Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will Friday lead the city in paying homage to the martyrs and victims of the Nov 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attack here, officials said.
Chidambaram, along with Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, will take part in a function at the Magathane CNG Station in Borivli east Friday morning.An announcement on allotting the filling station to one of the 17 martyrs of the terror attack is expected.
Several functions have been planned in the city to pay homage to the victims of the terror attack that left at least 166 people dead. Prayers have been planned at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and Hotel Trident-Oberoi.
A social organization, Nijaat, has organized a signature campaign at CST demanding the immediate hanging of Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab involved in the carnage, said the organisation’s co-convenor Hyder Azam.
“Ek Kadam” – a march for solidarity has been organized from Hotel Trident-Oberoi to Hotel Taj Mahal Friday afternoon by Mumbai Congress leader Charan Singh Sapra.
Actresses Raveena Tandon and Mahima Chaudhary will join the march, besides office-goers from Nariman Point and Colaba areas, Sapra said.
On Thursday afternoon, a special memorial service was held at the Chabad House in Colaba, which was also one of the targets of the 10-member Pakistani group of terrorists.
The prayer service was conducted by Jewish Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg and his wife Frieda, who arrived in the city this week.
The Holtzbergs lost their children, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, while their grandson Baby Moshe, who was two years old then, and his Indian nanny Sandra managed to escape alive by hoodwinking the terrorists who created mayhem in Chabad House.
Meanwhile, tight security arrangements were being made as the city readied to observe the second anniversary of the Mumbai attack.
Ten gunmen sneaked into Mumbai from Pakistan Nov 26, 2008 and let loose a reign of terror. Nine of the heavily-armed gunmen were killed by security forces while the tenth, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was arrested.
