Naxalites gun down 16 cops in Gadchiroli

Mumbai: Maoists struck in Gadchiroli district of the state on Thursday afternoon, killing 16 police personnel, including an inspector, a sub-inspector, and five women constables.This is the first time that women constables in Maharashtra have become victims of a naxal attack.

All the police personnel were posted at Dhanora police station. The incident took place at Hattitola between Erkad and Murumgaon on the busy state highway linking Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.According to sources, naxalites had called for a bandh (Strike) on Wednesday and Thursday.

The police party led by inspector Ashok Iyer was conducting foot patrolling around 3:30pm when it came across a roadblock. When the team began removing the trees lying across the road, more than 100 naxalites hiding in the forest along the road opened fire. They also blew up a police vehicle that was following the team.The roadblock was a trap for the team.

After the encounter the naxalites fled with the weapons belonging to the police party.Gadchiroli’s superintendent of police Rajesh Pradhan rushed to the spot with reinforcements, but it was too late. It is learnt that information about the ambush could not reach the headquarters at Gadchiroli as wireless sets were not functioning owing to heavy rainfall in the area.

The source said inspector Iyer was earlier posted with the Nagpur (rural) police and served as senior inspector at the Kalmeshwar and the Bhivapur police stations. He was transferred to Gadchiroli on request last year.The state government announced that combing operations would be stepped up in all the naxal-infested areas of Vidarbha. “We will intensify combing operations in the region,” home minister Jayant Patil told reporters. “The operations were in progress after a similar attack earlier this year claimed the lives of 15 policemen, but several security personnel were later deployed for election duty.”

Meanwhile, state director-general of police SS Virk said the inspector who led the 16-member team had not informed any senior officers before setting out and could have been lured into an ambush by the insurgents

FEMALE MAOIST LURED POLICE INTO TRAP

MAHARASTRA:A woman named Narmada led the deadly Maoist attack that killed 15 policemen in Maharashtra‘ s Gadchiroli district on Sunday. Her deputy was also a woman named Taraka alias Vimlaa. Narmada, a 44-year-old college dropout from Andhra Pradesh, has been leading the Maoists‘ Gadchiroli unit since shortly after the death of its last leader, Shivanna, who was killed in a police encounter in Chhattisgarh last year.

The sources said the attack in the jungles of Markegaon village about 300 km southeast of Nagpur was a joint operation of the North Bastar and Gadchiroli units of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Narmada, a 44-year-old college dropout from Andhra Pradesh, has been leading the Maoists’ Gadchiroli unit since shortly after the death of its last leader, Shivanna, who was killed in a police encounter in Chhattisgarh last year. She is married to Maoist leader Sudhakar alias Kiran who works for the outfit’s publicity wing, say sources.

Her deputy Taraka, a tribal girl from Gadchiroli, is also the wife of a senior Maoist leader, Bhupathi. He is a member of the group’s central committee.Since she took charge, Narmada has entrusted key posts to women. Most of her local organisational squads, which consist of 10-15 armed Maoists, are headed by women.

The Maharashtra Police have launched a massive search to find the group. More than 2,000 heavily-armed police personnel have been deployed for combing operations in the area, which is 80 km by road from the district headquarter, Gadchiroli town. Seventy policemen have been killed by Maoists in Gadchiroli and Gondia districts of Vidharba since 2002, according to the Anti Naxal Operations unit of Maharashtra Police. Naxalites of the People’s War Group, and later, the CPI(Maoist) have been active in this area since 1980.Maharashtra Police chief AN Roy denied media reports that the bodies of the policemen who died in the attack had been mutilated. “This is absolutely false,” he said.Agencies investigating the attack say the Maoists used a police informer to draw the policemen to their deaths.

The attackers knew of the movements of the policemen, who were on their way to investigate the burning of a tractor and a road-roller by Maoists.

Maoist rebels kill 15 police in India

Fifteen police officers were killed in the western
Indian state of Maharashtra in a shoot-out with Maoist Revolutionaries on Monday, 2nd February 2009.

They were ambushed Sunday in the jungle near a village in the east of the state, a stronghold of Maoists and other Marxist groups who represent oppressed, landless rural dwellers.

