The Untold Facts about Mumbai Attacks 26/11 - Part 5

TRAIL AND AWARDS:

• Mohammed Ajmal Aamar Kasab was the only terrorist captured alive,remaining 9 terrorists were killed by the security forces.Later,Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI)added a Pakistani-American David Headly who was being the mastermind of planning 26/11 attacks.On November 21st 2012,Ajmal Kasab was hanged in Yerwada jail in Pune after the President's rejection of the mercy plea made by kasab.On January 23rd 2013,Federtal Court of the United States gave life-time imprisonment to David Headly.

• And ATS Chief Hemant Karkare,Additional Commissioner of south  mumbai Ashok Kamte,Maharastra Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar,Maharastra Police Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble,Elite 51-SAG commander Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havaldar Gajender Singh Bisht were honoured by the India's Highest peace-time gallantry award posthumously.

ABOUT OUR MAJOR SANDEEP UNNIKRISHNAN:

• Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan came from a Nair family residing in Bengaluru,where they had moved to from Chengannur District,Kozhikode,Kerala.He was born on 15th March 1977.He was the only son of retired ISRO officer Mr.K.Unnikrishnan and Mrs.Dhanalakshmi Unnikrishnan.

• Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan joined the National Defence Academy(NDA).Pune,Maharashtra in 1995.He was a cadet,part of the Oscar Squadron(No 4 Battalion)and a graduate of the 94th course of NDA.He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts (Social Science Stream).His NDA friends remember him as "Selfless","generous" and "Calm and Composed".He was commissioned as lieutenant to the 7th Battalion of the Bihar Regiment (Infantry)on 12 July 1999.After serving the Indian Army in differenet Locations in Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan to counter insurgencies for two terms,he was selected to join the National Security Guards.On Completion of training,he was assigned to the Special Action Group(SAG) of NSG on january 2007 and participated in various operations of the NSG.Sandeep Unnikrishnan served in several conflicts including the kargil war.

• "Do not come up,I will handle them", were the last words which sandeep unnikrishnan told his men as he was hit by bullets while engaging terrorists inside the Taj Mahal Palace &Tower during Operation Black Tornado,according to NSG officials.His bravery was honoured with the Ashoka Chakra,India's higgest peace time gallantry award,on 26 January 2009.God may have taken the life of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan,but he cannot take away the memories and inspiration which was given by the Major from the hearts of every indian.He gave his life for the welfare of our country .We will not forget you Major .There is no doubt you are a great warrior,we salute you and you are a role model for the Young Indians.

Author of all Five Part of the Article series "The Untold Facts about Mumbai Attacks 26/11":

P.Aswin Manikanda Prabhu

The UnTold Facts about Mumbai Attack 26/11 - Part 4

Operation Black Tornado:

• As the specialists in counter attack NSG commandos took charge to flush out the attackers from the hotels.The operation was named as "Operation Back Tornado".Two squads of Special Action Group(SAG)named as SAG-51 and SAG-52 were orered to perform this operation and the snipers were located nearby places to give support to SAG troop.Totally 200 SAG commandos were operated inside the Taj Commandos planned to execute 'Top-Down' operation.

• The difficulties involved in this operation is that the Taj had 21 floors and each having 17 rooms.Limited hotel staff were available to help the commandos because the commandos had no knowledge of various small rooms in the corridors which could be used as hiding places.Also,Lack of ambient light inside the rooms withered the counter-attack.The occupants were too scared and never identified themselves or opened the doors upon knocking or calling.Some occupants ventured out of their rooms earlier and were shot by the terrorists.The word of this incident had spread quickly and the hotel staff had advised the guests to shut themselves inside their rooms.

• In nariman house,two more attackers held the foreigners as hostages.On 27th morning,NSG commandos cleared the first floor of the house and on the following day,the commandos fast-roped from a helicopter on the roof of the house and hurried into the second floor.After a long battle one NSG commando Havaldar Gajender Singh Bisht who led their team was killed along with 4 hostages.The attackers also were killed by the commandos.

