Police heroes not invited to meet the prez

Mateen Hafeez & Yogesh Naik | TNN

Mumbai: It’s an irony that not a single cop involved in the 26/11 gunbattle against Pakistani terrorists at the Taj Mahal hotel got to meet the US President Obama who checked in there on Saturday. While those who played key roles in tackling terror were not invited, the others who got personal invitations for an event to commemorate the attack were denied permission to meet Obama by their bosses.

Police inspector Deepak Dhole, who was in the first batch of policemen to reach the Taj on the night of November 26, 2008, was injured in a grenade attack by the four terrorists. But instead of getting a chance to meet Obama, he was deployed for crowd control like all other 43,000 police personnel deputed to protect Obama. On Saturday afternoon, as Obama drove to the Taj, Dhole was at Colaba junction on bandobast.

Another officer Bhaskar Kadam, who played a vital role in capturing the only Pak terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, alive, was in the Taj on security detail. But he too was not part of the event to mark 26/11.

A police officer, who had shot Pakistani terrorist group leader Ismail Dera Khan dead was also not invited for the function.

‘‘We are posted for bandobast near Mani Bhavan. It’s a tragedy that President Obama will be visiting Mani Bhavan and the police team could have been invited to meet him there too. Moreover, he passed through Girgaum Chowpatty where Kasab was caught alive, but it seems that those who fought the terrorists do not matter for the higher-ups,’’ said an officer.

It’s not clear why cops who were invited weren’t allowed to attend. Sources said the police brass may have been upset that Obama did not visit the police gymkhana where a memorial for policemen killed on 26/11 has been erected.

It is also learnt that several senior officers, who were indeed given invitation, could not attend the function since there was no clear instruction from their superiors. ‘‘As per procedure, we required a permission from the senior cops but in this case, our bosses did not give us a goahead,’’ said an officer.

Director-General of Police D Sivanandhan denied he had stopped any officer from attending the event. He said invitations were sent by the US consulate and were personal. ‘‘Even I got an invite, but I preferred to stay in office handling security,’’ he said.

The Times of India, November 8, 2010