Hostages say deaths from Mumbai police error

Police told a group hiding in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel that it was safe to leave the building, a survivor told the BBC.

But members of the group were shot and killed by militant gunmen as they were making their way out.

The senior policeman in charge of the operation in the hotel has denied the allegations against his officers.

At least 179 people were killed in Mumbai last month in a militant attack, which India says was carried out by Islamist militants from Pakistan. Nine of the alleged gunmen were killed, and one is in police custody.

Two of the most high-profile targets were the sleek, sea-front Oberoi and another luxury hotel, the majestic, 105-year-old historic Taj Mahal Palace and Tower.

A prominent Mumbai gynecologist, Dr Prashant Mangeshikar, was trapped in the Taj Mahal hotel along with hundreds of other guests as gunmen stormed into the building, firing indiscriminately.

Terrified, he and others barricaded themselves into a room and waited.

Eventually, in the early hours of the morning, police officers made it through to where they were hiding and told people it was safe to leave the hotel because the gunmen were cornered on another floor.

Some went ahead but Dr Mangeshikar held back. "I was a little suspicious that the police were actually sending these guys down a different route where the terrorists were supposed to be," he said.

"I refused to move away and the people who ran ahead of me, about 20 or 30 of them, all of them died."

A dress designer from the city also told the BBC her aunt was shot dead and her cousin seriously wounded because they followed police instructions to try to leave.

HOTELS READY FOR RE-OPENING

Two luxury hotels that were stormed by Islamist militants will re-open in Mumbai on Sunday, less than a month after devastating attacks that rocked India’s financial and entertainment capital.

Guests were to check in at the Trident hotel from Sunday morning, with about 100 of the 550 rooms booked and all four restaurants serving diners for the first full day of business in just over three weeks.

A private, multi-faith ceremony "to pray for solace and a safer future in the days ahead" was to be held during the day, Trident Hotel’s president Rattan Keswani was quoted by AFP as saying on Saturday.

At the nearby Taj Mahal hotel, more than 1,000 key clients and guests have been invited for a private reception before an evening reopening of 268 rooms and seven eateries in the modern Tower wing.