• Operation Black Tornado was spear-headed by Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.Attackers periodically used the explosives to distract the commandos.Major Sandeep was the team commander of 51 SAG deployed in the operation at the Taj Mahal Hotel to rid the building of terrorists and resue the hostages.He Entered the hotel with a group of 10 commandos and reached the sixth floor through the staircase.As the team descended the stairs,they sensed the terrorists on the third floor.The terrorists had held a few women as hostages in a room and locked it from inside.After breaking open the door,the round of fire by the terrorists hit commando Sunil Yadav,who was Major Sandeep's partner.

• Major  Sandeep led his team from the front and engaged the terrorists in a fierce gunfight.He arranged for commando Sunil Yadav's evacuation and regardless of personal safety,chased the terrorists who,meanwhile,escaped to another floor of the hotel,and while doing so Major Sandeep continuously engaged them.In the encounter that followed,he was shot from the back,seriously injured and succumbed to injuries.Finally the commandos killed the remaining two terrorists in Taj and also rescued the hostages from the hotel safely.Simultaneously,NSG commandos killed the two attackers in Nariman House.Finally the NSG commandos successfully completed the "Operation Black Tornado" at 08:00 IST on November 29th.

• The NSG rescued 250 people from the oberoi,300 from the Taj and 60 people(members of 12 different families)from Nariman House.Totally the cruel attack took away the lives of 166 people.Among them,37 persons were foreigners,14 policemen including 3 senior police officers,a major belonging to Elite Special Action Group and a commando of NSG.

{Continued in Part -5 }

The Untold Facts about Mumbai Attack 26/11 - Part 3

CAMA Hospital:

• The attackers from CST headed towards Cama hospital with a plan to kill the children and women because it was the special hospital for women and children.A team of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist squad led by police chief Hemant Karkare along with the Additional Commissioner of South Mumbai Ashok Kamte(IPS) and an encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar planned to start the counter attack against the terrorists.They stepped into a patrol vehicle with some arms and bullet proof jackets and went to stop the gunmen who were going towards the Cama hospital.On seeing the police vehicle the gunmen hid themselves behind a building and opened fire at the vehicle.The Police officers did not expect it and couldn't react effectively from inside the vehicle.The weapons used by the terrorists were somewhat advanced from that of the officers.Within few minutes,the senior most officers of the city were killed and now the city became helpless.

Arrest of Ajmal Kasab:

• After killing the officers,they took a passenger car and wanted to escape from there.On the way,nearby a roadblock their car  was stopped by the police.They tried to escape but the police successfully stopped the car by shooting the one who was driving the car.The another one inside the car opened fire at the police.Yet ASI Tukaram omble captured the second terrorist alive and later he was identified as Ajmab Kasab.During this gunfight an Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble was killed.

Taj and Oberoi Trident Hotel:

• Taj hotel and oberoi Trident was captured by the remaining terrorists and like a wildfire,the attack in mumbai was spread over the seas.Security officials realised the seriousness of the situation and called the Marine Commandos(MARCOS),Rapid Action Force and National Security Guards(NSG).MARCOS and RAF surrounded the hotel and cleaned up the ground floor of the hotel.The NSG commandos reported at 27th November 03:00 IST after travelling  1163 kilometres from New Delhi through air.

• On 27th morning CNN channel reported that the hostage situation at Taj had been resolved and the hostages were freed.However,it was noticed later that two more terrorists were still holding the hostages.It was feared that 5 members of European Parliament and 2 Members of Indian Parliament and some VIP's also still trapped inside the hotel.The NSG commandos were waiting for the command to perform an operation.The commands to the terrorists came from Pakistan via VoIP Phones and it was later realised that the attackers were also watching the live broadcast of the actions taken by the security forces.The Senior officials ordered to cut-off the live broadcast about the action of the forces.This unexpected attack stunned the country and also produced the shock waves over the world.

