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Mumbai terror attacks
On July
13, 2011 evening, three blasts rocked the financial hub of the
country at Dadar in central Mumbai, Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House in
south Mumbai, making it the worst terror attack since Mumbai's 2008 savagery.
The attacks were the worst terror strike in the country since the siege
of Mumbai that killed 166 people 31 months ago, and government officials
struggled to reassure Mumbaikars over their safety.
“There was no intelligence regarding a militant attack in Mumbai. That
is not a failure of the intelligence agencies" Palaniappan Chidambaram
proudly but enigmatically declared at a news conference in Mumbai following the overnight bombings.
The death toll in the blasts climbed to 19 when two injured men succumbed to their wounds, an police official said on July 16.
More than 100 people were still in hospitals in Mumbai being treated for
wounds sustained when the bombs went off Wednesday evening.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s bombings that
ripped through three separate, crowded Mumbai commercial and residential
neighborhoods within 11 minutes of each other during the busy, evening
rush hour. Meanwhile, the continuing monsoon downpour threatened to wash away
critical forensic evidence at all three bomb sites and teams of experts
hastened to gather material as police cordoned off the affected areas.
The bombings, meanwhile, generated anger and a sense of resignation
amongst Mumbai residents all of who blamed the government and police for
inaction, apathy and corruption which they said had led to repeated attacks on their city.
The IEDs detonated in spite of heavy rains
It is remarkable that despite the heavy rains on July 13, all the three IEDs
detonated at the fixed time without any malfunctioning. This would indicate that the perpetrators had taken the required precautions to
ensure that rains would not affect the detonation of the IEDs at the
fixed time. This shows the expertise of the perpetrators; they were not
novices. It has been reported that the police were facing difficulties in
determining where exactly the IEDs were planted. This could have been
due to the rains.
26/11 Mumbai terror attacks
Hundred and sixty six people were killed in the blood bath in Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008
when 10 Pakistan-based terrorists held the city to ransom for 60 hours. Moving tales of survivors, grief, a dash of high society...26/11, perhaps more than any other single event in India's recent history, had all that it takes to spawn books and movies.
The carnage which began in Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008, is called 26/11 similar as the
deadliest terrorist attack on the USA was called 9/11.
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Ten gunmen had landed on Mumbai shores by boats at sunset on November 26, 2008
and fired randomly inside a railway station, a Jewish settlement, a cafe and two
luxury hotels. Several people were held hostage for the next three days and at
least 166 died before commandoes smoked out the last of the terrorists on
November 28 last year. One gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was taken alive and is presently facing trial
in a special court in Mumbai.
The home minister Mr Chidambaram reportedly ensured that each agency took responsibility and
followed up on what it was supposed to do by maintaining minutes of every meeting. A National Investigation Agency was set up to probe and pre-empt any terrorist attempt.
A year after 26/11, the failure of accountability is still evident going by the fact that no one has been taken to task for the sub-standard bullet-proof jackets which cost the lives of top Maharashtra police officials like
Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare.
On
the first anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks
As the country paid tributes to 26/11 martyrs, Parliament observed a
two-minute silence and the government allotted petrol pumps to the kin of the
victims marking the first anniversary of Mumbai terror attacks on Thursday.
There were official commemorations and private moments of grief, sombre
reflections and fierce debates on the security perceptions to remember the
traumatic night of Nov 26 last year and the 60 hours of terror that followed.
Mumbai, which is still trying to recover from the scars of last year's 26/11
terrorist attacks, marked the first anniversary of the horrific incident by
lighting candles outside the Gateway of India and at the Taj Hotel and prayed
for tranquillity and a brighter hope for the city that saw 166 innocent people killed.
Mumbaikars went around the Taj Hotel; one of the sites attacked by terrorists,
chanting slogans of peace. The scene and the sentiments were similar at the
Oberoi Trident hotel, which also bore the brunt of the attack. But the anger
persists, as some shouted "Hang Kasab" while they walked past the Taj, and
others kept repeating ‘we will not forget’. Mumbai's police also exhibited its resolve with its elite forces parading past
some of the city's landmarks in a show of strength.
Hundreds of youngsters, men and women, drew paintings, wrote peace messages and
put hand impressions on a one-and-a-half-km long wall on November 25- saying the city stood united against any future attacks on this
cosmopolitan fabric. Bollywood celebrities Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar also joined to pay their
tributes to the victims, and wrote their messages of peace on the wall. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday mourned the death of 26/11 martyrs
and assured that the Centre would do everything possible to help their families. |
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