26/11 Mumbai Attacked

Rahul Shivshankar, Julio Riberio, Harsh Joshi, George Koshy, Chris Khetan, Bachi Karkaria, Ashish Khetan

Description

Bringing together the careful research and analyses of renowned journalists and police officials, 26/11 Mumbai Attacked explicates the reality behind the brazen attack on India's sovereignty in November 2008 when ten heavily armed terrorists held an entire city to ransom by the sheer force of their zealotry. The scene-by-scene accounts, incisive analyses, and an exclusiveinterview with a LeT representative along with a description of its training camp in Muridke, Pakistan, reveal how the failure of Indian intelligence agencies landed Mumbai in the quagmire of terrorism. Paying homage to the brave security officers who lost their lives fighting the terrorists, 26/11 Mumbai Attacked reiterates the chilling reality that India is under grave threat and the clock is ticking before the next big attack.

Sujets

• Political Science
• Osama
• Yihad
• Al Qaeda
• Pakistán
• Terrorism
• Osama bin Laden
• November
• Mumbai
• Jihad
• Al-Qaida
• Attack
• Djihad
• Terror
• Pakistan
• War
• India
• 9
• 11
• 26
• Bombay

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 01 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 4
• EAN13: 9789351940708
• Langue: English

Extrait

About the book
Bringing together the careful research and analyses of renowned journalists and police officials, 26/11 Mumbai Attacked explicates the reality behind the brazen attack on India’s sovereignty in November 2008 when ten heavily armed terrorists held an entire city to ransom by the sheer force of their zealotry. The scene-by-scene accounts, incisive analyses, and an exclusive interview with a LeT representative along with a description of its training camp in Muridke, Pakistan, reveal how the failure of Indian intelligence agencies landed Mumbai in the quagmire of terrorism. Paying homage to the brave security officers who lost their lives fighting the terrorists, 26/11 Mumbai Attacked reiterates the chilling reality that India is under grave threat and the clock is ticking before the next big attack.



ROLI BOOKS
This digital edition published in 2015
First published in 2009 by The Lotus Collection An Imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd M-75, Greater Kailash- II Market New Delhi 110 048 Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000 Email: [e-mail] Website: www.rolibooks.com
Copyright © Authors for their respective pieces Ashish Khetan | Bachi Karkaria | Chris Khetan | George Koshy | Harinder Baweja | Harsh Joshi | Julio Ribeiro | Rahul Shivshankar
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, print reproduction, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Roli Books. Any unauthorized distribution of this e-book may be considered a direct infringement of copyright and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
eISBN: 978-93-5194-070-8
Photo credits: Front cover: Michael Rubenstein; Back Cover: AP Photo, David Guttenfelder; Map: Ashish Naorem; page viii: Crime Branch, Mumbai Police
Cover Design: Supriya Saran
All rights reserved. This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form or cover other than that in which it is published.
In Memoriam
National Security Guard Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan Havildar Gajendra Singh
Mumbai Police Joint Commissioner (ATS) Hemant Karkare Additional Commissioner Ashoke Kamte Inspector Vijay Salaskar Sub-Inspector Bapusaheb Durgude Sub-Inspector Prakash More Assistant Sub-Inspector Balasaheb Bhosle Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Gopal Omble Constable Ambadas Pawar Constable Arun Chitte Constable Jaywant Patil Constable Vijay Khandekar Constable Yogesh Patil
Other Security Personnel Inspector Shashank Shinde (Railway Police) Head Constable M.C. Chowdhary (Railway Protection Force) Home Guard Constable Mukesh Jadhav Constable Rahul Shinde (State Reserve Police Force)


