*I had never see so much concern from anyone in this blog for what > happened on 26-NOV-08 .... * >
Obviously, you had never seen...simply because you never bothered to read it. For your sanity sake, i am sending the first day's conversation. It will be too much for everyone and the good yourself to go through it again. ---------------------- Out of 101 people only 7 are foreign nationals. Rest all are ordinary hard working Indians. Some sitting on the ground of platform 14 of VT station waiting for their journey train to come. Pain and anguish is all i can feel right now. The most painful thing is they were Indians. Mostly, we blame Pakistanis and Al-Qaeda but now they are calling themselves Deccan...something...meaning they are home grown terrorists. big failure of intelligence. I would hate it if they again try to side step their failure by highlighting the spirit of Mumbai of being back on track. Bhaad mein jaaye spirit...if it continues..we will all become spirits/ghosts soon. Have been Reading all the articles in my paper. It all happened right outside TOI office. In fact a colleague(ex) took a picture of a terrorist from our window and now the picture is splashed across the country. That's the only picture of the terrorist. So imagine it was that close. Another attack was on the platform No 1, 7 and 14 of VT station.I used to take the harbour train from platform 1 and i often used to leave office at that time. Hemant Karkare who had given me my first crime story this year died in the attack. It was a front page story. After i came here, he became the chief of Anti-Terrorism Squad of the state. Died at the hands of them. God bless India Arch --------------------------- I can understand the anguish in your language, we are equally pissed off! These terrorists have been speaking Punjabi and are from Punjab district of Pakistan! They all came via the porous sea route on the soutern tip of Mumbai! We had a few guests who have come from South Africa, my wife had taken them to Canary Caves and Taj for a routine Mumbai Darshan just 2 days back and these ppl are shell shocked! Yesterday, they had been to Bandstand, Taj's lands end for refreshments, excatly at the same time so much happened in south Mumbai! I am so relieved everyone is the same in my set up but cannot imagine the plight of ppl who have lost their families! My heart goes out to all those hostages who are holed up still and for our real heroes, Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and some more policemen who laid their lives in the pursuit of bringing safety to citizens! I am so disturbed with the P.M and Advani's plans to come to Mumbai and actually disrupting our army and NSG commondos operations who are doing such a wonderful job.Remember,everytime a V.I.P comes the entire police force is behind them to give them security. Why should they be coming here in the first place! What will they do coming here, enough of politics!!! Someone should tell them that we dont need them here! Our PM has said that they will have more stricter terror laws after today, blah blah! What the hell, when will they think about preventing such incedents! Why do we always react so late? Enough is enough, Ppl must wake up and start demanding their rights from these politicians. I can go on and on but then what's the point. Do you know our fire brigade ppl struggled to get the water till the 5th floor of the Taj to extinguish the fire. We dont even have the basic infrastructure in place, bahut ho gaya! Forget about the spirit! We want this menance to end, ppl should not forget the sacrificies of the brave policemen and army ppl just like that!!!! I salute them!! I feel the same anger and frustration as all of you ... What do you all think is a solution? I know the answer is not easy, but what is a good start? Are we prepared for real tough terror laws where some innocents will inevitably suffer for ensuring safety of most of the citizens? Are we prepared to pay a terror tax for the Mumbai Govt to invest in resources to prevent and react to terrorist attacks better? It is so painful to see the Havaldars taking positions with those big 10 KG hunting Rifles that can fire only 2 shots. Lifting that thing and taking aim will take more than a minute. Why can't they be given pistols with which they can run and react better? As a start, security cameras should be put in all key railway stations, hotels and buildings and be monitored constantly. If need be let the railways charge 50 paise safety surcharge on every ticket and let the hotels charge guests Rs 50 a day extra for security. Just a thought .. yaaro its very sad. just 2 days back i wrote to arch that v r going to become super power and all of u can come back. par lagta hai aap log jaldi wapis aaa jaye shayd tab tak kuch baki na rahe.can u imagine a boat full of terrorist entering mumbai from budhwar park(colaba heart of mumbai) and can kill so many people. our country is living bhagwan bhrose.govt, navy all are bullshit. they even dont know how many terrorist have landed in mumbai.rumaors r that some them r still hiding in mumbai. so those living here pls b at home and take care viru ---------------------------- God Bless Mumbai and India....sorry for coming in late on this one!!! I havent slept well since this has happened..and am sure most of us