Thursday’s Bloodbath – 27 Nov, 2008

Got up after a good sleep only to realize the TV in ON state. (PS: I did not have the slightest clue of what was going around me) There has some very rare situations when the TV in my house is in ON condition at 7 am. Then I realized some bad news should have been flooded.

I got out of my bed and while watching the TV I just unlocked my phone to realize 5 missed calls and 10 message all carrying the same message “Bomb blast and Firing in south Mumbai by terrorists. Please take care while going to office” I was stunned. I never imagined I neglected the news of terrorist attacks in the heart of Mumbai the previous day. The very next moment I called up all those who board the bus from Malad of their decision whether to go or not. It was a unanimous response “NO”. My decision supported them and called up my PL to inform of my absence.

That day I was glued to the news channel and Internet for all the latest update I can get. I got updates that the places attacked were Leopold café, TAJ Palace, Oberio-Trident towers, Nariman house, CST, Cama hospital and some firing outside CST. I was shocked about the magnitude of the incident. The death toll was already raised till 101 and injured list was creeping to 287.

A small Islamic extremist group, the Mujahedeen of India's Deccan region, claimed responsibility, but some media cited American sources who suspected the larger, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group or the Indian Mujahedeen may have been behind the attack. It doesn’t matter who it is, because we all know the origin of these attacks.

It’s the most barbaric incident happened in India and it was particularly targeted at foreign nationals (UK, US and Ireland). This signified their major intentions.

Among the people who were killed were some top cops like ATS chief Hemant Karkare (he was also handling the Malegaon bomb blast case), ACP Ashok Kamte and Encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. This was a major loss of some significant people in the terrorist attacks.

I was somewhat relieved to hear that the NSG and Marine commandos were flown to Mumbai. But later on questioned, why was there delay of almost 12 hours? Then I searched the net to find that maharashtra police does not have its own anti-terrorism force. How can you guys even imagine fighting AK-47’s with lathis or 5 rounds rifle.

This is the day I mourned the most and criticized the government’s incapability of handling such attacks which already cost them hundreds of lives. :-(

In the morning I contacted my doctor about the opening timings of the clinic, and she replied its shut and might be open in evening. This signifies the impact of the attacks in Malad even tough it was some 50 kms away from the attack sites.