The 2008 Mumbai attacks (now referred to as 26/11) where more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by self proclaimed Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan. The attackers received assistance before the attacks, Ajmal Kasab later claimed upon interrogation that the attacks were conducted with the support of Pakistan's ISI. The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday, 26 November and lasted until Saturday, 29 November 2008, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308. The Taj Mahal Hotel, The Trident Hotel, CST Railway station, a Jewish home Chabad House and café Leopold was the focus of attack and suffered the most.
The memories of that day when I was travelling to Bangalore for work… On reaching the hotel and switching on the television( which incidentally is the first thing I do when I enter a hotel room) I see that city of mine which I had left just 3 hours back in pandemonium. Those images on TV with the police paramilitary on the streets of Mumbai and all channels are showing the same image of CST and some firing happening. On an impulse I call up home to find if all well, my friends and family and then further pandemonium as the cell fone and telephone lines were jammed messages not going through. Somehow I got through my mother and some close friends and managed to find out about most people I was concerned for since they either lived or worked near the places of attacks.
Work was all forgotten all I wanted to do was get back home. I managed to get through the next day my heart and mind in my Mumbai and me physically in Bangalore. My flight to Mumbai cancelled that day and I was forced to spend another day just watching my Mumbai burn.
As I write this I have a lump in my throat, caused by seething anger that someone can just walk in and start killing my people and we can do nothing but wait for JUSTICE to take its course to teach that MURDER a lesson.
To watch the perpetrators of the crime holding people of my country / city to ransom was blood churning. For the second time in my life I saw the Rapid Action Forces on the streets of Mumbai (the 1st was during the riots in 1993) and for the 1st time I saw the Marine Commandos (MARCOS)and National Security Guards (NSG) commandos.
The damaged Oberoi Trident Hotel
The burning dome of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower
On November 29 2008, When Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata entered the Taj Mahal hotel around 0800 hrs this morning, one of the first persons to receive him from among the hotel staff was Karamveer Singh Kang, Taj's general manager.
A visibly moved Tata asked him to take rest, but Kang pleaded with everybody around to allow him to continue his work. The GM had lost his wife, Niti Kang (37) and sons Uday (15) and Sameer (5) in a fire caused by a grenade lobbed by the terrorists in their suite on the sixth floor on Wednesdaynight.
Niti and her children could not escape from the front door as the terrorists were firing indiscriminately. Kang, who was busy guiding other guests to safety, spotted the blaze in the suite and rushed to the fire department personnel to do something that could help save his wife and children. Their charred remains were found in the toilet where they were hiding.
The pride of Mumbai Taj Mahal Palace and Tower in Flames.
Chabad House after the attack
The sights and the memory of that day still fresh in my mind.
The timeline of the attack clearly shows what a well orchestrated attack on the largest city in India
Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant organisation, considered a terrorist organisation by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations, among others. The Indian government said that the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers were in Pakistan. On 7 January 2009, Pakistan's Information Minister Sherry Rehman officially accepted Ajmal Kasab's nationality as Pakistani. On 12 February 2009, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik asserted that parts of the attack had been planned in Pakistan. A trial court on 6 May 2010 sentenced Ajmal Kasab to death on five counts.
The Mumbai terror attacks had forced the government to review security measures in order to avert a repeat of 26/11 and as much as Rs 6000 crore were earmarked for upgrading the coastal security set-up alone. However, CNN-IBN has now found that even three years after 26/11, many critical coastal security measures are languishing in government files as mere proposals. The confidential government documents reveal how Mumbai continues to remain most vulnerable to another sea-borne 26/11-style attack.
'Expeditious and time-bound' setting-up of a coastal radar chain at a cost of Rs 350 crore was ordered in December 2008. Had these radars been installed, embarrassments like MT Pavit wouldn't have happened. In July 2011, Pavit, an unmanned oil tanker that had allegedly sunk off the Oman
This is the sad state of security in our city and country and I wonder what the Government or people will do to pressurize the Government to take strong fast measures before another calamity befalls our city / country.
Well it is rather unfortunate that our Government and people in power don't have it in them to take a call. Why not hang the bugger, what are they waiting for? Justice delayed is justice denied, those who lost their loved ones, at least they can have a closure and the guilty are punished. Because India does not have swift justice through the judicial system such elements move about freely causing damage to the society with impunity.
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