Perpetrators of 26/11 failed to destroy spirit of Mumbai: Tata

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata on Thursday said the perpetrators of the 26/11 terror strikes had failed in their attempt to kill the spirit of Mumbai and the people of the city had only risen stronger thereafter.

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata on Thursday said the perpetrators of the 26/11 terror strikes had failed in their attempt to kill the spirit of Mumbai and the people of the city had only risen stronger thereafter.

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"We have risen again stronger and with greater spirit than we ever had. So let us remember the day of infamy, if I may say so, that happened a year ago, and let us go on and say that the attack did not succeed. It only made us stronger," Tata said in his address to guests, employees and families of victims at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Mumbai.

He was addressing the gathering after unveiling a 12-foot high memorial, engraved with names of the 31 employees and guests slain by Pakistani gunmen in the three-day long siege.

"Those who have done this deed, did it, I believe in the belief that they were destroying the spirit of the city of Mumbai. They did so because they thought the city was a soft target and to demoralise us and knock us down. But they were very wrong," the 71-year old patriarch of Tata group said.

An emotionally choked Tata said the management remained guessing as to amount of damage the gunmen had caused as they stood watching the 106-year old hotel burn.

"But we made a commitment that brick-by-brick, stone-by-stone, we will rebuild the Taj to the glory that it was. And that commitment still stands," he said.