Family members of the victims and brave hearts joined senior Maharashtra ministers and top police officials in paying homage to the martyrs of the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai on the sixth anniversary of the mayhem at the Police Memorial here on Wednesday.
Maharashtra Ministers Vinod Tawde and Affairs Prakash Mehta, Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria and DGP Sanjeev Dayal were among the dignitaries who paid floral tributes to the martyred police officers, at a low-key commemoration held at the Police Gymkhana at Marine lines in south Mumbai where a memorial has been erected in remembrance of the policemen killed in the November 26-29, 2008 attack on Mumbai,
Along with several public dignitaries, the family members of police officers killed in the attack also laid wreaths at the police memorial. Amid the sounding of bugle by the policemen, those present paid respects to 18 security personnel, including the then ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar, who made the supreme sacrifice during the 60-hour-long Mumbai siege.
Memorial functions were also held at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Oberoi Trident, Jewish Chabad house and leopold cafe, the five targets of the 26/11 attacks. Similarly, homage was paid to martyrs at functions held in schools, colleges and other institutions held across the city on the day.
“I pay homage to the brave policemen who fought for Mumbai’s safety and laid down their lives for us on 26/11. We are proud of them and we will strive hard for safety and security of our State,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a statement.
Fadnavis could not attend the 26/11 commemoration function held at Police Gymkhana in south Mumbai, as he was away attending various functions presided over by President Pranab Mukherjee in Pune and Wardha in the State.
leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Eknath Khadse, accompanied other Sena legislators Sunil Shinde, Tukaram Kothe and Ajay Choudhary, paid floral tributes to the memorial of 26/11 attacks’ martyr Tukaram Omble.
Omble was instrumental in catching Kasab alive at Gairgaum-Chowpatty on the night of November 26,2008. Omble, it may be recalled, had held onto Kasab even after he had been grievously injured by bullets pumped into him by the latter. Omble died he could be rushed to the hospital.
Unlike on the occasion of the first two anniversaries of the 26/11 attack when Mumbaikars had come out in the streets to vent their anger and emotion, there were not many public functions or events commemorating the Mumbai carnage, in which 166 people were killed and 300 others injured.
The sixth anniversary of 26/11 attack was commemorated little over two years after the lone captured Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was hanged in Pune’s Yerwada prison.
Kasab was among the ten leT terrorists who had carried out a brazen attack at various places in the metropolis like the CST, Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels, Jewish centre Nariman House, and popular eatery Café leopold during the November 26-29, 2008 attack.
While nine of the ten terrorists were killed by the security forces during the attack, the remaining one- --Mohammed Ajmal Kasab – was caught alive by the police at Girgaum Chowpatty on the intervening night of November 26-27, 2008.
After 11-month long trial that saw a trial court sentence him to death on death on five counts – including mass murder, criminal conspiracy and waging war against the nation and two half years of subsequent incarceration, Kasab was hanged to death in Pune’s Yerawada central prison on November 21, 2012.