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OTHER STORIES RELATED TO COVER Shell-Shocked Shrine

"Abhi tak tum zinda ho (You're still alive)?"
"Jee haan. Aapki kripa se (Yes, thanks to you)."
"Theek hai. Agar zinda rehna chahte ho to upar jaane ka raasta batao (If you want to live, tell me the way up)."

WELL GEARED:(Top) NSG commandos take positions in the temple; bodies of the two terrorists (middle); the Black Cats after a successful operation (below)

Conversations at gunpoint are both rare and difficult to forget. Hari Dharia, caretaker of hall No. 1 in Gandhinagar's sprawling 23-acre Akshardham temple complex, has no difficulty recalling his brief exchange with the man who almost killed him at 5.15 p.m. on Tuesday, September 24. The interrogation ended when Dharia pointed to a step-ladder that led to the roof of a passageway at the Swaminarain sect's cherished monument (see graphic). The terrorist and his partner sprinted up the rungs in their dark blue sneakers-to the vantage point of the terrace. In the garden outside, the first of the Gujarat state commandos was already taking position. The battle had begun.

The previous 30 minutes had been pure mayhem. At 4.45 p.m., two young men—one about 20, the other maybe 25—had been dropped off in a white Ambassador near gate No. 3 of Akshardham. They had swung their bags over the 7-ft-high walls of the temple complex and clambered across. They ran towards the temple's three main halls and began spraying bullets indiscriminately, ruthlessly, like unruly children using toy guns to scare the world.

These, however, were not innocent youth gone berserk; it was the most sadist barbarism. A priest remembers a mother begging for the lives of her children-later identified as Priya and Bhailu Chauhan, aged three and four. The woman, Sumitra, had been running with her little boy and girl when she was felled by a bullet in the leg. The killer nodded to her pleas, then turned his gun towards the children and, to the horror of the mother, mowed them down.

TRAIL OF BLOOD: Advani visited the Akshardham temple after the end of the siege

KHODSINH JADHAV, 35 Supervisor sealed the shrine When Jadhav saw the terrorists fire at visitors, he rushed to the sanctum sanctorum and bolted its huge doors from inside to seal the shrine. Though hit in the foot by a bullet, Jadhav managed to frustrate any attempt to desecrate the holy spot, which would have been catastrophic. "God inspired me," he says modestly.

Akshardham's staff, with their presence of mind in shutting gates, formed the first and most critical bulwark against terrorists. Watching in shock as the terrorists mowed down visitors at the gate, temple supervisor Khodsinh Jadhav wheeled around and sped back the 200-ft-long walkway that led to the sanctum sanctorum and just about managed to bolt the huge 15-ft doors. That act saved 35 people who were offering prayers.

Meanwhile, retribution was coming. At 4.48 p.m., three minutes after the tandav began at Akshardham, Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi was told of the attack. He had just concluded a meeting with industrialist Sanjay Dalmiya when Swami Vishwavihari, a priest at Akshardham, made the SOS call to the chief minister's office. Gandhinagar district police chief R.R. Brahmbhatt was already on his way and the State Commando Force was ordered to move too.

Even before 5 p.m., BJP MLA Hira Solanki, who had come to the temple to pray, had whipped out his licensed pistol and fired in the direction of the terrorists. Solanki lost his quarry but his action confused the criminal duo, allowing some of the estimated 300 people in the complex time to escape. By 5.15 p.m., fearing a hostage situation, Modi called Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani in Delhi and asked for the National Security Guard (NSG).

In Manesar, Haryana, base of the NSG, craggy-faced Brigadier Raj Seethapathy was on the tennis court when his cell phone jangled frantically. His boss, NSG Director-General Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, had a terse message, "Get moving in 30 minutes." The brigadier heads the Special Action Group (SAG), the elite counter-terrorist wing of the NSG that specialises in hostage situations. Within the hour, Seethapathy and his men were filing into the belly of a giant Il-76 at Delhi's Palam Airport. Operation Vajra Shakti, the name inspired by the fearsome weapon of the Hindu god Indra, was on.