havent... As I have been logged on to NDTV live on the PC or on CNN/BBC/ZEE NEWS for any info available...its quite upsetting and frustrating to see all this happen. I spoke to Nayan, Viren, my place, inlaws place and other kith and kin in Mumbai....and was grateful to God that all is ok. But the information coming across, the interviews to press etc.....sound so silly, sad and unfortunate...politicians justifying about elections, security lapses etc....and the maharashtra govt complaining about lack of support from the central govt.....its so sad!! anyway, i am off for now....might be out of touch for a week, am off to saudi arabia tonight..on a biz trip... all you guys in mumbai, stay safe and take care....god bless. regards HV ------------------------------- I changed the headline, it is not the Mumbai shootings, in fact a war. How else would you justify battalions of NSG commando's flown from Delhi, Navy commando's, IAF helicopters, Rapid action force personnels and around 800 police men manning the three important buildings! Well, Subu it is a very good suggestion to start thinking about ways and means to prevent such a situation in future!!! It is so very evident that resources are not at large for putting things in perspective but what we lack is basic planning and a political will to stop this!! I dont understand why is it so difficult to avert such situations? I mean we have an example in front of us, U.S mein ek parinde ne bhi per nahi mara after the 9/11, U.K has had no terror casualties after the train blasts, remember they foiled the attempt of the indian born mujaideens at Glasgow airport! Why cant we follow their foot steps, we do follow them for all other things but why not for this! I keep hearing and reading the news that there was a warning issued long time back about the porous sea borders and Narendra Modi went on to add that he had already stated this long time back. I mean what the hell are we doing, if these politicians know the possible threat zones and they still want to sit and pass the buck I must say only GOD save this country!!!! This is as good as knowing about the crime and keeping mum which is punishable under the IPC! How can you just keep quiet?????? To my mind, the first thing what should be done is to withdraw all the security men from these politicians! All the politicians are so rich even officially that they can afford to have their own security men! They can travel in their bullet proof cars and wear bullet proof jackets if they are so concerned about their safety! Why should public pay for their safety when they care a damn about ours! Increase the salaries of all the police men, army,security agencies and give them performance based bonuses! Every time they foil a plausible terrorist attack they should be rewarded and if they fail in their attempt they should be penalised and sacked if needed.Increase the force, give them the power, choose the right candidates for the right spot and no politician will decide about their appointment or their transfers. It should be decided by the judiciary, high court judges preferrably. Invest in the technology, equipments and instruments needed to prevent such attacks! Security cameras on each and every street of all the cities, not alone railway stations or airports! Security cameras inside the police stations and it should be connected to the local cable operators, every citizen has the right to know whether the Policemen whom we actually trust our lives upon discharge their duties efficiently or not! Make them accountable at every stage, all court proceedings should be aired live too! There should be a body of intellectual ppl formed above this level whose job is to keep a tab on the daily proceedings and they must report to the local news channels about the number of incidents that take place in their jurisdiction. If the politicians need resources to build this secured environment we are ready to pay more taxes but if they fail they should be sacked instantly and never be ever allowed to contest any elections!!!! The gist of the matter is that make each and every public servant accountable at every level! I have no doubt in my mind that if there is a strong will to set things right no one can even think of even causing a scratch on us, forget about the terrorism!!!!!!! I dont know how you guys have taken this episode, but i havent been able to sleep that well! The first thing what comes to my mind is the death of the ATS chief and i just cant imagine how could we let him die like this. He was such an upright officer, engineer and an IPS officer to boot! The same holds true for all the policemen who have laid their lives for this cause! Hats off to all of them including all the commanders who are involved in flushing out the terrorists! India has the potential to become the super power by 2015, forget about 2025 but we got to wake up now and should not let this episode pass by just like that. This is a big lesson to be learnt, biggest terrorist attack in the indian history to date, i guess this shold be a good enough reason for us to actually wake up!!!! JAGO INDIA JAGO before it is too late. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VaniV88-89" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/VaniV88-89?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
