Indian-American was interpreter for attempt to save Jewish family in 26/11

New York, Nov 26 : An Indian-American professor, who spoke to the Pakistani terrorist in a bid to save the Jewish family held hostage during the 26/11 terror strike, recalled the eerie calm with which the man spoke.
P.V. Viswanath recalled in an article that the terrorist, who identified himself as ‘Imran’ and was later identified Imran Babar, demanded to speak to an Indian government official and then wanted one of his fellow terrorists, who was captured, brought to him.
The professor, a convert to Orthodox Judaism, had volunteered to interpret for Levi Shemtov, a rabbi and an emissary of the Chabad movement whose centre at the Nariman House had been raided by the Pakistan-based Laskhar-e-Taiba terrorists.
In an article for Forward, a Jewish publication, he recalled his “nearly 17-hour ordeal that soon had me in prolonged negotiations with the terrorists holed up in the Jewish centre, moving toward a deathly denouement”.
Gavriel Holtzberg, a rabbi who was in charge of the Chabad Jewish centre at Nariman House, his wife Rivka, and four others were murdered by the terrorists. His two-year-old son, Moshe, was saved by his nanny, Sandra Samuel.
Viswanath wrote that he had a personal connection because he had visited the Chabad centre and met Holtzberg during visits to Mumbai, where he had grown up.