Remembering 26/11;
saluting our bravemen who saved the Nation
One grimaces
in pain to read the way Police were kept on their toes in Lakhimpur city on
Friday morning after members of a community allegedly celebrated the release co-founder
of Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan. Some residents of Begum Bagh colony
in Shivpuri area allegedly decorated their houses with green flags and also
raised slogans like 'Hafiz Saeed zindabad' and 'Pakistan Zindabad'. The issue
was immediately brought to district magistrate Akashdeep's notice after which
police force was rushed to the colony.
Prime
Minister Shri Narendra Modiji, addressing the nation today in radio programme Mann ki Baat, honoured the men
and women who sacrificed their lives during the terror attacks in Mumbai in
2008. Mr. Modi was speaking on the ninth anniversary of the terror attack. “We
salute all those brave women and men who lost their lives in the gruesome 26/11
attacks in Mumbai,” Mr. Modi said. “Terrorism is a threat to humanity.” “For
over four decades, India has been raising the issue of terror. Initially the
world didn't take us seriously but now they are realising destruction caused by
terrorism.
November
26 also happens to be Constitution Day, as it was on this day in 1949 when the
Constitution of India was drafted. Today is a day - Nation can never forget - 26/11 –the day, when it Nation under siege by militants from across the
border. On November 23, 2008, ten
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, trained by Pakistani military and spy agency
ISI, left Karachi for Mumbai via sea. They entered India three days later on
November 26, hijacking a ship owned by Indian fishermen and killing them en
route. They targeted high-profile places including Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
Terminus, Taj Hotel at the Gateway of India, Cafe Leopold, Chabad House, Rang
Bhavan Lane near Cama Hospital and St Xavier's College. More than 160 people
including 18 police officers and two NSG commandoes were killed. Around 310
others were injured as a fight back by security forces continued for about 60
hours.
Each of the
terrorists landed clandestinely carried AK47 automatic rifle, around 500 rounds
of ammunition, pistols, hand grenades and improvised explosive devices. The
ammunition possessed by them proved enough for the Mumbai police and special
commandos to keep them at toes for next three days. Of the gruesome murderers, Ajmal
Kasab was captured alive. After attacking CST railway station, he and Ismail
Khan had targeted the Cama Hospital. From there he ambushed a police team,
killed six officials including ATS chief Hemant Karkare and hijacked their
jeep. Kasab and Ismail Khan were intercepted near Girgaum Chowpatty, where Tukaram Omble grabbed the barrel of the rifle the
former was firing from. This gave the police team time to overpower Kasab and
capture him. He was tried and sentenced to death in May 2010. Kasab was
hanged at the Yerawada jail in Pune in November 2012.
In this great Nation of ours,
even the killer was given a fair trial – the entire legal process unfolded with
Kasab being served food and he asking for Urudu papers and more. India took
the trouble to conduct and ensure, that it believed in a proper justice
system and would deal with attacks against its people according to the law.
The deadly terror
attacks on Mumbai in 2008 numbed the entire nation. It changed the lives of
many who witnessed the macabre dance of death and destruction on Mumbai's roads
and inside the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel.
It
anyone ever thought that terrorism affected only those who suffered personally
or only those in Mumbai, our thinking is flawed. It is worth
hearing Capt Raghu Raman speak on this : in the video available on web, the
hero of the Indian National Intelligence
Grid speaks at a Ted Talk at IIT-BHU, about the kind of on-the-ground decisions
that the army had to take during the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai and what we
can learn about leadership from that.
This year it
saddens more as closer to the 9th anniversary of the ghastly
killing, a Pakistani court ordered the release of Hafiz Saeed, an alleged
mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in a move likely to worsen the
country’s tattered relationship with the US. The Islamist cleric, who heads
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) – listed by the UN as a terrorist group – and has a
$10m(£7.5m) US bounty on his head, was
to be freed after an year in detention. On
Wednesday the court in Lahore rejected a request from the provincial government
of Punjab for a 60-day extension to his house arrest. Though it was contended that JuD is a charity
organisation, US says it is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, an anti-India jihadi
group that Saeed helped found in the 1990s.
The White House on
Saturday called Pakistan’s release of a militant wanted by the US as the
alleged mastermind of the Mumbai massacre of 2008 a “step in the wrong
direction” and said a refusal to re-arrest him would damage bilateral ties and
Pakistan’s international reputation around the world.
26.1. 2008 – a sad
day it was for the Nation.! ~ and if you are to read the first para again now,
it will sadden you more..
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
26th
Nov. 2o17
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