INDIA’S TERROR THREAT SHIFTS CLOSER HOME

ife, once in a while, throws up events that brutalise your consciousness and traumatise you for the rest of your life. The terror attacks in Mumbai on 26 November 2008, and in Pahalgam and Delhi this year top such chilling incidents.

- SHASHI SHEKHAR

Two days from now, we will be observing the I7th anniversary of the gruesome massacre in Mumbai. On this occasion, it’s pertinent to ask what lessons we learnt from that ghastly attack.

Phalgam and Delhi are fresh but the Mumbai carnage was far more devastating. Let’s recount what happened on that fateful day. A flash appeared—Shootout in Colaba! [had the sinking feeling of gang wars returning to Mumbai. However, within minutes reports of the massacre started shocking everyone to their core.

In these chaotic early hours no one imagined the next 60-hours would create mayhem drowning the nation in sorrow. Just 10 Pakistan-trained terrorists gunned down 165 Indian and foreign nationals. Those fateful hours forever changed India’s security scenario and paradigm.

The first wave of terror attacks claimed Maharashtra Police anti-terror squad’s four top officers including its chief Hemant Karkare. We salute their courage but in the fog of war they made a fatal mistake of breaking the security protocol. All the officers jumped into the same vehicle to fight the terrorists and when they came under fire none could respond. Despite the indomitable courage of our security forces, lack of proper training, emergency response protocols and lack of equipment were glaringly evident.