Contents
Editor’s Note
‘They kept the soldier’s promise ...’ Bravehearts | Chris Khetan
‘His pants were starched with coagulated blood ...’ The Fight for Nariman House | Rahul Shivshankar
‘Men, women and children ... Kasab's AK-47 did not discriminate’ The Carnage at CST | George Koshy
‘Assemble bed-sheets, carpets, mattresses, set them on fire.’ 60 Dark Hours at Hotel Taj | Ashish Khetan
‘At the Tiffin restaurant there was blood, blown-out bits of flesh ... splattered on the floor.’ How Hotel Oberoi was Secured | Ashish Khetan
‘I went up assuming that my husband would follow me but he didn’t make it out of the door.’ Eyewitness Accounts from CST, Leopold Café, Taj and Oberoi | Harsh Joshi
‘Inflict maximum damage and don’t be taken alive.' Karachi to Mumbai: Terror, Step by Step | Ashish Khetan
‘The Lashkar was obviously not using money to buy flowers for the Indian Army.’ Inside the Headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Toiba | Harinder Baweja
‘Like that only and proud, no?’ Mumbai | Bachi Karkaria
‘The need is operational independence without political intervention.’ Tackling Terror in Modern Times | Julio Ribeiro
‘Shivraj Patil delayed the NSG flight by 45 minutes.’ Why India will be Hit Again | Harinder Baweja
About the Authors
Editor’s Note
T he book is an attempt at understanding the enormity of Mumbai 26/11. India has seen serious assaults on its democratic institutions – including on the Red Fort and its Parliament – but 26/11 was vastly different in both its intent and its intensity.
The ten-member fidayeen squad that sneaked in via the sea route from Karachi, all the way to Mumbai was distinctly different from any other. Mumbai’s attackers had clearly been trained well; the conspiracy had been in the making for close to a year; ten of the thirty-two who had been trained were handpicked for Mission Mumbai and the planning was as detailed as it was lethal.
Several chapters in the book take a long, hard, even despairing look at how terror unfolded, step by step for over sixty long hours as India was held hostage. The chapters contain hitherto unpublished information on how the operation was planned and executed. Well-known journalists Ashish Khetan and Rahul Shivshankar have painstakingly reconstructed the horror at the three main target sites: hotels Taj and Oberoi and Nariman House and all three chapters give crucial insights into the terrorists’ modus operandi, hair-raising conversations between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan and the fight back – the almost impossible manner in which the National Security Guards got down to the task of pinning the terrorists down, even as they groped in the dark without too much help from other agencies who had begun intercepting the calls being made between Mumbai and Pakistan.
The book also details the intelligence failures, critical failures that are in urgent need of redress. Another chapter tracks the story back to Muridke, the infamous address just outside Lahore, where the Lashkar-e-Toiba is headquartered and where Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist was trained for the Mumbai attack.
For gripping first hand accounts from hostages who survived near-death, and for insights into Mumbai’s sociology and psychology, read Harsh Joshi, George Koshy and Bachi Karkaria.
The book takes a full 360 degree look at 26/11 and while Chris Khetan pays rich tribute through accounts of meetings with the wives of the slain policemen in Mumbai, it delves deep into each and every aspect of the attack – its planning, its execution and the investigation. Importantly, it casts a critical eye at the future and includes chapters on why India will be hit again and how the country ought to deal with the ever-pervading threat of terror. Julio Ribeiro, well-known police officer who has earned his spurs dealing with terror outlines the way forward.
A must read book that has been carefully put together by a very able team of editors at Roli Books – Priya Kapoor, Nandita Bhardwaj, Neelam Narula, Richa Burman and Simar Puneet.
‘They kept the soldier’s promise ...’ Bravehearts
C HRIS K HETAN
D eath visits everyone. It’s the only certainty. Life isn’t certain and therefore must be treasured and guarded, zealously. That’s the basis for every decision that human beings take, for themselves and those around them. But then there are those who are dangerously deluded, thinking they are ordained by the ‘will of God’ to take precious life. They call themselves ‘jehadis’ or ‘holy warriors’. On the night of 26 November 2008 Mumbai was attacked by ten such warriors of death. On their target were unarmed civilians, some waiting to catch a train back home after a long day at work, some sharing a meal with loved ones and friends at a restaurant, some tourists and some business folk. Innocent people going about their business of life. The job to stop these religious madmen, these harbingers of destruction, fell upon the Indian security personnel – initially the Mumbai police and later the NSG – sworn to protect the citizens of this country. The three-day long gun-battle saw India lose eighteen of its security personnel – sixteen policemen and two NSG commandos.
Following are the stories of four such brave men: Joint Commissioner (ATS) Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte, Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble, and Constable Jaywant Patil, who died that night making good the vow they took when they were sworn in – the one they made to their team-mates and to themselves. To go down fighting like Kamte said he would, or to lead from the front like Karkare did, or rise to the occasion like Omble did, and finally, be the inspiring policeman that Patil was.
Tragically, what they left behind are families for whom the reality of their loss would stay on even after the bugles of the last farewell are sounded, after news of that night is relegated to the insides of the newspaper, the TV debates that highlight other issues and the awards begin to gather their first specks of dust.
These women, wives and mothers, will forever take their pain with a measure of pride knowing that their men died like warriors. They will cry silent tears, for the years gone by and the ones that would have followed. The following stories are of these men and their women, India’s bravehearts, who lost their lives in this fight against a deadly enemy, sacrificing their future for ours.
‘He was happy with himself and at peace with his surrounding.’
Kavita Karkare, wife of Joint Commissioner (ATS) Hemant Karkare
Behind every brave cop is a wife, braver still. When Hemant chucked the cushy corporate job that came with a house in breezy Juhu, among other perks, to become a public-serving policeman, she encouraged him. When the punishing routine of the police academy kept him away from his infant daughter, Jui, she doubled up as both mother and father. She had to repeat the act with her second daughter, Sayali as well as the youngest, son Akash. When the stipend of a rookie cop went solely towards the crisp khaki of his uniform, she kept her bank job to make ends meet. When serving fo