PM salutes Marytrs ATS chief and NSG commando

Mumbai/Bangalore: Bangalore bid a tearful farewell to National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan while in Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare has been cremated.

Major Unnikrishnan was martyred on Friday morning while trying to save one of his colleagues at the Taj.

The 31-year-old Major, born on March 15, 1977 and the only son of retired ISRO officer K Unnikrishnan, joined the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the 7th Battalion of Bihar Regiment in 1999.

Major Unnikrishnan was with the 51 Special Action Group of the NSG.

The officer had joined the NSG on deputation in January 2007 after having served two tenures with his battalion in counter insurgency and counter terrorism roles.

He led a commando team to clear Taj Hotel on November 27. The operation was code named Operation Cyclone.

When one of the commando of his team was injured, Major Unnikrishnan went in to evacuate him and spotted one of the terrorists.

Major Unnikrishnan engaged the terrorist in a gunbattle and had overpowered him but another terrorist who was hiding in the room fired at him seriously injuring the brave officer. Major Unnikrishnan succumbed to his injuries soon.

Another NSG commando Havaldar Gajendra Singh was killed during the operations at the Jewish centre, Nariman House.

The operation at Nariman House was code named Black Tornado.

Karkare was killed along with two other top policemen, Additional Commissioner of police Ashok Kamte and police inspector Vijay Salaskar at Cama Hospital near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal when they came under fire from terrorists on Wednesday night

Commandos recieve Rousing Welcome

Commandos of the National Security Guards received a rousing welcome from the locals when they came out of the Nariman House after killing two dreaded terrorists, who had holed themselves in the building along with five hostages.

When the commandos came out after the successful mission, they were greeted with cheers, claps, pats on shoulders and patriotic slogans.

Bharat Mata ki Jai, Vande Mataram reverberated the narrow lanes of the area after the unit came out, after a grueling 12-hour-long final assault on the terrorists.

The crowd, which had gathered outside the building, came running towards the unit as they came out, drawing smiles on the battle-weary commandos' faces.

The roofs and balconies were full as men and women waited with bated breath for the soldiers to come out after finishing the ordeal.

The tiredness along with the sorrow of losing two of their men was palpable on their faces, but more than that it was the joy of achieving their target and accomplishing what was termed the most watched anti-terror action of the country.

Carrying their sophisticated weapons, some of them with their gear in hands tried to keep themselves calm, amidst the cheering crowd. Following the NSG were troupes of Army, Mumbai police and RAF, who were also welcomed by the crowd.

Some enthusiasts were seen approaching the force and getting a picture clicked with them. More than 500 people surrounded the bus which was carrying the team of commandos and raised anti-Pakistan slogans till it moved away.

source:rediff news

NSG (National Security Gaurds)

The National Security Guard has completed around 22 years in rendering significant service to the nation as a federal contingency force. It has been raised, equipped and trained as an elite commando organization to counter terrorism in all its facets in any part of our country. In present times, there is a lot happening in life and around us. In NSG our prime endeavor is to keep the Force youthful by regularly infusing young blood from Central Forces and imparting to them specialized training in Counter Terrorist Operations and Counter Hijacking. Our commandos have also received training at Bhaba Atomic Research Centre to combat the situations arising out of nuclear, biological and chemical threats. The Black Cats of NSG take birth from a process of training, retraining and enhanced training of a specialist nature. There are always endings and fresh beginnings. Though NSG was primarily raised as a Quick Reaction Contingency Force to deal with anti-hijacking, hostage rescue and combating terrorist activities, the Force also provides protection to high risk dignitaries, conducts anti sabotage checks at venues of public gatherings and performs Sky Marshal duties in domestic as well international flights. NSG is a light unto itself.

Functions

The NSG's roles include protecting VIPs, conducting anti-sabotage checks, rescuing hostages, neutralizing terrorist threats to vital installations, engaging terrorists and responding to hijacking and piracy.

The NSG is much sought after for VVIP security for high-risk VVIPs in India; this task is done by the SRG of the NSG. The SAG is strike force in anti-terrorist and anti-hijack operations, supported by the SRG and others. NSG's specific goals include:

• Neutralization of terrorist threats
• Handling hijacking situations in air and on land.
• Bomb disposal (search, detection and neutralisation of IEDs).
• PBI (Post Blast Investigation)
• Engaging and neutralizing terrorists in specific situations.
• Rescue of hostages

The NSG has a total personnel strength of about 14,500. The NSG was modeled on the pattern of the SAS of the UK and GSG-9 of Germany. It is a task-oriented force and has two complementary elements in the form of the Special Action Group (SAG) and the Special Ranger Groups (SRG). All the personnel are on deputation.

The SAG is the offensive wing drawn from members of the Indian Army. The SRG consists of members from other paramilitary forces such as the Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and State Police forces. There are other specialized units also.

The NSG Training Centre is a Centre of Excellence and the National Bomb Data Centre holds international conferences. Both are located at Manesar in Haryana. The NSG HQ Exchange is located at Mehramnagar, Palam.

Deccan Mujahideen

The word Deccan - corruption of the word dakshin or dakhin - immediately conjures up the image of Hyderabad. But the police in

Hyderabad say that they have never heard of an outfit called "Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan,"- that has claimed to have carried the operations in Mumbai- ever before.