Mrunal (left) and Mihir with relatives

MRUNAL, 5; MIHIR, 7 Family lost three people Brothers Mihir and Moulik and their cousin Mrunal had gone to watch the multi-media show at Akshardham with their grandparents, Pundrikbhai and Harshidaben Hathi. Suddenly, two men burst in, firing wildly. When the madness stopped, Moulik (4) and his grandparents were among the dead. Mihir and Mrunal managed to run out of the hall to escape the fusillade.

Modi was in constant touch with Advani and BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu. During the confabulations, it was decided the NSG would not take prisoners.

Meanwhile, the terrorists had got off the roof at Akshardham and, dodging and firing from the corridors, sought refuge in a toilet. Outside the temple, Gujarat's famed civil society-its unity and sense of purpose had been so visible after the earthquake in January 2001-was beginning to organise itself. Crowds of locals turned into determined volunteers in a rescue operation. Chirag Patel, a college student, helped bring out the injured. Pravin Shah, a businessman, supplied free water to worried relatives. The injured were bundled into any available vehicle and ferried to the Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad civil hospitals.

By now, darkness had already set in. As the shrine's giant floodlights bathed it in an almost surreal glow, the terrorists were firing bursts and tossing grenades that set off deafening explosions and sent shockwaves reverberating through the 3,000-tonne pink sandstone marvel that is Akshardham. The state police, experiencing a terrorist strike for the first time, gave their best shot. Firing constantly, they surrounded the temple and ensured that even if the terrorists weren't neutralised, they wouldn't escape. Two state policemen-a tribal called Arjun Singh Gameti and a Muslim named Allah Rakha Unadjam-were martyed at Akshardham. They had helped hold the fort till Seethapathy's men arrived.

At 10.10 p.m., two busloads of NSG men and one busload of NSG equipment drove into Akshardham. A crowd of thousands cheered them in with cries of "Bharat Mata ki jai". Seethapathy, who had come prepared for a hostage rescue operation, found himself ducking sniper fire.

KILLING INNOCENCE: Bodies of children killed by the terrorists lying in a hospital

Unlike Operation Black Thunder II, the NSG's Golden Temple assignment 14 years ago, there were no heights where Seethapathy could position his sharpshooters. After a furious firefight, during which the SAG nearly used rocket launchers to blow up the toilet block-it desisted because Advani had given explicit instructions that the temple should not suffer damage-the terrorists slipped into a clutch of Ashoka trees in the south-east corner of the complex. It was a dark, completely secluded point from where they could see who was approaching.

Around this time, Subedar Suresh Yadav led his men down the walkway by the trees. A burst of fire hit him in the neck, between the bulletproof helmet and jacket. Yadav fell dead. To prevent further casualties, Seethapathy decided to wait till daybreak. As the first rays of the sun crept over the horizon, the commandos made short work of the two terrorists.

Relief followed the NSG's victory-but so did heavy doses of tension. The desecration of Akshardham was as much an outrage as the incineration of kar sevaks in Godhra on February 27. That incident had uncorked a blood binge in Gujarat, leading to wholesale massacres of Muslims. Modi's administration, so criticised in March this year, was on trial. From Advani, who flew in on the evening of September 24 itself, to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who cut short his Maldives visit to travel to Akshardham on September 25, his seniors warned him that a repeat of the post-Godhra violence would be disastrous.

Aside from being a severe embarrassment, it would have had an impact on the Supreme Court case on the Election Commission's (EC) decision to delay the Gujarat assembly elections. The EC's contention is that the state is "not normal yet" and free and fair elections cannot be held before late November. The last thing the BJP wanted to do was prove the EC right. On a good wicket politically-his Gaurav Yatra speeches may have upset the national media but appear to have gone down well with his constituency-the chief minister did not want an interruption in his perceived smooth ride to the elections.

Two days later, at a press conference in Gandhinagar, Modi congratulated his friends in the media for helping maintain the peace in Gujarat with their "balanced reporting". He had reason to be satisfied. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) bandh on September 26 had shut down Gujarat but was peaceful. That aside, the Congress' bandh the previous day had failed. Shankersinh Vaghela, the state Congress unit president, had seen his doughty campaign of recent weeks come to naught.