NSG Commemorates Victims Of 2008 Mumbai Terror Attacks, Families Get Together

The National Security Guard (NSG) organised an event to mark the 17th anniversary of the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack at the Gateway of India and paid tributes to the victims and personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty while fighting terrorists.

Group Commander, NSG Mumbai (Special Composite Group – 26), Colonel Abhishek Singh, said that they also held a ‘Neverever’ pledge as the affected families met each other during the event.

“Primarily the 51 Special Action Group, which fought against the cowardly 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai…I pay my heartfelt tribute to the martyrs, who were from the NSG and also included members of the Mumbai Police. There were many innocent victims who lost their lives. We organised this event in their memory to meet their families. We invited a large number of survivors. We also took a pledge there on the ‘Neverever’ theme. A total of 21,000 people have taken this pledge,” Singh told ANI.

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan was killed in action during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks as he confronted terrorists at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. He was part of the 51 Special Action Group of the NSG.

Divya Vijay Salaskar, daughter of encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, told ANI that she remembers her father each day.

“He came home early on November 26. Even 10 pm was early for him to come. I told him to take me for a drive. He sat down to have dinner. One hour passed, and my mom told me that he had left in a rush. My mom told me that my father realised it was not a gang war, but something else. She said, ‘We’ll know what happened when he comes back home in the morning’. I never thought he wouldn’t come home,” Divya said.

Three top cops died in the line of duty on November 27, 2008, including former ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Salaskar and former Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte. Karkare was well-known for his fair investigations.

This year marks 17 years since terrorists from the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) unleashed mayhem on the streets of India’s financial capital, Mumbai.

Commonly referred to as 26/11, these coordinated assaults by a group of 10 terrorists sent shockwaves through the nation and the world. The terrorists had entered the city of Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008, via sea route and over the course of four days, they killed 166 people and injured 300, in some of the busiest parts of the city.

The scars left by the tragic event continue to haunt those who witnessed it and the families who lost their loved ones. The bullet marks at Leopold Cafe and Nariman House, the bust of Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble, who gave up his life while capturing the lone surviving Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, and the streets of south Mumbai keep alive the memory of the gruesome terror attack.

The nine LeT terrorists were killed while Kasab was arrested. In May 2010, Kasab was awarded death penalty, and two years later, he was hanged in a maximum security prison in Pune. (ANI)