<p>To the last bullet<br /><em>Vinita Kamte & Vinita Deshmukh<br />Ameya Prakasan, 2009, pp 221, Rs 300</em> </p>.<p>The media blitz on Mumbai terror strike on 26/11 focussed largely on high profile targets such as Taj, Trident hotels and Nariman House. The media failed to throw much light on the Cama hospital incident in which the nation lost three of its finest police officers in action. They were Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar.<br /><br />The failure of police top brass to come clean on the encounter sparked unseemly speculation on what transpired on that fateful night. Was there any foul play, perhaps an attempted cover-up? Ram Pradhan Committee that probed the terror attacks too has failed to clear the mist surrounding the killings. What is certain is that the only surviving fidayeen Ajmal Kasab got injured during the encounter in front of Cama hospital.<br />The accusation from some quarters that these valiant men were foolhardy pained the next of kin.<br /><br /> Though devastated by the death of her husband Ashok Kamte and the tendency of police higher-ups to stonewall her queries regarding the circumstances leading to the incident, his widow Vinita doggedly went on a mission to unravel the truth. She was even denied the post-mortem report. When the top guns refused to part with information, she took the long and arduous route of invoking the Right to Information Act.<br /><br />To The Last Bullet compiles, with the help of official documents and eyewitness accounts, the chronology of events on that black Wednesday night and exposes woeful inadequacies of the ill-equipped and poorly trained police force. The substandard bullet-proof jackets offered no protection against AK-47s. Co-authored with Vinita Deshmukh, the book points to a police top brass numbed and stupefied. They failed to achieve a co-ordinated response in the face of a war-like situation mainly due to bungling by the control room. It was a total collapse of the system. <br /><br />The police wireless and call records show that Karkare’s repeated calls for reinforcements at Cama hospital went unheeded. Frantic calls made by local residents to the control room about the encounter too made no impact. For about 40 minutes, the injured officers lay bleeding on the road. Even when a police vehicle came, it sped past the bullet-ridden vehicle ambushed by terrorists. In her efforts to ferret out the truth, Vinita had to run from pillar to post. The police denial of access to call records convinced her that there was something fishy. When she did lay hands on it, certain crucial portions of the call records of the police control room were found deleted. <br /><br />The book doesn’t draw any conclusions. Perhaps the truth of what happened on that badly-lit road will never be known. The hastily pieced together book is a moving tribute to the martyrs, and traces the career of Kamte. <br /><br />Hailing from an illustrious family, Ashok emerges as an outstanding officer who was passionately involved in all his assignments. Accounts from his colleagues, friends and the public at various places where he was posted reveal him as an upright officer who always led from the front. In her effort to paint a rather larger-than-life image of her husband, the author does seem to have gone overboard. The second half of the book is full of distracting details that do not enhance its appeal. Had she confined to the terror strike, the focus would have remained intact.</p>
<p>To the last bullet<br /><em>Vinita Kamte & Vinita Deshmukh<br />Ameya Prakasan, 2009, pp 221, Rs 300</em> </p>.<p>The media blitz on Mumbai terror strike on 26/11 focussed largely on high profile targets such as Taj, Trident hotels and Nariman House. The media failed to throw much light on the Cama hospital incident in which the nation lost three of its finest police officers in action. They were Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar.<br /><br />The failure of police top brass to come clean on the encounter sparked unseemly speculation on what transpired on that fateful night. Was there any foul play, perhaps an attempted cover-up? Ram Pradhan Committee that probed the terror attacks too has failed to clear the mist surrounding the killings. What is certain is that the only surviving fidayeen Ajmal Kasab got injured during the encounter in front of Cama hospital.<br />The accusation from some quarters that these valiant men were foolhardy pained the next of kin.<br /><br /> Though devastated by the death of her husband Ashok Kamte and the tendency of police higher-ups to stonewall her queries regarding the circumstances leading to the incident, his widow Vinita doggedly went on a mission to unravel the truth. She was even denied the post-mortem report. When the top guns refused to part with information, she took the long and arduous route of invoking the Right to Information Act.<br /><br />To The Last Bullet compiles, with the help of official documents and eyewitness accounts, the chronology of events on that black Wednesday night and exposes woeful inadequacies of the ill-equipped and poorly trained police force. The substandard bullet-proof jackets offered no protection against AK-47s. Co-authored with Vinita Deshmukh, the book points to a police top brass numbed and stupefied. They failed to achieve a co-ordinated response in the face of a war-like situation mainly due to bungling by the control room. It was a total collapse of the system. <br /><br />The police wireless and call records show that Karkare’s repeated calls for reinforcements at Cama hospital went unheeded. Frantic calls made by local residents to the control room about the encounter too made no impact. For about 40 minutes, the injured officers lay bleeding on the road. Even when a police vehicle came, it sped past the bullet-ridden vehicle ambushed by terrorists. In her efforts to ferret out the truth, Vinita had to run from pillar to post. The police denial of access to call records convinced her that there was something fishy. When she did lay hands on it, certain crucial portions of the call records of the police control room were found deleted. <br /><br />The book doesn’t draw any conclusions. Perhaps the truth of what happened on that badly-lit road will never be known. The hastily pieced together book is a moving tribute to the martyrs, and traces the career of Kamte. <br /><br />Hailing from an illustrious family, Ashok emerges as an outstanding officer who was passionately involved in all his assignments. Accounts from his colleagues, friends and the public at various places where he was posted reveal him as an upright officer who always led from the front. In her effort to paint a rather larger-than-life image of her husband, the author does seem to have gone overboard. The second half of the book is full of distracting details that do not enhance its appeal. Had she confined to the terror strike, the focus would have remained intact.</p>
