मुम्बई हमले के समय पुलिस की सक्रियता की सच्चाई

पहले भी मैंने तहलका में छपे एक लेख का जिक्र किया था जिसमें साफ़ जाहिर है कि ऊँचे पद पर बैठे कुछ मक्कार (और देशद्रोही) लोग इतनी बड़ी तादाद में लोगों के जान गँवाने के उत्तरदायी हैं.

उन पर देशद्रोह का मुकदमा क्यों नहीं चलना चाहिये?

आप भी पढ़ें: Senior cops did not respond to 26/11 situation: Hasan Gafoor
Some of the top Mumbai police officers have been accused by their former boss of dithering from "responding to the situation" during the 26/11 attacks. Gafoor Hasan, the then Mumbai Police Commissioner, said, "a section of senior police officers refused to be on the ground and take on the terrorists. By doing so, they chose to ignore the need of the hour."

Naming some of the seniors, Hasan, in an interview published in 'The Week' magazine just days ahead of the first anniversary of the attacks, said, "I told you there were a handful. For example, K L Prasad refused to come to the Trident and decided against hitting the roads. Devena Bharti, K Venkatesham and Parambhir Singh did not appear keen on responding to the situation as it kept dawning on us."

Prasad was then the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) while Bharti was the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime). Venkatesham was the Additional Commissioner of Police (South Region) and Singh was the Additional Commissioner of Police (Anti-Terrorism Squad).

"Yes, there was dearth of eagerness on the part of a handful of senior officers to be on the ground during those days," said Gafoor, replying to a question if he noticed a bit of unwillingness among the senior officers.

Now Director General of Police (Housing), Gafoor received a lot of flak from the Ram Pradhan Committee, which probed into how the security agencies responded to the deadly terror strikes that claimed more than 180 lives.

It had observed that command and control was not properly exercised during the handling of the attacks.

Asked how he felt when let down by his own men and if there was a bigger embarrassment, Gafoor said "yes there was, indeed. On November 28, I attended a meeting with the DGP and Home Minister. I was told to withdraw the NSG and instead use the Mumbai police for the ongoing operations. The DGP told me that the entire world was watching us and so we should put an immediate end to the siege and help defuse the crisis. This sounded ridiculous, as the NSG is an elite force that can tackle such crisis situation. I said it was even preposterous to even think of taking off the NSG."

Recalling the events that took place on November 26 last year, Gafoor said "the first thing on my mind was, of course, to liquidate the terrorists or to restrict and compel them to a corner and then cordon off the targeted area -- all this to engineer the safe evacuation of the people trapped inside."

Lauding the NSG for doing a "great job" in eliminating the terrorists, the former Mumbai Police Commissioner said "without them it would not have been possible to even map the terrorists' movement inside those built-up areas, let alone take them head on and overpower them ultimately."

Asked if believes that he was made a scapegoat, he said, "I cannot comment on that. But yes, political considerations do play a part in lot of things that are decided and ratified. It is politics and much more beyond."

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कोई भी मूल्य एवं संस्कृति तब तक जीवित नहीं रह सकती जब तक वह आचरण में नहीं है.

मुम्बई हमले के समय पुलिस की निष्क्रियता

मुम्बई पुलिस ने देश की नाक नीचे करने में कोई कसर नहीं रख छोड़ी. २६ नवंबर की काली रात को अपनी जान की बाजी लगाते हुए सदानंद दाते और उनके साथी एक घंटे (रात १२ बजे) तक control room से reinforcement भेजे जाने की भीख माँगते रहे थे, पर वहाँ कोई नहीं गया. समय रहते अगर सदानंद को सहायता मिली होती तो इस भयावहता को कम किया जा सकता था. इस हमले ने दिखा दिया कि पुलिस की विभिन्न सुरक्षा विभागों से कोई तालमेल ही नहीं है. पुलिस की इन अक्षमताओं का फ़ल मिला उन बहादुर सिपाहियों के परिवारों को उनकी जान गँवाकर.

और इन सब पर परदा डालने के लिये ही विनीता कामते को अभी भी पुलिस के call records की जानकारी नहीं दी गयी है.

पूरा पढ़ें: Slaughter House Files.
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कोई भी मूल्य एवं संस्कृति तब तक जीवित नहीं रह सकती जब तक वह आचरण में नहीं है.

'My father sent me to the Lashkar'

26/11 Mumbai Attacked, one of the first books on last winter's murderous acts of terror, explains the reality behind the attacks. It reiterates the chilling reality that India is under grave threat and the clock is ticking before the next big attack.

