A tribute
-By Swetha Amit
The last two days and three nights have a continuous ordeal of nightmare. Terrorists unknown in number were lurking about in the most unexpected of locales holding hostages to ransom. It was convicted as another 9/11 only this time it actually ended up being a 28/11. Residents have been waking up to gun shots, heavy firing in the vicinity. It made many wonder if Mumbai will ever see daylight again.
Fear, panic and tension rose in the air. The city which usually bounces back from the tragedy the next day was brought to a stand still. The bustling area of Colaba which is usually vivacious turned into a war zone with commandos and choppers indulging in reinforcement to eliminate the miscreants. The three operations at Oberoi, Nariman house and Taj intensified. Exchanges with the enemy and loud bombings send shivers down the spine around those watching it on television and live. It was a daunting task considering the questions hurled by millions “With a few number of terrorist in comparison to the NSG forces, what was taking them so long to nab the extremists?”
Yet the grit and determination indeed portrayed the valor of our security personnel who managed to make their operations successful. Smiles are beginning to emerge as millions are celebrating the end of this terror nightmare.
Meanwhile in all this war and bloodshed, there are quite a number of heroes without whose valiance; one wouldn’t even have begun to see daylight. This is a tribute to those who died a martyr’s death only to reassure us yet another day of existence: Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havilder Chander. It is also a tribute to those lives which have been lost for no fault of theirs or were forcibly taken such as the hostages so that their country can sleep in peace. Their bereavement would have left their near and dear ones in immense grief due to this untimely mishap. One prays that their soul rests in peace and offers consolidated support to those families whose loss may never be compensated by this disaster in more than one way.
Fingers are pointed out to political incompetence with much indignation and ferocity, and one hopes that such loopholes are dealt with at least now as one certainly does not want brutality of a black Wednesday, Friday or any other day for that matter.
Fear, panic and tension rose in the air. The city which usually bounces back from the tragedy the next day was brought to a stand still. The bustling area of Colaba which is usually vivacious turned into a war zone with commandos and choppers indulging in reinforcement to eliminate the miscreants. The three operations at Oberoi, Nariman house and Taj intensified. Exchanges with the enemy and loud bombings send shivers down the spine around those watching it on television and live. It was a daunting task considering the questions hurled by millions “With a few number of terrorist in comparison to the NSG forces, what was taking them so long to nab the extremists?”
Yet the grit and determination indeed portrayed the valor of our security personnel who managed to make their operations successful. Smiles are beginning to emerge as millions are celebrating the end of this terror nightmare.
Meanwhile in all this war and bloodshed, there are quite a number of heroes without whose valiance; one wouldn’t even have begun to see daylight. This is a tribute to those who died a martyr’s death only to reassure us yet another day of existence: Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havilder Chander. It is also a tribute to those lives which have been lost for no fault of theirs or were forcibly taken such as the hostages so that their country can sleep in peace. Their bereavement would have left their near and dear ones in immense grief due to this untimely mishap. One prays that their soul rests in peace and offers consolidated support to those families whose loss may never be compensated by this disaster in more than one way.
Fingers are pointed out to political incompetence with much indignation and ferocity, and one hopes that such loopholes are dealt with at least now as one certainly does not want brutality of a black Wednesday, Friday or any other day for that matter.
Written for www.msn.co.in
Comments
Yamini - Mumbai on 11/29/2008 12:20:50 PM
These are very bad situations. What the intelligence service of the India is doing……. Bomb blasts in Mumbai trains, in Malegoan, in Gujarat n now once again MUMBAI. These big n horrible instances show their failure. How can a terrorist carry AK 47 n so many grenades to hotels like Taj and Oberoy?????? Direct attack the Sansad? We can clearly see that 1st targets was middle class i.e. in Ghatkopar, Gujarat blast, then higher middle class- 1st class Mumbai western trains n now higher/rich class..., It may be accepted that some time intelligence services may get late information but this is not for some time this is happening many/every times. Results of these we are loosing our brave hearted police officers and many innocent people. Even though all our police/anti terrorists squad officers are well trained well experienced but about their arms/weapons????? Do they are sufficient and enough against AK 47. But still they are fighting with there full spirit. These offices are always in trap to save the innocent people n do it in such way that any political party people don’t blame them. Otherwise their career is gone n we do have live examples of these. For all these things we need very strong n harsh laws with strong support system against terrorism. According to me any person or political party who stands besides these terrorists directly/indirectly just for votes should told to handle such situations at that time, stand when instances are happening so they can tell terrorists to surrender. Even we can tell the same thing to Human Rights Peoples who always shout for the human rights of the terrorist who are not at all humans. Then only these peoples can understand the seriousness rather then blaming polices (but still I doubt whether they can understand). I hope this time any political party don’t make the issue of this because this is not the failure of any ruling party but the failure of all the parties n our system. No doubt our enemies will try for this type or even worse type attacks in future but to prevent it or to face it our laws, government, intelligence service should be very strong. Because all these not only affects the internal system but the international repo of the India. I pay my tribute to the officers like Mr. Karkare. Mr. Saliskar Mr. kapte who was very high level offices specialized in their work n lost their life for our country. I also tribute all police officers, constables and common people who lost their life for country. May their soul rest in peace. But for that, these terrorists must be harshly punished. Don’t show sympathy towards the family of these officers but just salute them because they lost their family member for the safety of all of us and for country. All above is my personal opinion n don’t want to hurt anyone but still truth is truth.
