Prayers for Mumbai’s fallen heroes
The second anniversary of the “Mumbai Massacre”, which
led to loss of 166 innocent lives on Nov. 26, 2008, will sadden every Indian’s
heart. This loss was caused by a deliberate attack launched by Pakistani terror
networks to sabotage India’s march towards becoming a global power.
Whoever thought that this attempt would bring India to
its knees was living in a fool’s paradise. Last year on the attack’s first
anniversary, I was in India and watched the TV coverage on many domestic and
foreign channels depicting the heroic acts of our security forces.
I heard the tapes of conversations of the terrorists and
their handlers in Pakistan. Their handlers were telling the terrorists in the
Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels to fire at will and burn mattresses to create a
“show of fire” for all to see!
Throughout the year, Ratan Tata stood tall as a pillar of
courage and nobility. The hotel his group owns is back in business and recently
hosted US president Obama who specifically chose to stay there.
Karambir Singh Kang, the hotel’s general manager, lost
three family members during the massacre, but stayed put throughout the
carnage. What a gem of a man when compared to the cowards behind this attack.
This year I am seeing the reactions of various people in
commemorating this black day. The family members of some of the fallen heroes
will also participate.
A Norwegian couple was injured in the attack is back in
the city and has nothing but praise for the hotel staff and doctors who saved
their lives. I read reports that relatives of Rabbi Gavriel and his pregnant
wife, who were gunned down during carnage, have filed suit in New York against
Pakistan’s ISI and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The suit alleges that ISI worked closely with the
militant group and provided support to the gunmen! Parents of Sandeep
Unnikrishnan are biking from Delhi to Mumbai to tell their fellow citizens how
proud of they are of their son’s sacrifice.
The widow of Omble, a late hero of Nov. 26 whose
extraordinary courage resulted in the arrest of the lone survivor of this
carnage, has been so noble that she has refused to accept any monetary benefits
from people to avoid contamination of Omble’s noble memory! Vinita Kamte has
written a touching saga about her husband’s career and death.
She feels that the information about non-compliance of
orders given by Karkare to the police was not conveyed to him in time and led
to the death of Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar.
She is still struggling to find out the truth behind
this.
We, all Indians, stand in grief with the near-and-dear
ones of the fallen heroes. We salute the fallen heroes and pray that God grants
peace to their souls. We also pray that God blesses their near-and-dear ones.
We also pray that God Almighty guides the perpetrators of this ghastly crime to
mend their ways.
K B Kale, Jakarta
This was first published in JP on 2nd anniversary day of Mumbai
Massacre (26/11/ 2010)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/11/26/prayers-mumbai’s-fallen-heroes.html
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/11/26/prayers-mumbai’s-fallen-heroes.html
In response to my above letter,
Mr Farhan Qutab, Islamabad wrote the following response
Mumbai attack is a big question
K. B. Kale’s letter on Nov. 26 reminds us of the tragedy
that befell Mumbai a couple of years ago.
Whatever we have heard from both sides, i.e. Pakistan and
India, it is believed that non-state actors were involved in the incident.
Whoever was responsible for the attack and whatever the underlying truth, the
fact remains that it was a thoroughly condemnable act.
But Kale has missed out on the most interesting part of
the whole episode. Remember when senior congress leaders were all engaged in
taunting Pakistan for the Nov. 26 attacks, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Singh Modi, a staunch supporter of Hindu nationalism, hinted at an internal
hand in the terror strikes.
“If we single out that one incident [of the Mumbai
attacks] and ask any person in this country, even with basic information and
knowledge they will say that such a big terror attack on India cannot take
place without any internal help from the nation itself.”
This is what Modi told a national meeting of the main
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Nagpur in early 2009. This was
nothing short of bursting the bubble of conviction among the top Indian leaders
that the attacks were orchestrated from abroad.
Were those elements “from the nation itself” ever brought
to book, well never! Why, nobody knows. It may be that it would have shifted
the blame from Pakistan and placed much of the onus on India in sorting out the
matter.
The abolition of Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) senior
officer Hemant Karkare and two of his colleagues in the Mumbai attacks is also
a big question mark. The ATS had interrogated the infamous Col Purohit who had
confessed to bombing the Samjhota express, something the Indian government had
earlier contributed to Pakistan’s premiere intelligence agency. Reportedly the
ones who shot Karkare and his aides were speaking fluent Marathi, just a
co-incidence perhaps.
India is no doubt a great democratic nation, the people
there unlike any other in the world have the courage to ask questions about
their own government and leaders. The people must have asked: Who was the
internal hand in the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attack; how come Karkare was
the first one to die in the Mumbai attacks?
It is democracy in India that has allowed a person like
Arundhati Roy to make utterances such as that Kashmir has “never been an
integral part of India” and that India should get out of Kashmir. But questions
are 50 percent of democracy, answers make up the other half, so the answers
should also see the light of the day. The Mumbai attacks is a big question,
Pakistan is not the answer, the answer lies within India.
Farhan Qutab, Islamabad
First published in JP on 4th December 20110
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