In the first of a five-part series, we bring to you an exclusive excerpt written by journalist Ashish Khetan detailing the initial interrogation of an injured Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving terrorist, in the early hours of November 28, 2008, even as the siege continued at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi-Trident hotels and Nariman House.

Additional Commissioner Tanaji Ghadge is fifty-one and more than half his age has gone into policing. A smile always lingers on his cherubic face but tonight it is sombre, almost mournful. Dyed black hair parted neatly down the side and hands held across the chest, he is staring into the camera, waiting for the cue. Above his right shoulder, the word 'Police' is painted on the wall in Marathi, in bold black letters. He is seated at a police desk outside the emergency ward of the Nair Hospital, a corner assigned to the police for fulfilling legal formalities and paperwork for cases involving accidents, shootout injuries, anything that falls under medico-legal cases. The time is 1 am, the date November 27, 2008.

On cue, Ghadge begins: 'I am the additional commissioner of Girgaum division. There were incidents of indiscriminate firing at the Taj Mahal hotel, the Oberoi hotel and the VT station last night which appear to be a well-coordinated terror attack. In an encounter with the police at Girgaum Chowpatty one terrorist has been killed while another has suffered injuries and has been brought to the hospital. It is important to interrogate him and therefore I am proceeding to question him.'

Next frame. A youth, seemingly in his early twenties, lies prone on a green plastic, the sheet being a protection from bloodstains for the white sheet that covers a mattress. A fine brown blanket has been pulled close to the chest of the young man who lies naked underneath. His thick mop of hair, greasy and dishevelled, is pressed against the bed's headrest. Wheatish in complexion, the youth is well built -- round arms, pumped-up biceps, and thick neck. His clean-shaven oval face bears a high forehead. There is a fresh injury on the chin smeared with an ointment, and a sledge-shaped bandage covers the right side of his neck. Apart from both the arms, which are bandaged from wrist to biceps, the torso bears no injury. He shows no signs of physical pain, only his forehead is creased and eyes are tightly shut, the stiffness of his face making clear that he is not asleep.

'Maine bahut galat kiya (I have committed a big mistake),' move the parched lips, catching a glimpse of the policeman walking into the room before shutting his eyes again. No question was posed, but Ghadge's walking in inspired the unsolicited admission. 'On whose instance?' 'Chacha ke kehne pe. (At the behest of Uncle.)' Eyes still closed; the voice betraying an effort to exhibit pain and earn empathy, more beseeching than replying. 'Who is this uncle?' Ghadge is staring down with bewilderment, still standing by the right side of the bed, near the young man's shoulder.

'The one from Lashkar.'

'Lashkar what? Which village he is from?'

'I don't know about his village. But he has an office... he keeps visiting the office,' the voice relaxes for a second.

'Who sent you here?'

'My father said we were very poor... our condition would improve... we will have food to eat... clothes to wear,' an emotional explanation, an excuse embedded in the reply.

'Was he your real father?' an incredulous Ghadge enquires.

'Real father... real father,' the man seemed determined to condemn his father.

'What's your name?' asked Ghadge, a fountain pen ready to scribble on a writing pad.

'Ajmal.'

'What's your age?'

'Twenty-one.'

'Where is your gaon (village)?'

'Faridkot in tehsil Depalpur (administrative division), district Okara.'

'Who all are there in your family?'

'Mother... sisters.'

'Mother's name,' asks Ghadge, hardly looking at him, concentrating hard on the writing pad.

'Noor Illahi.'

'Her age?'

'Wahi koi chaalis ke aas paas. (Must be around forty years.)'

'What's your father's name?' Ghadge continues.

'Amir,' eyes still closed, head at ninety degrees to the pillow, body, hands and legs stiff like dead.

'What's his father's name?'

'Shahban.' His eyelids open for a split of a second before closing again.

'What's the surname?'

'Kya? (What?)'

'What's the surname? Khandaan ka naam kya hai?' Ghadge makes his question simpler.

'Kasab.'

'Are you a butcher?'

'No. We are not in this business� just the name has stuck.'

'So, Amir Shahban Kasab, that's your father's name.'

'Yes.'

'What's his age?'

'Somewhere around 45 years,' head jerks a trifle, before stiffening again.

'What does your father do?'

'He sells dahi-wade. Sometimes in the village... sometimes he goes to Lahore city ... It's difficult to run the family,' Kasab now opens his eyelids, catching a glimpse of his interrogator from the corner of his eyes.

(Rediff News)

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कोई भी मूल्य एवं संस्कृति तब तक जीवित नहीं रह सकती जब तक वह आचरण में नहीं है.

