The parade displayed advanced anti-terror combat vehicles and weapons procured by the state police following the terror attack.
As the Maharashtra Police took out a parade from Oberoi Trident Hotel at 8.30am on Friday, the onlookers were not many. They were primarily the morning walkers on Marine Drive.
The parade that saw the participation of teams of Force One, Quick Response Teams (QRT) and Mumbai police, was attended by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and several of his cabinet colleagues.
The parade displayed advanced anti-terror combat vehicles and weapons procured by the state police following the terror attack. A 1.3-km long banner, which read ‘The Great Wall of Mumbai’, was held by hundreds of students. The banner started from hotel Trident and ended at Garware Chowk.
Following the parade, the Mumbai police displayed its newly-acquired modern weaponry at the Police Gymkhana.
Union home minister P Chidambaram, Chavan, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and state home minister RR Patil paid homage to the 166 martyrs.
Chidambaram and those present observed a minute’s silence, following which the Union minister interacted with the family members of the martyrs present at the event.
The Union minister reached the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) before the scheduled time and placed a wreath at the memorial. He also inaugurated a blood donation camp organised on the station premises.
The memorial at CST was embroiled in a controversy for a while when the ticket-checking staff at the station protested against the missing photograph of ticket checking inspector Sushil Kumar Sharma from it, who died saving passengers.
Late Sharma’s photograph was missing from among those of other martyrs put up near the permanent memorial at the station. After pointing out the error, the staff around 2pm set up a small memorial next to the original one putting up Sharma’s photograph and lighting candles around it.
Senior officials at the site assured the staff that the mistake will not be repeated. However, the commuters were not much bothered about the events.
On the other hand, the Central Railway and the government railway police were seen fighting over the expenses of the wreath to be placed over the memorial.
Railway police commissioner Tukaram Chavan eventually intervened and said that he will bear all the expenses of the event. Finally, personnel from the Railway Protection Force collected funds and bore the expenses.
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