“The patrolling party was ambushed by the Maoists and 15 reactionaries died. The encounter went on for nearly one and a half to two hours,” stated the regions Masses reports.

They say there were regular skirmishes between police and Maoists in
the area, which is close to the border with neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) by road from the Maharahstra state capital Mumbai.

Indian media on Monday said the Maoists fled with police weapons,
including automatic assault rifles and a mortar shell.

The Maoist peoples war, which grew out of a peasant uprising in 1967, has hit more than half of India’s 29 states and the rebels use a heavily forested region in Chhattisgarh as their headquarters and base themselves and their social base on the masses.

The cop who knew no fear

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Mumbai: Catching alive a terrorist on a suicide mission is almost impossible. The Maharashtra Police have to thank Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Gopal Omble, 48, for that.

Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the Pakistani-born terrorist, was arrested because Omble, a beat marshal in Girgaum Chowpatty, held onto the terrorist’s gun and let his body get riddled by the bullets.

When the two terrorists, Kasab and Abu Dera Ismail Khan, sped off in a Skoda Laura after abandoning the police vehicle they carjacked after killing senior police officers, the police team at Girgaum Chowpaty had got the message.

Assistant Police Inspector Hemant Bavdhankar of D B Nagar Police station said: “Moments later, we saw a car matching the description (in the message) slowing down at a distance of around 50 feet from us. As the vehicle tried to take a U-turn, it hit the divider.”

The terrorists turned on the lights full beam and the wipers, squirting water on the windshield to hide their faces. Told by police to step out with hands up, Kasab obeyed but hid his gun. When he started firing, Omble grabbed the barrel of the gun. Kasab kept firing and Omble took the bullets. He collapsed but did not let go of Kasab and the gun. That gave others in the team, who had already shot Khan, time to overpower Kasab.

‘He had always wanted to die a hero’s death’

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GAJENDRA SINGH BISHT
1972 – 2008
THE tiny village of Ganeshpur turned out in full strength to bid adieu to its hero, Havaldar Gajendra Singh Bisht (36), the National Security Guards (NSG) commando who died fighting terrorists in Mumbai.
Havaldar Gajendra’s mortal remains were consigned to the flames with full military honours on Saturday afternoon with more than a thousand people from Ganeshpur and its adjoining villages participating in the funeral.
“He had always wanted to be in the forces and had always wanted to die like a hero. And that is precisely what happened,” said his brother, Birender Singh Bisht, an official in the Uttarakhand Police. Amongst those present to pay their respects to the martyr was his teacher from Janata Inter College in Naya Gaon Subhash Chand Jasola. “He had studied in the college from 1980 to 1990. I cannot forget his interest in sports, particularly boxing. He was a disciplined student and participated in every event organised in the school, be it sports or cultural activities,” said Jasola, who teaches English at the college. He said that Havaldar Gajendra is the third student from the college to have died for the country in military operations. Earlier, two of his former students had died during the Kargil operations. Havaldar Gajendra had also participated in the Kargil operations.
The college was shut for the day in honour of Havaldar Gajendra’s sacrifice and the entire staff and students had turned up for his funeral.
“I met him last in August when our father Late Daulat Singh had died. Thereafter, we had been in touch on phone,” said his brother. He said Gajendra joined the Garhwal Rifles in 1991 and then chose to be part of the 10 Para (Special Force). Thereafter, he had opted to be a NSG commando. He was based in Delhi when he was asked to be part of Mumbai operation.
“After having dinner on November 26, he got a call from his office saying that an alert has been sounded. He had left the house carrying bare essentials, telling me that he would be back in a while. It was a couple of hours later that we were told that he had been sent to Mumbai,” said his wife Vineeta Devi (31). She said her husband wanted their daughter Preeti (10) to be an air hostess and son Gaurav (12) to be an Army officer. “I wonder where we are faltering in dealing with terrorism. We have the best of forces and technology. We need to ponder why innocents are losing their lives while those compromising with their duties are making millions,” said the deceased’s maternal uncle Dr Hoshiar Singh Negi.
Uttarakhand Governor B.L. Joshi, Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri and IMA Commandant Lt Gen R.S. Sujlana paid a visit to Havaldar Gajendra’s house to offer their condolences to his family.
In his address, Joshi said, “As the Governor of the state, I am proud of the supreme sacrifice made by Havaldar Gajendra. At the same time, I am also very sad at his untimely death. The whole nation is with his family at this hour of grief.” Khanduri announced an immediate aid of Rs 5 lakh to the family of Havaldar Ganjendra.
_Rajeev Khanna, Dehradun, November 29

