Mumbai: For some of those who were caught in the November 26, 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, the fear of a similar assault lingers, while others have learnt to put faith in the city’s police to protect them.
“Mumbai is far more safe, there is a greater degree of alertness now, the city has the Force One (an elite command force), the Marine Police to safeguard our coastline and a sophisticated information and communication network to make us prepared for any eventuality,” says Arun Jadhav, the braveheart constable who sustained five bullet injuries but miraculously escaped death.
Other officers in the police vehicle he was travelling in were not so fortunate.
Terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was hanged, and his accomplice hijacked the police van near Cama Hospital.
Jadhav witnessed the killings of Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, additional commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. He immediately informed the police control that the three were killed and the terrorists were heading towards Marine Drive.
“The attack was sudden but within three hours or so, the police captured Kasab alive.
“I must have escaped death because of God’s grace or the blessings of my parents, but I can never forget that terrible night,” he says. On the Paris attacks, he says, “There, too, the authorities killed the terrorists immediately.”
The residents of India’s financial capital have been victims of several terror attacks — right from March 1993 serial bomb blasts that ripped through 13 spots of the city. Bombings in buses, trains, market places, railway stations have taken a heavy toll of human life through the years.
In the 26/11 attacks, 10 terrorists left a trail of blood at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Leopold Café, Taj Mahal hotel, Oberoi Trident, Cama Hospital and Nariman House: killing 164 people in cold blood and wounding more than 300.
For Surendra Kumar, now 30, a bullet hit him in the stomach just as he had pulled the shutters of his grocery shop in the bustling street near Nariman House that evening. “No one came to help me so I went in a taxi to the hospital on my own and was operated there to remove the bullet,” says the shop owner, who has continued with his grocery business. Despite his traumatic experience, he says, “I think Mumbai is safe now and I’m not worried.”
However, Heerabai Jadhav, 53, who works as a helper in the surgical ward of Cama Hospital, is still angry with the way victims have been treated by the government. Her right hand took the bullet and in spite of a surgery, she is unable to do all the tasks. “We are poor and need our hands to work and earn our living. We had to literally beg for the compensation that was due to us.
“If this is how the government functions, I won’t be surprised if there is another attack but I wish the terrorists go to the ministers who will then understand the pain that we underwent.”
Watching the physical pain and psychological shock of the victims at JJ Hospital was Sonia Sharma, 32, a volunteer with the Scientology Gujarat Foundation, who rushed from Ahmedabad to counsel patients.
“The injured victims were in a terrible state of shock and excruciating pain and our job was to help them on the road to recovery,” she says. “We helped the victims for over two months and in cases where their was intolerable, our therapy helped them to sleep well.”
Based in Ahmedabad, Sharma thinks that terror attacks can happen anywhere. “There was a time when Ahmedabad was the safest place but not anymore. People are always conscious of the fear element in their lives.”
