It’s the twelfth anniversary of the spine wrenching terror attacks on 26/11 in Mumbai, India. Though almost a decade has passed the haunted memories still stay afresh. Many innocent lives were lost, many families were torn apart. But in these times of acute crisis rose, heroes. Heroes from every nook and corner of life, heroes from the army and police who lost their lives, who let themselves become the past so we could have a safe future. Here’s a flashback to what went down on the 26th of November, 2008 and why did it leave such a deep wound into the hearts of every Indian.
The whole of the financial capital was drained in blood for a cat and mouse chase that lasted for almost 60 hours. Nearly as many as 166 people lost their lives including 18 security personnel. The then Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Tukaram Omble were some of the officials who lost their lives in the attack.
While Ajmal Kasab and his fellow terrorist Ismail Khan went on their chase to cause havoc in the Cama hospital, they were met with armed police forces. A battle ensued and Karkare, along with senior police officials Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar, were killed outside the Cama Hospital after the terrorists opened fire on their police van.
Initially, they had managed to wound Kasab, but Ismail Khan appeared and fired a volley of bullets at them killing these Bravehearts. The martyrs were honoured with the Ashoka Chakra posthumously on January 26, 2009.
Another hero responsible for capturing Kasab alive and letting the world know about the depths of these terror attacks was Tukaram Omble. After the initial shootout, one of the terrorists was killed while the other pretended to surrender. But he soon changed his stance and opened fire at the police. Ombre in a heroic feat stood in front of Kasab and held on to the barrel of his rifle as the others overpowered him. Omble has taken over 40 bullets from the AK-47 at a point-blank range which made it impossible to keep him alive. On January 26, 2009, the unparalleled act of bravery was awarded the Ashoka Chakra.
Today on the 12th anniversary of November 26 attack on Mumbai, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, and many other eminent personalities paid their tribute to these heroes on Thursday. The tribute was paid at the freshly-built memorial at the police headquarters in south Mumbai.