"We haven't come across anything of this sort before," director general of police of Andhra Pradesh S S P Yadav said. "No central or state intelligence agency has ever mentioned that to us," Andhra Pradesh home minister Jana Reddy added.

Analysts who are experts at picking cues from phrases and communications however feel that there could be an indirect connection of the militant group that carried out attacks with Hyderabad. "After Hyderabad was integrated with the Indian union in 1948, there was large-scale migration from the Nizam's state to Pakistan, the UK and the USA.

It is possible that elements involved in the operation had some of their ancestors hailing from Hyderabad and they are using the name to connect with their original homeland," a senior police officer said.

Other analysts pointed out after 1948 not only did the issue of Kashmir reach the United Nations, but even the Nizam in his last days had sent a team to the same agency seeking an independence for Hyderabad in the aftermath of the Independence of India and its Partition. Intelligence officials said that they knew that there were elements in Pakistan who still were not reconciled to the incorporation of Hyderabad to India.

"We know it for a fact that in 2004, Jaish-e- Mohammad militants led by Maulana Masood Azhar had in one of their conclaves in Pakistan had decided to focus on the issue of independence of Hyderabad. What we see today is probably an assertion of this point of view," the intelligence source said.

He added that with Kashmir now at the centre stage, militants want to open up another contentious issue and hope that it would have some emotive appeal. Along with Kashmir and Hyderabad, Junagadh's accession to India had also been challenged by some. But Junagadh is a small district in Gujarat and its potential for generating emotive appeal amongst ex-Junagadhi's abroad is little.

Other analysts who believe that Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan "is real and not a red herring" said that nothing called Indian Mujahideen had also been heard till the rash of terror attacks in the country in the last few months. "But it was found that the term denoted the emergence of home grown terrorists and that was proven with the arrest of many educated merchants of death. The same could be the case with Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan," the officer said.

Director general Yadav however parried questions and tried to deflect the issue saying that the term Deccan denoted Deccan plateau and could denote any place between Pune and Hyderabad. Analysts however ruled out the direct connection of any present Hyderabad citizen with the militant group because the attacks bear the stamp of a high motivated and trained foreign agency.

"The most that we can see is that local underworld elements in Mumbai

may have helped in the landing of the militants in the vicinity of Gateway of India. This is not the job of any local Hyderabad trained ultra," a police source said.

source:TOI

Captured terrorist

Confessions by captured terrorist

Azam Amir Kasav,^[88] an 18 year old terrorist was caught and taken to the Nair hospital. According to preliminary investigations by intelligence agencies, Azam is from from Faridkot in Pakistan^[88] and had received arms training in Pakistan.^[89] Ammunition, a satellite phone and a layout plan of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was recovered from him. He has provided many clues to the investigation agencies and has reportedly described how they arrived at Mumbai from Karachi via Porbandar. He has reportedly said that he and other terrorists had received automatic loading revolvers, AK-57, bullet magazines and dry fruits from their coordinator.^[89] Azam reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the attack on Islamabad's JW Marriot hotel attack, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubbles, replicating the 9/11 attacks in India

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Homage to Brave Men

Mumbai: A large number of people turned out to pay their last respects to Maharahstra's slain Anti-Terrorism Sqaud (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, whose body was taken in a procession from his residence in Dadar to the crematorium in Shivaji Park in Central Mumbai.

Besides several top police officials like Hassan Gafoor, Rakesh Maria and K L Prasad, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, his deputy R R Patil, Ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Harshvardhan Patil paid homage to Karkare.

Karkare, who is being given a state funeral, was shot dead by terrorists along with encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte near Cama Hospital.

Karkare, a 1982 batch IPS officer, did stints at Nanded, Akola, Thane and Bhiwandi and Mumbai. Before taking the post of ATS chief, Karkare worked with the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for sometime.

Tearful adieu to Sandeep Unnikrishnan

Bangalore on Friday bid a tearful farewell to Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the NSG Commando officer who was killed in the bloodiest counter-offensive at the Taj hotel in Mumbai.

Finally Ends

Mumbai: The terrorist siege of Mumbai ended this morning with security forces killing all gunmen in the flushing-out operations to secure the iconic Taj hotel, nearly 62 hours after a band of ultras struck at various centres in the country's financial capital.

Commandos carried out combing operations in the 529-room hotel, the last theatre of action. But by way of abundant caution the NSG refused to declare that the operations were over.

There was no immediate word on recovery of bodies in Taj. The death toll in the terrorist mayhem has already reached 190 including 14 police and NSG personnel. In all, 14 terrorists were killed and one captured alive.

"Three terrorists have been killed but the operations are still on. Until we search the entire hotel room-by-room and satisfy ourselves that are no more terrorists, I will not declare the operations over," NSG Director General J K Dutt told reporters shortly after 0830 hours.

"Only guests could be there. There may be no terrorists," he said.

An AK-47 rifle was also recovered from them. "There was lot of shooting. Grenades were lobbed and explosives were used by the terrorists," he said.

The elimination of the three terrorists came after intense battle between the commandos, who believed there was a lone gunman holding out, and the terrorists who kept exploding grenades at periodic intervals.

Dutt said the terrorists set off fires whenever they came under pressure as a diversionary tactics.

On Friday, the security forces had regained control of the Oberoi-Trident hotel and the Nariman House where five Israeli hostages were killed.