The Mumbai police control room becomes a war zone

26/11 Mumbai Attacked, one of the first books on last winter's murderous acts of terror, explains the reality behind the attacks. It reiterates the chilling reality that India is under grave threat and the clock is ticking before the next big attack.
In the concluding part of a five-part series, we bring to you an exclusive excerpt written by journalist Ashish Khetan on how the Mumbai police broke Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the attacks, immediately after his arrest and got vital information.

The Confession
The crime branch of the Mumbai police -- a specialised department in neutralising and investigating organised crime as well as intricate cases that are beyond the competence of local police stations -- has a staff of 150 experienced detectives. The entire bureau is headed by a joint commissioner of police. Since June 2007 the joint commissioner of the crime branch was Rakesh Maria.
A tall and broad-shouldered man, every strand of greying hair in place, Maria was known to be a workaholic. But on November 26 he left for the day at 8.50 pm, two hours before his usual time. Maria wanted to spend some time with his twenty-one-year-old son who was leaving that night for Ahmednagar to participate in an inter-university championship.
At 9.40 pm Maria's son left home. Ten minutes later, as he was getting ready to retire to bed, he received a call from the police control room: armed gunmen had opened indiscriminate fire at the CST station killing dozens of commuters. By the time he got into his car, reports of firing at Leopold Caf'e, at the Taj Mahal hotel and at the Trident-Oberoi hotels had also poured in.
As he asked his driver to head towards Mumbai police headquarters, the commissioner of police, Hasan Gafoor called and instructed Maria to take charge of the police control room. At 10.22 pm Maria reached the control room. By the time he walked in there, the command centre of Mumbai police had turned into a war zone.
Dozens of telephone lines and wireless communication channels were buzzing like bees. Beads of sweat were falling off the foreheads of police personnel fielding calls from the public, coordinating among the 45,000 city police personnel and communicating with eighty-six police stations and senior officers spread across Mumbai. A few gunmen had simultaneously attacked different sites throughout the city.
Dozens had already died while hundreds of injured needed immediate medical aid. It seemed the city was at war. A giant screen was showing the important city landmarks and locations of over 3,000 police vans patrolling in different areas. Maria started mobilising the police personnel, dispatching police vans to the troubled spots. Around 10.35 pm, reports came that a bomb had gone off in a speeding taxi on the Western Express Highway, close to the Santacruz airport.
So powerful was the explosion that the head of the taxi driver got severed from the torso and after shooting thirty feet up in the air, got stuck in the branches of a tree. Five minutes later at 10.40 pm another call came that a second bomb had exploded, again in a taxi, this time in Wadi Bunder, approximately 25 km from the location of the first blast.
Memories of the 1993 serial blasts were refreshed in Maria's mind. How many more bombs were waiting to go off? Two suspicious looking bags outside the Taj and one bag outside the Trident hotel had already been sighted. Maria instructed all police stations to comb their areas. Bomb disposal squads were dispatched to different sites.
Then reports of police casualties started trickling in. At around 11.25 pm Maria got the call that Additional Commissioner Sadanand Date, who had followed the terrorists into Cama Hospital, was injured, while a constable accompanying him had been killed. Between 10.29 pm and 12.11 am Maria diverted over 200 police personnel towards Cama Hospital.
During that time (Hemant) Karkare, (Ashok) Kamte, (Vijay) Salaskar and others had headed towards the hospital. Not far from there, at the CST station, were three SRPF striking forces, one RCP (Riot Control Police) striking force of around twenty personnel, eight mobile vans, one QRT and one SOS team. In addition, four DCPs and four senior police inspectors were also in the area. But unfortunately, the reinforcements never moved inside the lane where Karkare and the others were waiting.
At 12.25 am, Maria received a wireless message from Arun Jadhav, Salaskar's bodyguard. He said terrorists had hijacked the police vehicle in which he and Karkare and the others were travelling, that they had 'injured' everybody and finally abandoned the vehicle outside Vidhan Bhavan with him inside it.
Jadhav told Maria that the terrorists had then hijacked a black Honda City. Yet somehow, in that three-minute communication, Jadhav stricken with panic failed to tell Maria that the terrorists had killed Karkare and the others. It was only after Additional Commissioner Parambir Singh reached Vidhan Bhavan that Maria was informed about the outcome of the episode.
A little later a senior police inspector of DB Marg police station informed the control room that they had killed one and caught another terrorist alive.
Throughout the night Maria coordinated with the MARCOS, then the NSG, placing dozens of calls to the Maharashtra chief secretary, the Western Navy Command, the Union home ministry, and the Army headquarters in Delhi, besides numerous other offices and bureaucrats.
At around 1.30 am Maria was told to interrogate Ajmal Kasab who was at the Nair Hospital. After Ghadge's interrogation was over, Maria had already been updated by the DB Marg police about the revelations made by Kasab.
Maria sent one of his trusted detection officers Prashant Marde to Nair Hospital with the brief to just clarify four points: 1) How had they come; 2) How many of them had entered the city; 3) What weapons did they have with them; and 4) What task had each terrorist been assigned? At around 4.30 am, as Maria was busy arranging transport to pick up the NSG commandos from the airport, Marde called and briefed him on the four crucial points.
Based on the details provided by DB Marg police and Marde, Maria briefed the NSG in his office at around 5.30-6 am.
(Rediff News)