Karkare: An officer and a gentleman

Hemant Karkare, Chief, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad

When Mumbai’s former police commissioner Julio Rebeiro hailed Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare as one of the finest officers in the country, he was not exaggerating.

A 1982 batch IPS officer, Karkare was a Bachelor of Engineering from Vishveshvarayya Regional Engineering College in Nagpur. He worked for the National Productivity Council and Hindustan Lever before leaving the high-paying jobs for the glamour of the uniform. Hindustan Lever’s loss was the country’s gain as Karkare showed bright sparks in the very first year of his training – topping the batch in 1983.

Karkare’s first assignment was in Bhusawal as assistant superintendent of police in 1984. He was then posted as additional superintendent of police in Nanded 1986. His next posting came in 1987 in Thane. It is this posting that explains why the Shiv Sena targeted Karkare when terror suspect Pragya Singh Thakur was arrested.

In 1998, Karkare took the bold step of arresting Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe from Thane. The Shiv Sena was trying to foment communal tensions at Haji Malang in Kalyan, where both Hindus and Muslims went to pray. Dighe was to Thane what Bal Thackeray is to Mumbai, and his arrest frustrated the terror tactics of Shiv Sena.

Karkare took over the investigation of the multi-crore shoe scandal and was also in charge of the narcotics division in Mumbai. He was one of the few Maharashtra cadre IPS officers who remained untouched by corruption scandals and controversies during the Telgi case. That could have helped him get a prestigious posting in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Karkare was posted in Austria for almost seven years in his nine years with RAW. She became the head of ATS in January this year after his return to the state cadre.

Karkare solved the serial bomb blasts in Thane, Vashi and Panvel. He also handled the July 2006 Mumbai local train blasts case. Most recently, he was credited for the stunning revelations in the investigation of the September 29 Malegaon blast. During his posting as superintendent of police in Vidarbha’s Chandrapur district, people saw a different side of his personality. He created 150 beautiful wood sculptures in the forested area.

Only a few days ago, his batch-mate and one of his close friends, joint commissioner of police K.L. Prasad described him as an “officer who always took a principled stand whatever the consequences”. ATS officials fear that his death will clearly derail investigations, as he was the only one who calmly took all the pressure and let his men do the job.

Courtesy: Krishna Kumar / Mail Today

Vijay Salaskar: Life and death by the gun

He was said to be the last of Mumbai’s encounter specialists until a hail of bullets brought him down on Wednesday. He is supposed to have killed nearly 80 alleged gangsters.

A 1983 batch officer, Salaskar started off as a sub-inspector. But his ability to sniff out criminals quickly made him a favourite with the police top brass, who used him and other cops to get rid of many underworld criminals.

His first encounter was in 1983, when he shot dead one Raja Shahabuddin, who had a number of cases against him. Gangsters like Amar Naik, Jaggu Shetty, Sadhu Shetty, Kundan Singh Rawat, Zahoor Makhanda ended up as statistics in Salaskar’s growing encounter list.

In 1997, he was accused by underworld don Arun Gawli of trying to eliminate him in a fake encounter after the cop gunned down his aides Sada Pawle and Vijay Tandel. Gawli went to the extent of writing to the government that Salaskar would bump him off in a fake encounter. But Salaskar did not face any departmental proceedings. He, however, was frequently in the news for alleged fake encounters.

Courtesy: Mail Today

Ashok Kamte – A daring officer and excellent negotiator

Mumbai (PTI): Daring, but with an exceptionally cool head made Ashok Kamte an excellent negotiator in crisis situations – a quality for which he was summoned late Thursday night to deal with terrorists holed up in Mumbai buildings.

