'The Siege - The attack on the Taj' is a gripping tale of dastardly 26/11 attack on the financial hub of India. The same authors have written another classic 'The Meadow' on Kashmir terrorism.
Though 26/11 was not the first attack and certainly it is not the last but in many ways it was unique and unprecedented. The 10 terrorists from rural Punjab of Pakistan came through sea from Karachi to Mumbai and held hostage the entire nation for more than 48 hours killing atleast 166 people all throughout south Mumbai cutting across all income levels and all ethnicities. The entire Mumbai police was caught off-guard despite the heroics of DCP Viswas Patil and DCP Rajyavardhan Sinha. This book accuses Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor of lackadaisical approach while praises Joint Commissioner Rakesh Maria affluently.
The attack started little before 9 PM on 26/11 and the Police had a good opportunity to flush out the terrorists from 'Taj' as the 4 terrorists were holed up in one room and there were 6 policemen in the Hotel including 2 DCPs though they had limited ammunition but they were paralyzed by the upper echelons of Mumbai Police. Even the NSG Black Cats took 10 hours to reach Mumbai from Delhi because of lack of decision making and transport. The lack of miscommunication killed bravest of Mumbai Police - Ashok Kamte, Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar. It was the great sacrifice of Tukaram Omble that neutralized the gory Ajmal Kasab. And in the end Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan of NSG had to sacrifice his life to secure the hostages.
The 26/11 attack and Indian police response left a deep scar on Indian psyche, on one hand 26/11 will remain a saga of supreme sacrifice of Taj officials, guests and the martyrs and on other hand it will continue to question the efficacy of overall security apparatus of Indian state.
Highly Recommended (8/10)
1 comment:
Sir are you on goodreads?
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