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कोई भी मूल्य एवं संस्कृति तब तक जीवित नहीं रह सकती जब तक वह आचरण में नहीं है.

मुम्बई हमले के बाद

यह लेख मैने संजयजी के एक लेख के उत्तर में लिखा है.

संजयजी, महत्वपूर्ण मुद्दे की चर्चा में आपका लेख तथ्यों का खुलासा करता है. लिखने के लिये धन्यवाद.
पर अब पाठकगण स्वयं निर्णय ले सकते हैं कि बरखा देवी की इस 'दिलेरी' के प्रति आप क्यों इतनी सहानुभूति दिखा रहे हैं. एक ओर तो आप उनका बचाव कर रहे हैं और बाद में इलैक्ट्रोनिक मीडिया को दोषी बता रहे हैं. क्या दोनों अलग हैं?

जैसा कि सभी पाठक जानते हैं कि मुम्बई हमले के समय हिन्दुस्तान का सारा इलैक्ट्रॉनिक मीडिया खोज-खोज कर फ़ंसे हुये लोगों की संख्या, छिपे लोगों की स्थिति बताने के साथ हमारी कमांडो कार्यवाही की जानकारी दे रहा था जिसका सीधा फ़ायदा पाकिस्तान में बैठे आकाओं को आसानी से हो रहा था. इस घटना का हवाला देते हुये एक हिंदुस्तानी ने अपने ब्लॉग में कुछ खरा कह दिया तो लोग उसके पीछे पड़ गये.

मानता हूँ कि बरखा देवी अपने मालिक द्वारा दिये कार्य को पूरा करने में तल्लीन थीं और केवल उनको ही गाली खाने का हक़ नहीं है...... और भी लोग हैं. ये भी मानता हूँ कि व्यक्तिगत रूप से महिला ही नहीं किसी को भी गाली नहीं देना चाहिये.

पर जब प्रश्न किसी राष्ट्र की सुरक्षा का हो, सुरक्षा व्यवस्था का हो तो कैसे कोई अपने उत्तरदायित्व से मुक्त रह सकता है? संभव है कि १९९९ में भारतीय सेना भी इसी टीआरपी छाप पत्रकारिता की शिकार रही हो.
किसी पीड़ित से पूछिये जिसने माँ, बहन, भाई, पिता, पति या पत्नी को खो दिया. ये लोग भी संविधान में समान अधिकार रखते थे. उनके जीवन से ज्यादा महत्वपूर्ण नहीं हैं ये बरखा जैसे लोग या ये NDTV जैसे दूसरे अन्य TV चैनल.

प्रश्न एक बरखा या किसी NDTV का नहीं है.... एक ही दिन, एक ही समय पर कई ऐसे सम्मिलित प्रयास किये गये भारत की सुरक्षा व्यवस्था को छलनी करने के. उन सबमें होड़ लगी थी कि कौन कितना बड़ा देशद्रोही है. और सारा तंत्र मूक दर्शक की भाँति मौन है. अब एक कानून बना देने से सांत्वना दी जा रही है हमें.
बिल्कुल सही लिखा है मैंने... ये देशद्रोह नहीं तो और क्या है?...... देशप्रेम की किस नयी परिभाषा में बाँधना चाहेंगे इस कृत्य को.

१९९३ में इसी मुम्बई में एक और भयानक हादसा हुआ था और देश को जो सबक सीखना चाहिये था वह नहीं सीखा गया. उस समय संजय दत्त को भी आरोपी बनाया गया (मामला court में चल रहा है). ऐसे तो संजय दत्त ने भी किसी आदमी को नहीं मारा था (संजय के बारे में अलग से लिखूंगा). अब वो समाज सेवा करने जा रहे हैं... ... ... वे लखनऊ से सांसद पद के प्रत्याशी हैं..... संभव है कि कल बरखा देवी भी समाज सेवा में उतर जायें.

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कोई भी मूल्य एवं संस्कृति तब तक जीवित नहीं रह सकती जब तक वह आचरण में नहीं है.