One year has passed since the dreadful day of 26th November has left its ugly mark in the minds of Indians. Mumbai, the industrial capital of India came under terrorist attack. Roads and streets came under police cordon and everyone seemed to run for their lives and some safety.
Two of the premier hotels in India, Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and The Oberoi Trident were captured by the terrorists. They entered the hotel premises and rooms killing guests, including foreign nationals and injuring many. The terrorists who were identified as men of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant organization, considered as a terrorist organization by India, created a rampage, destroying valuable national properties and ruining almost anything that came on their way.
The 2008 Mumbai attacks began on 26 November and lasted 3 days (until 29 November), killing at least 173 people and wounding more than 300. During the fight with the terrorists, many of our seniour and efficient police officers got wounded or had to accept death. Mention can be made of Hemant Karkare, the chief of the city’s Anti-Terrorist Squad, DIG Ashok Kamte (Commissioner of Police) and many such others who succumbed to death during these 56 hours of terror in the city.
On that very day, unaware of what is going on in Mumbai, I was busy helping my mother in the kitchen. As my father switched on the TV, there was a national news channel reporting about the incident. We were really shocked seeing the horrifying pictures of people bleeding, women and children crying for their lives and terrorists continuously shooting from the various hideouts of the Taj and the Trident hotels.
It will take (I really don’t know), how much time to forget the massacre caused by Mohammed Ajmal Kasab (one of the terrorists) and his gang in the lively and busy city of Mumbai. It was a well knitted attack, where the terrorists came by boat across the Arabian Sea, taking help of some fishermen boats. Little did the country know this is going to happen, as November 26, 2008 was just another normal day for the Mumbains.
The Mumbai attack case has taken a new turn with the arrest of the suspected terrorists David Headley from Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport and Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin. Hedley is said to have visited India several times before the attack took place, and reports show that he has even stayed in the Taj hotel for sometime.
Our Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh has begun his three-day state visit to Washington yesterday for the purpose of signing a pact on intelligence sharing and counter-terrorism between India and the US. Although the details of the pact are not being disclosed yet, it is believed that the agreement could involve exchanging and stationing more intelligence personnel in the two countries, including mobile units to facilitate better interaction.
According to many anti-terrorist experts, (the Mumbai attack) may have served as a dress rehearsal for future terrorist actions in other parts of the world.
So the big question that instantly comes in our mind - how much safe we are against any kind of terrorist attack? And, what is the Indian government doing or have done till date to ward off such terrorist actions in the future? The questions are yet to be answered.
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