A salute to the victims....

The Mumbai terror attack has claimed as many as 130 lives and injured about 400 or more. These include civilians, the police, army jawans and the state's three top cops: IPS officer -Mr. Ashok Kante, ATS chief - Mr. Hemant Karkare and encounter specialist - Mr. Vijay Saleskar. None of these would have thought it was their last day. I would like to extend my salutation to all the people who have been victims, to those who have sacrificed their lives and also to the cops and NSG commandos who are doing their best to save the innocent citizens from the clutches of the terrorists in this dreadful act.

Terror in India - Mumbai's nightmare!!!

Its been almost more than 32 hrs since the vibrant and lively city of Mumbai has been under terror attack. The terrorists entered the city through the sea route at the Colaba area entered Cafe Leopold and started firing indiscriminately at the innocent people....then a couple of terrorists barged into the CST railway station and opened fire at the people in the main passenger hall.....then they headed towards the Cama hospital where patients were taken as hostages apart from firing at them....then they went on to the nearby Metro cinema where they hijacked a Police vehicle and fired randomly at the crowd on the road before escaping their way out from the scene.....the next target was the Taj Mahal hotel; here again several civilians including many foreigners were taken as hostages with shooting and grenade explosions accompanying this entire situation. At about the same time there was a similar scenario taking place at the Oberoi Hotel at Nariman point. Outside the Taj Mahal hotel the ATS chief Mr. Hemant Karkare lost his life....later at the Metro cinema IPS officer Mr. Ashok Kante as well as encounter specialist Mr. Vijay Saleskar laid their lives on duty. Similar incidents also took place at the Marriot hotel in Juhu, there was a blast in a taxi at a flyover in the suburban Vile Parle, again a balst in a taxi in Mazegaun. Two terrorists were gunned down at Girgaum when they tried to escape. A group called 'Deccan Mujahideen' has claimed responsibility for these attacks. This is the exact scenario that took place in Mumbai ('http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/79152/watch-timeline-map-of-mumbai-multiple-terror-attacks.html').

Terrorism has been on a high in India in the recent past with almost about 11 attacks only in the current year of 2008. The city of Mumbai has transformed into a War zone with the NSG, the Army and the Police still fighting and trying to rescue the remaining hostages and shoot down the terrorists. Its very sad and disturbing too see the visuals of dead bodies being lined up at the hospitals and blood all over the roads, on the railway station platform, at the hospital and at the hotel lobbys. Who would have dreamt that this was their last glass of beer or cocktail at Cafe Leopold......who would have thought that uniting with their loved ones would only be a dream waiting at the platform for their respective trains.......who would have felt the slighest tinch of death while they were discussing their million dollar deals with business giants from across the world at the five-star hotels. It's so unfortunate that the entire situation of terrorism is so out of control that no single person or authority can be held responsible for such dreadful activities. One thing that this incident has brought to light is that the world will react strongly against terrorism only when their nationals are involved. The terrorists possibly chose to target the foreigners (British and the Americans to be specific) apart from the Indians just to create a wide cry of panic all across the globe....to make their presence and fear felt all over the world. Several foreigners have been killed in these attacks and we can see not only in India.....wide coverage is being aired at the Times square in New York and at London. Atleast now, I hope all the countries will respond strongly and work together to fight terrorism.