Poonam. “The next day, instead of paying last respects to my uncle, I opened my eyes in a hospital, having lost all sense of movement.” Her son Sachin, then 16, caught two bullets – one in his hand and another in his thigh. Poonam still has chilling memories of how one of her sons had demanded a toy gun when they were on their way to the station. “My father got him one, after which he kept on saying, ‘Maa, I will shoot you’. We took it lightly,” she remembered.

It took Poonam months to regain movement and fragments of the bullet remain in her body. She still feels pain when she moves her hand. Sachin has undergone five surgeries and on his left hand is a lump that acts as a visible reminder of Kasab’s bullets.

26/11 survivors Singh Family at Vikhroli in Mumba,. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

The Singhs would see Kasab in the courtroom, when they gave testimonies against the only 26/11 attacker to be captured alive. Poonam remembers feeling “utter disbelief” that someone as diminutive as Kasab could have taken so many lives.

Aside from the emotional scars that 26/11 has left upon the family, physical traces of that day’s trauma linger in Poonam and Sachin’s bodies even though they were among the first injured passengers to be rescued a few hours after the attack. “We were given compensation, but that really didn’t suffice. My wife has to be on medication constantly. She was operated again in 2012, and so was my younger son,” said Poonam’s husband, Santosh.