Security has been increased in Mumbai, where several events will be held to mark the anniversary of the city’s terrorist attacks in 2008, ANI reported on Sunday. The police has barricaded the entire city.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Governor C Vidyasagar Rao paid tributes to victims of the attack at a memorial in Mumbai earlier in the day.
On Twitter, President Ram Nath Kovind and Union Minister Arun Jaitley paid tributes to security personnel and civilians who were killed in the four-day siege. The anniversary comes two days after alleged mastermind Hafiz Saeed was released from house arrest in Pakistan.
Jaitley said the terrorists had shown their “deplorable cowardice” through the attack in Mumbai, while Kovind pledged to “renew our resolve” to eliminate terrorism “in all forms”.
Israel, which also lost some of its citizens in the attacks, expressed its condolences to India on Saturday, PTI reported. “The tragic events of that day are ingrained in our collective memories,” the embassy said. “Israel stands by India in remembrance and grief over the senseless loss of life at the hands of terrorists.”
On November 26, 2008, ten terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba took a sea route from Pakistan to Mumbai and carried out a dozen coordinated shooting and bombing attacks at various major landmarks across the city. Over 160 people were killed and more than 300 injured in the attacks that lasted four days, and needed the National Security Guards and the Anti-Terrorist Squad to intervene.
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