                                                                                                                                                                    {Continued in Part -4 }

The Untold Facts about Mumbai Attacks 26/11 - Part 2

Mumbai Attack:

• 26/11/2008 attack is the second biggest terrorist attack in the world,next to the 11/9/2001 Twin Tower attack in New york.Twin tower attack was executed by Al-Qaeda and the mumbai attack was executed by LeT.In Mumbai,they did 12 co-oedinated shooting and bombing in the economical capital of india.A group of ten well trained LeT terrorists came by the speedboats and reached two different places in the coastal area of colaba.Some Marathi fishermen were reported about these strangers to the police around 20:00(IST).The Police gave a meager response to the report made by the fishermen.

Leopold Cafe:

• As per their plan,they were splitted into groups of two and went to different places of south mumbai.Two of the terrorists started the attack in Leopold cafe,a famous bar and restaurant.Here the attackers killed 10 people.

Blasts in Taxi:

• Terrorists also blasted two timer bomb in taxis at Wadi Bunder and Vile Parte around 22:20 and 22:40 respectively.In these blasts 5 people were killed and 15 peoples were injured.

CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI TERMINUS(CST):

• Two other terrorists went to the India's busiest railway station(CST) with AK-47 rifles at 21:30 IST.They entered into the passenger's hall and began shooting without humanity.During this incident ,58 innocent people were killed and 108 people were injured.They left from CST at 22:45,making their way to their next target.While moving to their next target,they fired the pedestrians and the police offiers who were involved in night patrol duty.Now the city police were informed about different attacks in the city.They were alerted and ordered to track the way of terrorists.At this same time remaining terrorist captured the 100 year old India's Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and Oberoi Trident Hotel.Both these hotels had five star status where many VIP's and foreigners used to stay.They also captured a Jewish house called as 'Nariman House'.Due to these,the police forces were forced to respond quickly and also to start the counter attack.

{Continued in PART -3}

The UnTold Facts about Mumbai Attack 26/11 - Part 1

The UnTold Facts about Mumbai Attack 26/11 - Part 1:

• Introduction: God gives us our mother earth to live peacefully in it.Everybody like a peaceful life but the world is not living so.Every Country doesn't like the development of other countries.More than that,there are some cold wars between some development of other countries.More than that,there are some cold wars between some developed countries in terms of technical development,space research,nuclear weapon developments etc... Among these,the biggest threat for peace is terrorism.Terrorism is spread all over the world.It also classified into different types,for example,some group of people are fighting for their rights using violence and terror actions against the rulers or the government of their countries.It is also a type of terrorism.Some politicians take terrorism as a tool to fulfill their requirements.Some group of individuals involve in terrorism in the name of bombing explosions,killing innocent people,suicide attacks,hijacking and hostage crisis.

• Biggest Terrorist Attacks: The world experiences some unforgettable attacks in different places.Examples for such type of attacks are 9/11 World Trade Centre attack in New York,3/11 blasts in Madrid,7/7 London blasts,Oklahoma City bombing,26/11 attack in Mumbai .Many terrorist units are functioning inside a small area ,say within a country or state but some terrorist units are functioning in many countries.These type of units are capable of performing attacks whose outcome is very devastating.These units are the biggest threat to the security of this fragile planet. Terrorist Activities Against INDIA: INDIA is one of the countries in the united nations Counter -Terrorism committee which fights against terrorism; United States is the pioneer in restricting and destroying the terrorist groups in all over the world especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan .Indian cities Mumbai,Kolkata,Hyderabad and pune also faced some vulnerable attacks since the later decades of 20th Century.In India,Mumbai is the city which is most targeted by the terrorists.Pakistan based militant groups like Laskhar-e-Taiba,Mujahideen,Al-jihad are responsible for attacks in India.The main reason for these attacks is kashmir conflict between Indian and Pakistan.These proxy-militant units,in the name of holy war,involve in such activities to rescue kashmir from India.These units attract the poor youngsters from some rural areas of Pakistan.They brainwash those youngsters and provide financial support to their family.Now a question may arise how can they train people equal to the rigorous army training independently? The Answer is some of the militants from Pakistan Army and the veterans of these units give training to these freshers.They also get direct and indirect support from Pakistan Army and Pakistan's Intelligence Agency(ISI-Inter Services Intelligence).

{Continued in Part-2}