Nice article. Salute to the Martyrs. One doubt I have in mind is whether Mr. Karkare was killed by the terrorists or those related to the Malegaon blasts. That angle cannot be ruled out. As you rightly said, our preparedness will come to question. I felt ashamed when the commandos gave a press conference that 'we were groping in the dark'. It shows the level of preparedness and planning of even our premier institution. Sorry to say, they did not have search lights or even the layout of the building. How the terrorists could travel all the way from Karachi? What were our coast guards doing?
Well said ,Sweta.These valiant men have laid their lives for the security of the nation and its people.No amount of monetary compensation would be adequate.Let the rich and well endowed individuals and institutions liberally contribute to the bereaved families.That would be a small tribute to them for their immense sacrifice.
A touching post. Thanks Swetha.
Aditya - Ghaziabad on 11/29/2008 12:58:58 PM
Salute to Real Heroes! But Where we stand, from 1947 to till now... http://content.msn.co.in/MSNContribute/Story.aspx?PageID=67a7a584-e399-44c5-88e9-33ab190070de
Let us pray for the people who died and for saving our country from the politicians who is not bothered about common man's plight. Politicians support terror in one form or the other.Raj Thackeary and his MNS outfit injured and killed innocent people the law of land was silent and favoured him with a bail.He is safe as he is having Z cover security.Similar is the case with other politicians. We allow illegal immigrants from Bangaladesh just for their vote during election and some of them could have given the logistics support to these terrorist. We right rolyally keep Abu salem in jail and run the case for years at tax payer money instead of hanging him. We are yet to take a decision to uphold death sentence on the terrrorist who attacked our parliament. We do not want the POTA just to apease minority.Our leadership lacks wisdom and direction. When we are not bothered about terrorism by LTTE in Srilanka, why should Pakistan to be worried about cross border terrorism. What you sow is what you reap? India in its intention or action towards the neighbouring countries has failed to promote peace and stability.
world should unite to wipe out pakistan and afganistan from the world map..the terror cancers
parth - baroda on 11/29/2008 5:02:10 PM
The police can even not do anything in this case. Now that these people are either caught or dead they shoould just shoot the loosers those who are atleast still alive and not give them imprisionment or anything. Shoot at sight brutally. That is what they deserve and that is what they would understand
The attack is utterly deplorable;it is a shame and body politifc of the country and has clearly exposed the inept and inefficient functioning of the government especially with regard to home security and law and order.As it is,the govt has failed on the economic front and unable to curb the spiralling price rise and but for the brakes applied on its pushing of a perilously neo liberalist agenda on the nation's financial sector the country's financial sector could have been hit by the global recession.It is time the govt mends its ways or makes way for a more determined and efficient player at the national level.
Surely the security perssnnel are our real heroes. They need all appreciation and support.I suggest a memorial for those who lost their lives in this heroic act.
i just pray that our government wakes up and takes firm steps, not unnecessary harassment of innocents to prevent further attacks. will they? thanks for penning down the thoughts of majority sweta.
MIDHUN LAL M.G - ATTINGAL on 11/29/2008 8:31:16 PM
IAM PROUD OF THE NSG SOILDERS. THE WHOLE COUNTRY SALUTES THEM.THE PRAYERS ARE WITH THEM. WE ARE INDIANS THERE IS NO HINDU ,MUSLIM ,CHIRSTHIANS ."JAI HIND"
I believe that the casuality figures could have been reduced, if some kind of gas could have been used at the hotels to make both terrorists and hostages paralyzed and unconcious for some time. Thereafter the Commandos could have done their operations to grab the terrorists alive. This could hv given some kind of evidence to the public as well as the world.
