{Ashok Kamte (42): Additional Commissioner of Police}
Ashok Kamte was an alumni of St Stephen’s College, New Delhi. A national power-lifting champion, Kamte hailed from a family of policemen and armymen.
He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of weapons, explosives and unarmed combat, Kamte was summoned late on Wednesday night to deal with terrorists holed up near Metro Cinema, where he was gunned down.
“We have lost the bravest officer in the entire Maharashtra police force,” said Additional Director General of Police Arup Patnaik.
Kamte, a 1989 batch IPS officer, was one of the brightest. Twice, he was sent on UN peace missions, in Bosnia for a year (1998-99) and later in Somalia.
An HT correspondent spoke to him on his return from Bosnia. Kamte said he was thrilled to meet policemen from other countries but said it was not as exciting being a “soldier without an enemy” as a peacekeeper.
“I want to be in real combat situations,” he said. The much-loved former police commissioner of Solapur also served as superintendent of police in Naxal-infested Gadchiroli.
There are 10 pages set up by fans on Orkut, with comments from over 400 people, most of them ruing the fact that he could not continue as their police chief forever.
Daring and efficient as they were, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police (North East) Ashok Kamte and high-profile encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were among those who died a hero's death while fighting terrorists in Mumbai.
Karkare was recently under attack of Right-wing parties and organizations for the investigations into the September 29 Malegaon blast probe, which has been engineered by fanatic Hindu fundamentalists. An officer of the 1982-batch of IPS, he was a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Mumbai before being deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the external intelligence agency.
As R&AW officer, he was posted in Europe, he was Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the United Nations in Vienna, where is work was excellent and still recognized. On his return to parent cadre, he was made Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration) in Mumbai before being transferred to the ATS as a Special Inspector General of Police.
So far, 14 policemen were reported dead and nearly 25 others were injured. Among those injured is Additional Commissioner of Police (Central) Sadanand Date. Incidentally, the Pune ATS on November 26 reportedly received phone calls threatening to blow up the residence of Karkare within a couple of days following his investigations into the Malegaon blast. A cool-headed officer, he was a well read man – and was a true officer and a gentleman. The last television visuals of the 54year-old officer showed him in a light blue shirt and dark trousers surrounded by uniformed policemen armed with firearms and walkie-talkies. Karkare laid down his life near the Cama Hospital area.
Born and brought up in Nagpur, Karkare graduated from the Visveswaraiya Regional College of Engineering in 1975 and took up a few jobs in private sector before his selection in the IPS. He earned the reputation as a competent and upright officer during his stints in Thane, Nanded and Akola. During his posting as superintendent of police in Vidarbha's Chandrapur district, people saw a fascinating facet of Karkare's personality – he created as many as 150 beautiful wood sculptures in the forested area. There would always be some great wood carvings inside his office.
At the same time, Kamte too was a brilliant officer. 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. He was a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Mumbai and has also done a stint with the United Nations. He was a DCP in Solapur also. He laid down his life near Metro Cinema.
On the other hand, Salaskar to fell to the bullets of agents of terror near the Metro Cinema. Salaskar, a dare-devil officer of the rank of Senior Inspector of Police currently headed the Anti-Extortion Cell. He has so far killed over 70 criminals in his career and is an officer of the famous 1983-batch of cops. One of his famous kills include dreaded underworld don Amar Naik alias Ravan.
7 TERRORISTS SHOT DEAD IN GUN BATTLES >> 1 TERRORISTS HELD >> 9 SUSPECTS IN SECURITY DRAGNET >> NARIMAN HOUSE SIEGE STILL ON >> NUMBER OF HOSTAGES NOT KNOWN
Indian intelligence agencies believe the Mumbai terror attacks was planned by Pakistan's ISI to discredit Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi while he is visiting India.
A top intelligence official said on Thursday that this attack was a "lesson to teach Quereshi, who has described the disbanding of the ISI's political wing as a positive development".
The terror attacks while Quereshi discussed cooperation between New Delhi and Is lamabad with external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee was also a message by the ISI that the army still controlled politics in Pakistan though a democratically elected government is in place, he analysed.
He said that after Pakistani government was told by the U.S. to reign in the ISI and stop aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan, the directorate general of counter intelligence in the ISI focussed all its resources on India as over the last few years it was failing in the Kashmir valley.
He pointed out that ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha had focused on counter-terrorism during his previous assignment as the director general of military operations and his top priority in his new office would be "spread terror in India in connivance with Bangladesh's intelligence agencies".
The Mumbai terror attacks have been fully sponsored by the ISI's CI wing as investigations revealed two boatfuls of weapons and more than 20 Laskar-e-Tayiba terrorists most sailed from Karachi to some uninhibited islands near the shores of Mumbai.
Two ships MV Alfa and MV Al Kabeer have been detained by the Indian Navy. These are suspected to have ferried the terrorists from Karachi.
Intelligence officials have also discovered that these LeT men received directions through satellite telephones and also recruited some locals in Mumbai to carry out their terror operations.
"The LeT men were directly under the control of ISI CI wing and we will not be surprised if they have established contacts with Bangladesh-based terror outfit HuJI, which has spread its tentacles among millions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants spread all over India."
bureaus@sakaaltimes.com
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