Tukaram Omble

The Policeman who stopped terrorists with a Baton!! 
 
Omble was on the night shift at a police station off Chowpatty in south Mumbai, when a message was received about two gunmen speeding towards Malabar hill after hijacking a vehicle near Marine Drive.  The message came after reports of shooting at the Chhatrapati Shivaji rail terminus and hotels like Oberoi and Taj.

Omble along with his colleagues took up positions near  Girgaum Chowpatty to stop the Skoda car. Omble was armed with a baton and a radio. The car approached at a high speed, but stopped 50 feet from the barricade. Suddenly, the beam lights went on, and the car swerved towards the barricades. Omble was the first to rush out fro

However, thanks to Omble’s bravery, Kasab was caught alive and confessed to his crime revealing the masterminds who had plotted the attacks from across the border. 

Tukaram Omble - 26/11 Martyr

Omble was the first to rush out from behind the barricades and attempted to grab Kasab who had jumped out of the vehicle. 

A DNA report described his bravery in graphic detail: 

The two terrorists were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades; he carried just a walkie-talkie. There was no way assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Tukaram Omble, 48, could have survived the encounter. But before dying, he ensured that at least one of the 26/11 terrorists was caught alive.

Omble was asked by his senior to take up position on Marine Drive on Wednesday night, after the news of firings at Leo-pold Caf�, Oberoi and Taj Hotels came in.

Around 12.45 am, he got an alert on his walkie-talkie that two terrorists had hijacked a Skoda car and were heading for Girgaum Chowpatty. Just minutes later, the Skoda whizzed past him.

Omble jumped on to his two-wheeler and chased the car. A team from DB Marg police station was setting up a naka bandi at the chowpatty signal. As the car approached the signal, the terrorists opened fire on the cops, but were forced to reduce speed because of the barricades.

Omble overtook the Skoda and stopped in front of it, forcing the driver of the car to swerve right and hit the divider. With the terrorists momentarily distracted, Omble sprang toward one of them, Amir Kasab, and gripped the barrel of the AK47 rifle with both hands. With the barrel pointing towards Omble, Amir pulled the trigger. A spray of bullets entered his stomach and intestine. Omble collapsed, but held on to the gun till he breathed his last, stopping Amir from shooting anyone else.

The other cops, who by that time had killed the other terrorist, Ismail, pounced on Amir and captured him. The investigation agencies were reported to have gathered a lot of information from the sole terrorist captured.

 Omble is survived by his wife and four daughters. He is a real hero. Let's salute him.

 It also resulted in Pakistan initiating a trial against accused like Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

Omble was awarded the nation’s highest peace-time gallantry award, the Ashok Chakra. 

For his family, the news of the hanging of Kasab was a form of closure. “We were waiting for this day. I am glad that today the President and the Home minister took the right decision. A terrorist like Kasab should have been hanged in public,” Tukaram Omble’s brother Eknath Omble told reporters.

Courtesy: FirstPost here