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Mumbai's popcorn man 'saw only blood' as he fled
By ANITA CHANG,Associated Press Writer AP - Thursday, December 4
MUMBAI, India - The popcorn man was shuttering his stall after another long day at Mumbai's chaotic train station when he heard the gunshots.
He watched a panicked crowd sprint past his peanuts and chips, dodging abandoned suitcases and crumpled bodies as they fled the two young gunmen coolly spraying the terminal with gunfire.
Rakesh Shah left his uncle's popcorn stand, the day's money still on the counter, and ran to his friend's magazine stall.
"I asked him to run, but he didn't go," Shah said. "He wanted to close the shop. And the terrorist came and shot him."
Shah hid behind his blue and yellow stall near the soaring station's main entrance, and then he fled to the stationmaster's office. He stayed there until well after the gunshots had ended.
"I was asking God to help," said Shah, 35. "I was really scared."
When he came out two hours later, he said, "I saw only blood."
The shooting at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus killed dozens, and was one of the first attacks in a 60-hour siege across India's financial capital that left at least 171 people dead.
One of the two attackers at the station was Ajmal Qasab, the lone gunman who survived the attack. Qasab is being interrogated by Indian authorities who said he confessed to being trained by the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
During the siege, the suspected Muslim militants also seized two five-star hotels and the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group.
While Indian commandos battled the militants for the next three days, Shah stayed at his home an hour from the station.
By Monday, he was back at work and commuters flooded back into the bustling station. But he said the terminal felt different and a billboard pocked with bullet holes hung above his stand, a token of the carnage.
Shah's stall is always crowded, and he can serve six customers at once. He sells pouches of buttery popcorn for 5 rupees (10 cents) a bag, along with salty peanuts, and "Magic Masala" potato chips. The popcorn machine spews smoke all day, the only ventilation a small fan in the corner, black with grease.
In the days since the shooting, the terminal has been thick with police armed with clubs and guns. Yet metal detectors outside several entrances stand unmanned and unused.
Still, it marked a significant security improvement from last week, Shah said, when "only two or three people (police) are sitting over here and they are checking luggage only. They don't have weapons and they can't attack anybody."
"We need this kind of security every day," he said.
In the meantime, Shah prepares a new batch of popcorn as new waves of commuters wash in.
"I'm just praying to God for safety and peace," he said.
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