Kamte, a 1989 batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, who died fighting terrorists near Mumbai’s Metro cinema, was one of the brightest of his batch, and one of the few officers who dared to take on challenges directly.

Having undergone special training for negotiating hostage situations, Kamte was chosen to tackle one of the worst crisis faced by the financial capital of the country.

Maharashtra Police specially summoned him to undertake the operation at Metro Cinema near Cama Place in the city where he laid down his life fighting with terrorists along with encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar.

Deputy Commissioner of Police in Mumbai, Kamte was a key officer in the state police. He had also served as the Commissioner of Solapur where he became a hero among locals.

With over 400 fans on his Orkut profile, Kamte enjoyed a lot of respect during his tenure at Solapur.

“A cop that turned Solapur from a wrong city to the right one. The person who every responsible Solapurkar liked and loved. This community has been created to pay the respect and gratitude that he deserves,” wrote one of his fans on the social networking web site.

Survived by his wife and two children, Kamte had a panache for body building during his college days. His friends at the IPS academy also remember him as a great athlete and one of the brightest cadets of his batch.

Sandeep Unnikrishnan waged a valiant battle against terrorists

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He lost his life while saving an injured colleague

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He was commissioned in the Army in 1999

He participated in various operations conducted by the NSG

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BANGALORE: Being in the forefront of the National Security Guards operations at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan not only waged a valiant battle against the terrorists but also did his best to save his injured colleagues and in the bargain lost his life. He showed the real warrior in him before laying down his life.

Thirty-one-year-old Major Sandeep is the only son of retired ISRO officer K. Unnikrishnan, who is settled in Bangalore.

His father told presspersons: “I lost my son in Mumbai on Friday. Though I do not like to call him a martyr, I can proudly say that he has done something for this country.”

He was informed of the death of his son by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (National Security Guards).

According to information reaching the family, “Major Sandeep was leading a team and during the operations two of his colleagues sustained bullet injuries. In a bid to save them Sandeep turned back. The bullets fired by the terrorists pierced him. On November 26, he had called us and said that one of his childhood friends is getting married in the city on December 17. He had planned to attend that marriage,” Mr. Unnikrishnan said.

Major Sandeep was ambitious, talented and a brave soul, said his friends and neighbours. He joined the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the Bihar 7th Regiment in 1999.

He was drafted to the NSG after his gallantry was recognised,” Kiran Srivasthav, a childhood friend of Major Sandeep told The Hindu.

According to Anirudh Uppal, Inspector-General (Headquarters) National Security Guards (NSG), Major Sandeep had exposure to counter insurgency operations after having served in Jammu and Kashmir for two terms.

He was deputed to the NSG on January 20, 2007 and participated in various operations conducted by the elite force.

The gallant officer of the team commander of 51 SAG was deployed to clear Hotel Taj Mahal of extremists on November 27.

He led the team from the front and engaged the terrorists in a fierce gunfight. When one of the NSG commandos was injured in the exchange of fire, he arranged for his evacuation and regardless of personal safety chased the terrorists who, meanwhile, escaped to another floor of the hotel, and while doing so Major Sandeep continuously engaged them. In the encounter that followed, he was seriously injured and succumbed to injuries.

MUMBAI TERROR.

These incidents make me think of my violent pro-naxal ideas. However this article is not about my internal conflicts.

Mobile phones invented to speak. As technology advanced they built a camera in it so that we can capture our lovable memories with our family and friends. Unfortunately the same camera is increasingly used to record porn videos which are easily spread via MMS/bluetooth/ infrared. Whom to blame – THE MOBILE OR MOBILE USERS?

This is the time to stand against terrorism and not against any particular religion. If we stand against a particular religion in the name of antiterrorism for our religious concerns then a day will come in INDIA where the situation will be a replica of Afghan / Pakistan. Both Afghan and Pakistan which supported religious fundamentalism paid and are paying a heavy price when the fundamentalists took the power. If we support fundamentalists of any religion now we will have to pay a price for that in future.