The Siege Quotes

“Two hundred metres away from the cafe in Colaba police station, the duty inspector heard the rounds tumble and fizz, wondering if they were from an AK-47. ...The inspector buttonholed two constables armed with standard issue .303 bolt-action rifles. They were so antiquated that they were no longer in production in India...At most city police stations these and bamboo lathis were the only weapons available.”
― Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, The Siege

“run by a Special Forces colonel and aided by Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, a sinewy officer whom Sisodia had ordered to lead the Taj units. A product of the National Defence Academy, the elite joint services training college outside Pune, Major Unnikrishnan, a 31-year-old Black Cat instructor, could have chosen to stay behind in Manesar. But he had volunteered.”
― Adrian Levy, The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel

“This entire operation was surreal: men landing by sea, taking a city hostage, calling Austria and being remotely manipulated by handlers who seemed to be in the US. It was unlike anything they had ever imagined. Is that a problem too?, Bharti wondered. Our lack of imagination? He”
― Adrian Levy, The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel

“Several five-star hotels were mentioned as targets, including the Trident–Oberoi and the Taj. Since then there had been twenty-five further alerts, many of them delivered by the CIA to the Indian government’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, and passed on to India’s domestic Intelligence Bureau.”
― Adrian Levy, The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai

“emasculated.”
― Adrian Levy, The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai

“Their continued presence here, trapped in Chambers, with gunmen firing around them, demonstrated to him that there was no ultimate being. It was all in the roll of the dice.”
― Adrian Levy, The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai

“The only person you can reliably kill with a high-power 9mm is yourself,”
― Adrian Levy, The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai

“Pasha’s full name was Abdur Rehman Hashim; an ex-army officer in the 6th Baloch Rifles, he was handsome and battlefield savvy, and had resigned his commission after refusing an order to fight against Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora Mountains, when the Pakistan military signed up to the Americans’ ‘war on terror’.”
― Adrian Levy, The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai