Fishermen's regrets on Mumbai invaders

By Prachi Pinglay
BBC News, Mumbai

At a south Mumbai fishermen's colony, a week after the attacks that killed at least 188 people, the discussion is still about how 10 suspects got into the city by passing by their cluster of houses.

On almost any other day, the fishermen say most of them would have been out for a night walk and would have tried to stop the militants from escaping.

But almost everyone was watching the India-England one-day cricket match on 26 November.

According to the residents of the Machimar (Fishermen's) Colony, the militants entered on an inflatable dinghy at around 2100 and walked past their houses on to the main road.

The residents are not clear about where they took taxis.

The colony is about a kilometre away from Cafe Leopold - the gunmen's first target of the night. It was also close to other targets like the Nariman House and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

'Snapped'

Parshuram Meher said the suspects were dressed smartly and brushed aside some of the people who tried to stop them.

"When some people asked them who they were, they just snapped at them, telling them not to bother them. By the time we told the police, firing at Leopold had started," Mr Meher says.

Most people in this colony of about 20,000 people are engaged in fishing.

"We rarely get any strangers in this area. Not even tourists. So any suspicious people are easily spotted. And our boys are not scared of anyone. They would have just grabbed these people. Unfortunately everyone was watching a cricket match," Mr Meher says.

Fishermen's colonies are closely knit residential clusters.

They are the oldest inhabitants of the island city and are settled on several city seafronts.

After finding the dinghy, they helped the police take it out of water.

Some of the fishermen said it had a "brand new engine of a much higher capacity" and could travel long distance with speed. None of them had a modern boat like this.

'No communication'

Many of these men regularly help police in the immersion of idols during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja.

However, they say there is no regular communication with the Indian coast guard or navy with regards to patrolling.

Damodar Tandel, from a fishermen's association, said he had sent a letter warning of explosives landing on the Mumbai coast in August.

"I had submitted the letter to the police as well as officials of the fisheries' department. But no action was taken. We have complained about fake licences which have been given to hundreds of fishermen from [the neighbouring state of] Gujarat. If that had been investigated, this could have been averted," he says.

Ramesh Tandel, another member of the fishermen's association, says: "There should be better patrolling of this route. Before this incident nothing of this sort had happened but the coast guard should have modern boats just like the illegal entrants. Also, there should be vigil on the route. There is no point if you see a suspect boat but cannot chase it."

'Very courageous'

The fishermen said they could work more closely with the authorities and demanded that their young people should be employed in the patrolling unit.

"Sometimes we find that many experts don't know the sea as well as we do. Also, our community is very courageous and can take on any suspect," says Ramesh Tandel.

Since the attacks, the community members have had meetings with the police and the coast guard.

The police have also put up the telephone numbers of officers the fishermen could contact in case of any emergency.

There is extra police deployment in the area as well.

However, the fact will always linger that Mumbai's attackers slipped past their homes and the fishermen could do nothing to stop them.