A special feature by The South Asian Life & Times

Mumbai is the second most populous city in the world, and the fifth most populous metropolitan area. More people live in Greater Mumbai than, perhaps, in Sri Lanka. Parts of Mumbai have a population density of 1 million per square mile – the highest in the world. A city of such mega proportions, which also happens to be the wealthiest city in the country, came close to a grinding halt on the night of November 26, 2008. A group of terrorists, who had sailed their way into Mumbai, had begun firing indiscriminately in a dozen crowded locations, in a highly planned and coordinated attack on the city. The police was the first security force to rush to the locations. Hasan Gafoor, the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, himself was in the field – he had set up a field control room in front of Oberoi, where he had reached within 20 minutes, and was personally directing all operations at different sites. Police force, in any state of India, is not exactly a state-of-the-art organisation. And incidents such as these reinforce what is sadly lacking and what is not. Lacking are arms and equipment – ASI Tukaram was unarmed when he grappled and caught a terrorist, sacrificing his own life in the process. What was not lacking was, in Gafoor’s words "courage and valour". Gafoor answers, in the following interview, many questions that were uppermost on everybody’s mind.

On the morning of November 27, Jyoti Krishan Dutt, the chief of India’s elite National Security Guards, took control and charge of the situation and the sites. He arrived from Delhi in the early hours of the morning, with his 400 commandos, and personally planned and led the operation to flush out the terrorists, and rescue the hostages from the three sites. Forty-eight hours later the operation was over – successfully. They secured and sanitised the hotels and were back home in Manesar, near Delhi, on November 30. Mission accomplished. They became instant stars in Mumbai.

This nation of over a billion people owes a lot to many of our men in uniform.

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