My son Gibraan was in Mumbai in connection for some photo shoot for his magazine on the fateful night of 26/11. We were watching the news of the insane terror attack. The news mentioned that a blast took place near the Ville Parle flyover – my heart sank – Gibraan I knew was staying in a hotel in Ville Parle. Our efforts to contact him on his mobile were not successful – it kept saying out of coverage area. The next 45 minutes for me and my family were devastating – we died a hundred deaths in those 45 minutes. Finally Gibraan called to inform us that he was Alhamdullilah safe and sound along with his associates. He was in a taxi returning from his assignment heading towards the hotel when the blast occurred – the taxi he was traveling in was stopped – the mobile signals went off but they finally managed to reach the hotel on foot. I told him to get the first plane available and Allah be praised he returned on an Air India flight along with his associates safe and sound to Hyderabad. It's a strange world we are living in. Is it safe to step out of our houses? Or is it safe to be in our houses (the Nariman House residents will question this)? What has the world come to? You will agree with me that irrespective of caste, creed or religion, we all should condemn all acts of violence and terror. When innocent lives are lost, such acts need to be opposed and condemned. It's not a matter of who dies; it's a matter of the cowardice and inhumanity which should be abhorrent to us. I am reminded of a poem recited by the Late Sahir Ludhianvi in 1972 (this was soon after the Indo-Pak war which created Bangladesh). I was a first year student at Azad College, Aurangabad and Sahir had come as the chief guest for our annual gathering. I heard the poem only once, but the words had such a profound effect on me that I can remember some of the lines even today. “Khoon apna ho ya paraya, nasl-e- insaan ka khoon hai akhir Jung magrib mein ho ya mashriq mein, amn-e-alam ka khoon hai akhir. Tank* aage badhe ya peeche hate, Kokh dharti ki banajh hoti hai, Jeet ka jashn ho ya haar ka sog, zindagi mayataon pe roti hai.” (*Tank: Armored military vehicle used in those days – whose heavy tracks would render the land barren.) A rough translation in English would be: “Bloodshed (of the dead victims) be it ours or of strangers, after all it is the blood of humans Let the war be in the east or west does it not vitiate world peace Battle tanks may move forward or retreat (signifying a war won or lost) The land it moves on is rendered barren (because of heavy metal tracks) The victorious may rejoice, or the defeated may grieve The living always weep for the dead.” Glued to the TV for two days, there are some very intriguing and peculiar things I have observed (which I am sure you all may have noticed). I basically hate conspiracy theories, and these are just some observations (which were evident to all who were watching the live coverage of the incident on TV). The death of Hemant Karkare – chief of the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS). First a few observations about Karkare. He was the first police officer (1972 Indian Police Service [IPS batch]) who identified the existence of Hindu terror outfits. He was the one who arrested the senior serving military officer, the sadhvi (Hindu priestess), the sant (a Hindu priest) and exposed the terror training cells run by a retired army brigadier with links to RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh), Bajrang Dal (responsible for carnage against Christians in Bangalore and Orrisa in recent times) and Bharat Abhinav outfits (Hindu extremist organization). He extracted confessions from the accused about their involvement in not just the Malegaon blast but also the blasts in Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad, in Nanded and in the Samjhauta Express train going to Pakistan. He had received several death threats in the past month from Hindu extremists. Shiv Sena and other organizations had called for a Maharashtra “bandh” (shutdown strike) on December 1 against the ATS investigations and Karkare in particular. NDTV conducted an interview with Karkare just three hours before the 26/11 attack on his opinion about the proposed “bandh” and his progress in the Malegaon case. He said, and I quote, “a normal judicial custody gives us 90 days to complete our investigations, but we have taken custody under MOACCA which gives us 180 days – we are at a stage when we will complete and book charges before the stipulated time and expose not just the culprits but several others associated with this.” At around 11 PM, I saw TV footage in which Karkare was shown at the attack site. A policeman handed him a helmet, and he was discussing the situation with police officers. Some time later we learnt that Karkare was shot dead along with a joint commissioner of police and an encounter specialist. I assumed he died leading an assault or as a result of some grenade explosion, etc., but NDTV carried a computer simulation of his death which is as follows: After discussing the situation at one spot, Karkare with two other officers and a head constable got into a SUV to go to another location. As the car started moving, a terrorist barged out of the Cama hospital and started shooting at the passengers in the car right in the middle of the road. This was not an ambush; he just rushed out of the hospital at the precise moment and stood in front of the car and started shooting. As a result, Karkare, the joint commissioner, the encounter specialist and the head constable sustained bullet wounds and died on the way to the hospital (the terrorist also died in return fire by the head constable). The computer simulation of this episode as shown by NDTV ends here. It may be a coincidence, fate, or destiny that an upright officer had to die in such a fashion. But why out of dozens of police cars moving around the attack site, why out of hundreds of police officers around should a terrorist come running out from the hospital where he was hiding to open fire at this particular car and eliminate Karkare. Police confirmed that the terrorists were carrying satellite phones. Three photos of the terrorists were time and again flashed on the screen taken from CCTV. They did not look like your typical “Mujahideen.” They were all clean shaven, wore smart jeans and T shirts (like some Hollywood film mercenaries) and two of them had a kind of religious red thread band around their wrists, which seemed odd. The local Indian media carried these photos and put a question mark on this aspect. I still hope that Indians (Hindus or Muslims) were not involved, and it is the doing of outsiders as our prime minister has said in his address to the nation, corroborated by the investigating agencies. I still believe that India is a unity in diversity. Some misguided members of the minority and majority religions cannot and should not be allowed to vitiate the communal harmony of India. In any case, it will be quite some time before the truth about the instigators of this ghastly crime is unearthed(or swept under the carpet) but the fact remains that whoever is responsible, irrespective of their religious or national affiliation, should be brought to justice.Those captured alive should be given a swift death sentence and hanged in the market square. Violence in all forms should be condemned. Let us pray to the Almighty that peace and harmony prevail all around us. As Sahir concludes his poem: “Isiliye ai insaano, jang talti rahe to behtar hai Aap aur ham sab ke aangan mein, shamma jalti rahe to behtar hai.” “That is why oh! noble humans, avoid war (and violence) Let the lamp of love burn in the courtyard of humanity.”
