Then And Now: Differences In India's Response

Whether it was Kargil in 1999, Mumbai in 2008, Pulwama in 2019 or Pahalgam now, the stark fact remains that neither human nor technical intelligence succeeded in providing concrete information

- KM CHANDRASEKHAR

PAHALGAM reminded me of another even more terrifying incident that engulfed Mumbai on 26/11/2008. I was directly involved in the operations following this horrific episode, as I was then the Cabinet Secretary.

On a languid Wednesday evening in 2008, I had returned early from the office. Around six in the evening, I received my first call from M L Kumawat, then Special Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs. By a strange coincidence, Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta was away in Pakistan for a meeting. Kumawat told me trouble had started in Mumbai. I rang up the Chief Secretary, Johny Joseph. His initial thought was that a terrorist incident, similar to the string of terror attacks that rocked many Indian cities in the nineties and the first decade of this century, had struck Mumbai once again.

That this was a terrorist attack became clear when the ten terrorists in Mumbai continued to play their dance of death across multiple locations. The Chief Secretary sought the help of marine commandos, and the naval chief, Adm Suresh Mehta, was happy to oblige.

Close to midnight, the Chief Secretary telephoned me and formally sought the help of the National Security Guard. In law and order matters, the Centre can act only at the request of the State Government. I spoke to J K Dutt, the Director General, immediately. He was ready to move, but as his force was located in Manesar, it took time to bring them to the airport, commandeer an aircraft and fly them to Mumbai.

It took the NSG a little more than two days to flush out and exterminate all the terrorist vermin, except Kasab, who had been captured after he killed scores of innocent people in the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminus. Kasab lived for nearly four years thereafter in Mumbai prisons as judicial processes wore on.