The elite National Security Guard (NSG) was under pressure to use gas to neutralise the heavily armed Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists during the Mumbai terror attacks last year but the idea was shot down for fear of repeat of another Russian theatre disaster.

J K Dutt, who then headed the NSG and the operations in the two luxury hotels - Taj and Trident - and the Jewish house in Mumbai, dreaded the use of gas because he did not want casualties that could have been more than what the terrorists would have caused.

He actually feared a repeat of the 2002 Moscow theatre hostage crisis during which the Russian forces had used an unknown chemical agent into the crowded theatre where about 40-50 armed Chechens held over 850 hostages.

While about 40 attackers were killed by the forces, about 130 hostages were killed by the toxic substance aimed at subduing the Chechenyan rebels.

"....But inside a hotel (Taj), when people are inside a room, if gas is let, how does one know that there are no heart patients, asthma patients and children inside. "I may be causing more casualties than the terrorists.

In fact, if you surf the Internet and look at one of the incidents that occurred in Russia... it had disastrous effects," Dutt told PTI in an exclusive interview recalling the horror that started on the night of November 26.