Book Launch event- '26/11 Mumbai Attacked' by Harinder Baweja, covered by S.A.R.G. Members

'26/11 Mumbai Attacked' is a must read book that has been carefully put together by a very able team of editors at Roli Books. This book is a combined effort of 8 Indians. People like Ashish Khetan, Bachi Karkaria, Chris Khetan, George Koshy, Harsh Baweja, Julio Francis Riberio, Rahul Shivshankar and Harinder Baweja, have put in efforts and have explored terror step by step. The main punch of this book is the interview with LeT’s representative, by the only Indian Journalist Harinder Baweja inside the headquarters of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, in Muridke, Pakistan- where Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist, was trained for the attack.

The book was launched at Brihan Mumbai Police Club, VT. The chief guest for the evening was Mrs. Kavita Karkare, wife of Joint Commissioner (ATS) Hemant Karkare. When asked to share her thoughts on stage, she just spoke these lines,

“Kaise kahein who tha desh par mita
Kaise kahein who tha desh ka beta
Rajnitti ki goli se chalni kiya uska seena,
Kaise kahein who tha desh par mita
Kaise kahein who tha desh ka beta

Pelhi goli prashashan ne mari
Doosri goli kasab ki nikli
Teesri goli janta ne mari

Toh Kaise kahein who tha desh par mita
Toh Kaise kahein who tha desh ka beta”

When asked to Mr. Pramod Kapoor, director of Roli Books about his favourite chapter from the book, he choosed to mention the chapter written by Chris Khetan, who pays rich tribute through accounts of meetings with the wives of slain policemen in Mumbai, who lost their lives in the fight against a deadly enemy, sacrificing their future for ours.

Next, Julio Francis Riberio, the former police commissioner of Mumbai and director general of police, Punjab, who is also a co-author for the book, was invited on stage. He highlited the need of self discipline among citizens. In the book, he has written the need of police reforms that make the police force accountable to the law alone rather than the political party in power. According to Mr. Riberio, the role of politicians should be confined to laying down the policy and not to administering or enforcing.


When Harinder Baweja was asked to share her thoughts, she specified that the book takes a full 360-degree look at 26/11. It was perhaps, for the first time, that permission was granted to any Indian Journalist to visit the sprawling campus that liies 40 Km out of Lahore and belived worldwide to be the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), said Harinder.

Harinder Baweja is editor with Tehelka newsmagazine. She was ealier associate editor of India Today in Delhi. A current affairs reporter, she has written extensively on Punjab, Kashmir, Pakistan and Afganistan. She was also in Iraq in mid-2003, reporting on US invasion. Baweja has been writing on terrorism and defence for the last two decades.

Talking about the book, details of intelligence failures are properly mentioned. Several chapters in the book take a long hard look at how the terror unfolded, systematically for over sixty long hours as India was held hostage. The chapters contain hitherto unpublished information on how the operation was planned and executed. Well-known journalists Ashish Khetan and Rahul Shivshankar have painstakingly reconstructed the horror at the three main target sites: hotels Taj and Oberoi and Nariman House and all three chapters give crucial insights into the terrorists’ conversations with their handlers in Pakistan. The book also takes us to read the gripping first hand accounts from hostages who survived near-death.

All in all, the book ‘26/11 Mumbai Attacked’ is a must read book for someone who wishes to prevent another 26/11 and build a strong, secure and happy India.