Year after 26/11

26th November – 2008, Wednesday exactly one year before, I was in office and not at all in mood of working as it was a thanksgiving holiday from Thursday.

At 10:30 AM, one of my friend told me that there is some shoot out happening near Taj in Mumbai, I thought it might be some local gang war, I tried Google news but there was nothing. I called at my home back in India, they were not sure what’s going on.

By 12:30 PM I realized that Mumbai is caught in terrorist attack. Few terrorists came via boat to gateway of India and shooting randomly, took Taj hotel in hostage. I can never forget this day when terrorists shot people with cold blood with eyes full of evil. Mumbai was in their custody for 60 hours, they killed 170 people and more than 300 were wounded. Several brave officers of the Mumbai Police force like Joint Commissioner of Police, Anti-Terrorist Squad, Hemant Karkare, Police Inspector, Anti Extortion Cell, Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte fell prey to the bullets.

The National Security Guards (NSG) and Marine Commandos, summoned to bring the situation under control, also lost its two personnel, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Commando Gajendra Singh.

I just want to request all politicians that terrorist’s bullets never asks a person’s identity or he speaks a particular language or he is from particular state before hitting him. Instead of blaming each other for the language we speak or where we live. We should learn a lesson from 26/11, invest in cutting edge technologies, be prepared, be alert all the time.

On this solemn day, I am saluting all the martyrs and victims of this horrible day in history of Mumbai.

Peace…