'They came to our bedrooms, woke people who were sleeping, and shot them. For what? For what?'
For Vinita Kamte, wife of the late Additional Commissioner of police Ashok Kamte who was gunned down during the 26/11 Mumbai attack, the battle has been a long one. Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa talks to Vinita, who in her book 'To the Last Bullet', has pieced together information about the sequence of events that preceded her husband's death at the hands of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists
On the night of November 25, at around 10.30 pm, Rakesh Maria hand-delivered a long letter to Chandra Iyengar, the state additional home secretary. He took three hours to draft his letter because he has attached a detailed rebuttal with his letter expressing a desire to resign if he is not defended.
Top Mumbai cop Rakesh Maria had not only hidden facts about location of Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte during the 26/11 terror strikes, but also concealed the timing of his death from the family, the deceased police officer's wife alleges in a book.
The 26/11 chapter is not over yet for Vinita Kamte, police officer Ashok Kamte's widow, who is preparing to reveal fresh facts about what occurred that night, discovers Devidas Deshpande.
If Karkare was killed by any other bullet than the ones that came from the terrorists's AK-47 rifles, we would have known, said an officer who added he has seen the post-mortem report of all the three police officers who died that night.
The lone captured Pakistani gunman, Ajmal Kasab, today looked flustered and confused while trying to prove his innocence in front of judge M L Tahaliyani.
Mumbai Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar and Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Ombale, apart from National Security Guard commandos Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havildar Gajender Singh too would receive the medal posthumously for their acts of bravery during the November Mumbai attacks. Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who died fighting terrorists in the Batla House operation in the capital in September last year, has also been named for the award.
'The officers are sitting on their chairs today because these men paid with their lives. The least they can do is to give them the honour they deserved,' says Vinita Kamte.
The Maharashtra government has not received any resignation letter from Mumbai Police Crime Branch chief Rakesh Maria, Home Minister R R Patil said. Patil's clarification comes in the wake of media reports that Maria threatened to resign, upset over the allegations made against him by Vinita Kamte, widow of martyred Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte (East), in her book To the Last Bullet, on the circumstances leading to her husband's death.
Vinita Kamte, slain Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte's wife, reveals her struggle to unravel the truth about her husband's death on the night of November 26, 2008.
Family members of the slain cops who fell prey to the bullets of Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab and his cohorts feel the court should expedite the trial and punish Kasab.
While Vinita Kamte mourned the loss of her husband -- slain top cop Ashok Kamte -- she also found herself struggling to clear the air surrounding her husband's death at the hands of Pakistani terrorists on 26/11, reports Gauri Ghadi
It was a sudden decision of the three deceased police officers -- Anti-Terrorists Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar to go from the front side of Cama Hospital entrance and finally got killed along with three other colleagues, by terrorists in an ambush, Ram Pradhan Commission report has said by quoting an eyewitness.
Ismail Khan, an accomplice of arrested terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman alias Kasab, is the one who gunned down three top police officials in a gun battle at Cama Hospital, according to Kasab's statement recorded by the police. Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were shot dead by Ismail Khan.
Kavita Karkare, the wife of former Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, on Wednesday has questioned the state government as to why her husband and two other senior police officials, who were killed on November 26 last year, did not get reinforcements on time.
Pakistan has asked India to provide the eye-witness account of the police constable, Arun Jadhav, who was the lone survivor of the attack on the car carrying Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare on the first day of Mumbai attack, saying its investigators probing the terror strike needed to examine it, the Dawn website reported.
Were the thugs not visible to the police team in the Qualis's headlights, alerting the policemen to their presence?
Clearing the air on why all three top officials -- Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar who succumbed to bullet injuries -- were sitting in one vehicle, Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said: "Given the circumstances they sat together in the police vehicle, which was available to them."
The body of Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte, who was gunned down by terrorists on Wednesday night near Mumbai's Metro cinema, was consigned to flames with full State honour at the Vaikunth cremotorium ground in Pune on Thursday evening.
Maharashtra Governor Ramesh Bais and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday paid floral tributes to the martyrs who laid down their lives while fighting terrorists who attacked the metropolis on this day 15 years ago.
Date, a 1990 Indian Police Service officer of the Maharashtra cadre who once sold newspapers in Pune to financially support his family, was honoured with the President's Police medal for gallantry for his role in what has come to be known as the 26/11 attack.
Kavita Karkare, widow of former Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare who died fighting terrorists during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, has been admitted to a hospital after she suffered brain haemorrhage and slipped into coma, police sources said.
Kavita Karkare, widow of Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare who was killed during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, has died.
Tributes were also paid at the places targeted by terrorists including Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Cama and Albless Hospital, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, the Oberoi Trident, Nariman House, the Jewish community centre, and the memorial of ASI Tukaram Omble who was martyred while overpowering Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist who was captured alive.
Among those who remembered the slain bravehearts, who fell to bullets of Pakistani terrorists while repulsing the deadly attack on this day 11 years ago, were their kin, politicians, government officials, sports persons and common citizens.
The seventh anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, which had claimed lives of 166 people and left hundreds injured, would be observed on Thursday.
Vinita Bisht and Vinita Kamte lost their husbands -- one an NSG commando, the other an IPS officer -- in the 26/11 terror attack. Six years later, Archana Masih/Rediff.com meets them to discover that closure is one of the hardest things to find.
A R Antulay, the former Maharashtra CM, passed away today on Tuesday a prolonged illness
'Their sacrifice will never be erased from the memory of time and history'
In a major embarrassment for Mumbai police chief Rakesh Maria, Maharashtra's transparency watchdog has recommended a judicial inquiry against him for "withholding and giving misleading" information to the wife of an IPS officer killed during the 26/11 terror attacks.
The mortal remains of Kavita Karkare, wife of slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare, were on Tuesday cremated at Worli in south Mumbai, a day after she died at a city hospital following brain haemorrhage.
Floral tributes were on Wednesday paid to the martyrs who laid down their lives while fighting terrorists on the sixth anniversary of the 26/11 attack.
Floral tributes were paid on Friday to the martyrs who laid down their lives while fighting terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis along with other ministers and the Mumbai police, on Thursday paid homage to the martyrs on the seventh anniversary of the horrific terror attack of 26/11.
Mumbai is observing the sixth anniversary of the dastardly attacks that shook the city
On the eleventh anniversary of her father's martyrdom during the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai, Jui Karkare Navare remembers her father, Mumbai ATS Chief Hemant Karkare.
Family members of the martyred personnel and survivors of the daring strike recalled the harrowing moments and pledged support to efforts to root out terrorism.
When an accused gets attacked on the way to court, and again within the court premises, with no intervention by a judicial officer, which space is safe, asks Jyoti Punwani.
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