12th anniversary of Mumbai terror attacks on Thursday

The twelfth anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks will be observed on Thursday, with the city police organising an event to pay homage to the martyred security personnel, to be attended by only a limited number of people in view of the pandemic, an official said.

The ceremony will be held at the newly-built memorial at the police headquarters in South Mumbai. It will be attended by the family members of the martyred police and security personnel, the official said on Wednesday.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, DGP Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and other senior officers will pay their respects to the martyrs, he said.

The martyrs’ memorial has been relocated from the site at Police Gymkhana in Marine Drive to the police headquarters at Crawford Market because of the ongoing work on the Coastal Road project, the official said.

On November 26, 2008, ten Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists from Pakistan arrived by sea route and opened fire, killing 166 people, including 18 security personnel, and injuring several others during the 60-hour siege.

Nine terrorists were killed by the security forces including the National Security Guard (NSG), the elite commando force of the nation.

The then ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai’s additional police commissioner Ashok Kamte and senior police inspector Vijay Salaskar were among those killed in the attack.

Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only terrorist to be captured alive, was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012.