THE POLITICS AND THE COUNTRY: How long India have to suffer from these Terrorism. After every attack Government has no initiative to implement any strong law against fighting the terrorism. There is no value for human lives in the country. Politicians in this issue will definetly look for vote banks for their own benifits. Why everytime people of the country are after these so called politicians. The Home minister of the country everytime seen escaping from media after any incident. Why not India be under Army rule for atleast one year. Then definetly 90% of incidents can be avoided. The country in this stage is heading towards a stage where full of curruption, attrocities, and all the crimes . Lots of innocent people and brave jawans are lying their lives almost daily. But the government has no interest make any steps for saving the country. The time has already been finished, save india unless someone will put their evil eyes again to our motherland. Jai Hind
Will the government ever rise above petty politics to tackle the real problems facing the country? I just hope the Mumbai attacks wake up the so-called rulers of this country and they do something positive to avoid such a happeing in the future.
air strikes across the LOC is the solution we are left with , every revolution in the history has become success after a violence except india and it took 200 years for that , i feel sorry for the inocent people who died and extemely proud of our security forces.
i fully agree with u swetha amit, n i think they are the Bhagat singh (hemant kaakare), rajguru (vijay salaskar) and sukhdeo (kambte) of our era who faught and gave up ther lives without even thinking once just for the safety and integerity of there country . hats off to them
Terrorism ,killing humans wantonly without any rhyme or reason reminds an Indian fable. A monster/demon living near a city used to visit that city every night feed himself of human beings indiscriminately from different houses and people were fed-up and helpless. Nobody was able to kill that demon.Fed-up , the elders of that city met together and decided that this way there is more damage both to life and property. Because the hungry demon would damage houses before eating. The elders then resolved with the demon that instead of his coming every night , a person/human would be sent to him every night so that the demon can devour that human and remain satisfied and outside the city. So every night a human would reach from the numbered house to the demon and demon would devour and remain contented satisfied. This was going on till the number of a particular home came to send a human. That household was clever. The human from that home did something and vanquished the demon. Anyone who knows the rest of story ,then I would like to know. So the India Govt. should calculate the monthly average of dyeing humans and send the same number to the demon of Terrorism to fill its satiety and keep it satisfied with limited loss of life and property.
I salute the commandos for their sincere,selfless & daring effort to fight the terrorists for such a long hours. They are India's asset and indian should be proud of them.
Father of late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the National Security Group(NSG) commander who was killed during an encounter with terrorists at Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, refused to meet Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuhanandan and Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan when they came to his residence in Bangalore to pay condolences on Sunday night, reports Times Now. Sandeep's father, Unnikrishnan, said he was not interested to meet politicians and asked Achuthanandan and Balakrishnan to leave his residential premises
Captured terrorist A. A. Kasab has told his interrogators that he had no regrets about carrying out his mission of mayhem in Mumbai this week, in which the death toll so far is 195 and the injury toll 295. On Saturday evening, he told Mumbai Police that the terrorist group that reportedly came out of Karachi via the sea route undertook the terrorist mission to avenge the death of Palestinians, and therefore, one of the main targets identified by them was Nariman House, which housed a Jewish synagogue visited by Israelis.
What happened in Mumbai for last 3-4 days was a shame for the indian Govt and Intelligence. The responsible for the death of hundreds of people are not jsut the terrorist but the careless and reckelss behaviour of the govt and other officals. India has always will been a target and will continue to be if dont hit the terroirst hard and kick them out. Give them such brutal death that you can see fear on their face. Why cant we take enough security measures to save our people. I guess there is big problem with the indian attitude. For us since we have a massive population, live of people are resources that can be given away and doesnt make any difference to govt. Whereas other countrires like US, Austrlaia, etc.. tresaure their people. Each life is important to them and they will get wild if soemthing like this ever happens to them. They have the courage to fight back with the few 100 mens that they have but we dont even with the 1000's that we have. The strength of every nation lies with it people. If they are not treasured and taken care of, not long enough before they fleed to other countries for saftey. "May god bless the soules of those who died in this horrifying incident"
Raj Thackeray and his MNS army is no where to be seen. Dont know where he is. He should have gone to save amchi mumbai along with his mns army, the sons of the soil, to the Taj and Oberoi. The army and NSG are not marathi manoos and why should they lay their lives to save mumbaikars. yet they did. Raj Thackeray would have done great service to the mumbai cause had he gone out with his brigade to lend support to the fighting army and nsg.
gud ............
D Chattopadhyay - Kolkata on 12/1/2008 4:04:57 PM
This is a timely article. "Enough is Enough". Scan the activity of not only these greeedy, "good for nothing" politicians but also the top level "greedy, dishonest" persons holding high positions in Goverment departments (bothin civil bodies and in army). Most of their recruitments are on the basis of not their quaslity but for paying money to the Ministers.