Story of Sharan Arasa, the man whose car was hijacked by Ajmal Kasab on 26/11

In 2008 a group of terrorist stormed Mumbai in a boat to carry out attacks at prominient places. 10 members of Laskar-e-Taiba, an Islamic terrorist organisation based in Pakistan attacked Mumbai with 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting for four days.

The terrorist targeted some high-profile places including Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Hotel at the Gateway of India, Cafe Leopold, Chabad House, Cama Hospital and St, Xavier's College.

More than 160 people including 18 police officer and 2 NSG commandos were killed, 310 others were injured.

Many people remember that night only as what they heard or saw on TV, but for restaurant owner Sharan Arasa it was a personal experience.

For Arasa, the memory of the night is 'blur' when Ajmal Kasab and Ismail Khan hijacked his car. On November 26, 2008, Arasa and two of his friends were driving down to meet a friend at The Oberoi.

The streets in south Mumbai was deserted as it was late in night. Near Mantralaya(Secretriat), Arasa and his friends noticed a police car, a Toyota Qualis, approach them from the opposite side of the road. One of its wheels was flat and sparks were flying out as the metal rim dragged against the surface of the road.

Arasa and his friends assumed that the men in the car were cops, but the two men who stepped out of the police car were Kasab and his associate, two of the 10 armed Pakistanis who carried out terror attacks at different locations in south Mumbai that night.

When Kasab and his associate got in Arasa’s car and drove off, Arasa’s first thought was that he would have to explain the loss of the car to his father. “I thought my dad was going to be mad at me for losing the car. We had bought it a few months earlier.”

Eventually, the Skoda was intercepted a few feet away from a police barricade on Chowpatty and in the shootout that followed, Khan was killed and Kasab was captured alive but injured. The car, marked with bullet holes from the shootout, was returned to Arasa later. Arasa continued to use it till 2013.