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New Delhi: As the country commemorates the anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, leaders, officials and survivors remembered the victims of one of India’s worst terrorist attacks. Recalling the horror of the 2008 attacks, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said it was impossible to forget the incident even after almost two decades.
Javadekar said, “Even after seventeen years, one cannot forget 26/11. The way the attack was carried out and the way Pakistan spread terrorism was serious and horrifying.” He said the attack was one of India’s most brutal terrorist operations.
He said the attackers targeted several locations in the city, killing hundreds of people and martyring several police officers. He said, “The Mumbai terror attack was brutal… hundreds of people were killed, many police officers lost their lives and the attack happened at multiple locations, making it very different and extremely tragic.”
Marking the anniversary, renowned prosecutor and Rajya Sabha MP Ujjwal Nikam, who led the case against Ajmal Kasab, also paid tribute.
Nikam said, “I can never forget this day in my life. This is the day when terrorists killed many innocent citizens of our country and many brave police officers. Why were they killed? There was only one reason for this, terrorism born out of hatred.”
He said the attackers’ goal was to destabilize India economically by creating fear in the country’s financial capital Mumbai. He said, “The aim was that if people in Mumbai became frightened and foreign investors fled, India would fall into economic crisis. But that did not happen.”
On this occasion, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, DGP Rashmi Shukla and Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti are going to pay tribute to the martyrs at the Mumbai Police Commissioner’s office.
The 26/11 attacks, carried out between November 26 and 29, 2008, consisted of 12 coordinated attacks launched by 10 operatives of the Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.
175 people were killed in the attack, including 26 foreign nationals, 20 security personnel and nine of the ten attackers. The only surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive, convicted, and later hanged.
–IANS