In all the madness at CSMT, railway announcer Bablu Kumar Deepak kept directing passengers away from danger, saving many lives

It was a nippy Wednesday evening on November 26, 2008; a regular day in the announcement box at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT).

Bablu Kumar Deepak had been announcing the arrival and departure of trains for around three hours, when all hell broke loose. “At 9.50 p.m., Hussain Sagar Express had left from Platform 9 and a little after that, the Pune-Mumbai Indrayani Express had arrived on Platform 13. The first bomb went off around that time and I heard gunshots,” Mr. Deepak said.

What followed was a carnage not seen by the city in its history. At CSMT alone, 52 people died and 97 were injured after Ajmal Kasab and other gunmen opened fire. “I immediately made an announcement asking passengers in the waiting area to run outside. I kept repeating, ‘Bhago bhago, bahar ki taraf bhago (run, run outside)’,” he said. Mr Deepak. saved many lives as he also asked passengers on Platform 13, where Indrayani Express had just arrived, to go to other end of the platform. “The idea was to warn people on the platform, who would not know where the firing was happening, even if they had heard it. But from where I was, I was able to see it. With my announcement, at least they would not come in the direction of the terrorists,” he said. He made a similar announcement alerting passengers on other platforms.

After making his announcements, Mr. Deepak switched off the light in his room and bolted his door. He then made two calls, one to his superior in the control room and the other to his wife. “I told her it seems like this is my last day, there are lots of terrorists who have come to the station. Initially she did not react, because I don’t think she registered what I was saying. But she understood the gravity and the enormity of the situation on seeing the news. I called her again when the coast was clear.” He had spoken to her earlier in the day, informing her that he would be doing a second shift in CSMT.

Mr. Deepak continued to make announcements through the night and was relieved of his duty only at around 10.30 a.m. on November 27, by which time he had worked 27 hours straight. “Through the night people kept coming, asking for announcements to be made for their near and dear. The first train departure announcement after the incident was made at around 12.30 a.m. for the Siddheshwar Express,” he said.

He quit his job as announcer in 2015 and joined as a clerk at the Railway Hospital in Byculla. A decade since the ordeal, Mr. Deepak remembers every detail of the night as if it was yesterday. “The one thing that has remained deeply etched in my memory is the response immediately after the attack: the way they put all the injured on hand carts and rushed them to St. George Hospital. It felt good to see humanity immediately after such an inhuman incident,” he said.