Family members of the victims and bravehearts joined prominent dignitaries, top retired and serving police officials and Mumbaikars from different walks of life, in paying homage to the martyrs of the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai on the eighth anniversary of the mayhem at the Police Memorial at in south Mumbai on Thursday.
Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray were among the prominent dignitaries who paid floral tributes to the martyred police officers, at a commemoration function 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.
Apart from 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 — in which 166 people were killed and 300 others injured.
Paying tributes to tributes to the martyrs, the Chief Minister said: “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”.
Among other present at the ceremony were former Mumbai police commissioners Julio Ribeiro, MN Singh, D Sivanandhan, Ronny Mendonca, Shiv Sena youth wing president Aditya Thackeray, Guardian Minister Subhash Desai, Shiv Sena NP Anil Desai, senior BJP MlA Raj Purohit, All India Anti-Terrorist front leader Manindarjit Singh Bitta and family members of police officers and policemen who lost their lives in the terrorist attack.
However, Maharashtra police chief Satish Mathur and Mumbai Commissioner of Police Datta Padsalgikar were away from the3 function, as they were on official duty.
Sena President Udshav Thackeray paid floral tributes at the memorial of 26/11 attacks’ martyr Tukaram Omble at Girgaum Chowpatty in south Mumbai.
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.
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 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.