Lesson learnt from Mumbai Terror Attacks!

They were only ten! They took nation of 110 crores to ransom for three days! Imagine if they were thirty and two other cities namely Delhi and Kolkata were also their targets! The scope can be widened and one can imagine with shudder down the spine the chilling scenario – the entire Nation surrendering to few terrorists!! No army needed to cripple our nation which is already eaten away from inside by the corrupt politicians and babus with the help of criminals and underworld elements. All it will take is few well trained, highly motivated, and fully armed youths to carry out their plan to permanently scar the world’s largest democracy.

Today after five years of the Mumbai Mayhem, have things changed? Do we have better security? Have we learning the lessons? I we care to look deep and long enough, we will find that there is a lot to be desired so far as revamping security of cities, iconic buildings and public places is concerned. The US State Department has consistently listed India as the country with the second-highest number of terrorism casualties after Iraq. However Western media has given scant regard to the problem and this is sometimes resented in India. All that is likely to change with terror attacks in Mumbai. Mumbai unwittingly has become the epicentre of India's terrorist problem but there have been many attacks in other key cities.

The Mumbai terrorists attacked on every level. They killed middle class workers when they shot up the railway station, they killed the elite in the luxury hotels, they killed tourists and kids as they ate in a café and while attacking hospital they killed the sick and dying or those trying hard not to. They shot people on the roads, in railway station, hotel or residential building. They killed Indians, Britons, Americans, Israelis and several other nationalities. They killed men, women, children, policemen, firemen, doctors and patients. This was systematic cold blooded slaughter.

The saga of personal valour, dedication to duty, service to society and patriotism of common man will be told and retold, but along with it will be tales of un-professionalism, foolhardiness, cowardice and corruption. It will be prudent to pause for a moment and think whether there are lessons for security professionals to learn from this gory incident? Admittedly there are few lessons we can learn. The Internet sites, the Blogs and the Communities are overflowing with ideas. Honestly few ideas are picked up from there.

There are many lessons learnt from the whole incident and some of them are enumerated below. 

Intelligence Failure

The Mumbai attacks were a well-planned and coordinated series of terrorist attacks, as AK47-wielding terrorists with grenades in their backpacks targeted a number of high-profile locations frequented by Westerners and wealthy Indians. It appears to have been a massive intelligence failure as Indian security agencies were caught napping; this despite reports that Indian Authorities had been aware for some time of rumours of an impending attack, including even mention of the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Interrogation of at least one perpetrator reportedly confirmed to Indian Authorities suspicions of the Pakistan-related origin of the plot. Despite the repeated failure of the Intelligence the administration’s public response thus far appears to be curiously complacent. The Country's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Intelligence officials pointed fingers very cautiously at an 'outside force', an obvious reference to Pakistan-centric terrorist groups. Manmohan Singh promised tough measures to take on the terrorists, including that of setting up a federal investigating agency.

To the best of the knowledge of security professionals, this was the first terrorist attack in recent times that involved hostages and a direct attack on the police. The targeting of high-profile hotels, attacks on iconic buildings and foreigners suggests that at least part of the intention was to damage India’s image abroad as a country open for business. There are reports suggesting that ATS’ preoccupation with the Malegaon blast investigation may have resulted in intelligence failure about plans for this attack. Going by death toll, this is by far the worst single-city terrorist attack in India’s history - although the attacks last month in Assam come close (in terms of sheer numbers).

Terror’s Third dimension – by the land, air and now sea!

It has been often times said that the Mumbai terror attacks were unexpected as much as audacious since sea approach was used to reach Mumbai. This might appear so but ask any old war-horse and he will confirm that the chances of successes of any operation are directly related to the quantum of the audacity an operation has. The frontal attack is 

generally considered to be most dangerous and therefore very rarely tried. But, when it is a decision that is required to be taken by the Fedayeen terrorists then there are very high chances that the least practical and least expected route will be chosen for that reason alone. 

The air space for terrorism has been used in 9/11 and ever after. The Tamil Tigers have got hold of aircrafts – that too fighter aircrafts! It will be matter of time that other various categories of aircrafts are also used by the terrorists. There are unmanned aircraft such as Predators in the border areas to take care of. Then there are remote controlled toy aircrafts laden with IED with timer devices or designed to explode on impact. Suddenly sky seems to be not friendly any more.

Business verticals of terrorism: out sourcing

The mid-sixties saw smuggling of gold turning out to be very lucrative business of the underworld. It soon became the narcotics which was most sought after item for smuggling. Soon arms, narcotics and hawala trading became lethal combination and small time smugglers no more operated independently. They were used by the big-timers to work for them. And soon corporate culture was emulated by the smugglers.

The D - Company has run its business from far away land using its front men and small time operatives. Thus smuggling and mafia activities in India and elsewhere are run like a corporate business. The terrorism have also started undergoing the same changes and if early indications are to be believed, the LeT, JeM or many other terrorist outfit operating from Pakistan need not get its cadre directly involved as local ‘talent’ is easily available. So ‘terrorism’ is being out- sourced as any ‘Corporate’ will out-source house-keeping and maintenance services. Similarly terrorists are also more and more getting involved in real estate, hawala trading and smuggling as their business verticals so that loss of one business can be absorbed by other business activities or one business can be  funded by the profits of other businesses – mostly the terror operations in theirs case!  

No 8 figure grid reference – it is intelligence, Silly!

World over the autobiographies of sleuths have never even once mentioned the single instances when they could generate cent-percent accurate intelligence. Those who did - had not lived enough to tell the tale! The business of intelligence collection, collation and dissemination is so full of ifs’ and buts that by the time it reaches the end-user it has been many times removed of it’s time and place value.

It appears to have been a massive intelligence failure as a result of which Indian security agencies were caught napping; this despite reports that Indian Authorities had been aware for some time of rumours of an impending attack, including even mention of the Taj Mahal Hotel.

But one has to remember that the operational intelligence leaves lot of scope for addition or deletion. In many case, the steady stream of intelligence will only help the expert to draw a pattern and make projection or intelligent guesses! It will be really very silly to expect that any agency in the world will generate the intelligence giving time in milliseconds and location in ‘eight figure grid reference’! Even if once, some intelligence is so gathered, by the time it reaches the end-user, the variables might change as terrorists can always change their locations, timings, numbers, weapons or modus-operandi! Remember, they too have Plan Bs! Out of all persons, Admiral Sunil Mehta (then Navy Chief who said there were no specific intelligence) should know this and also remember that if one wants to do things best, it is best to do oneself!  

However, “the fact that the boat used by the terrorist to enter Mumbai was undetected for 72 hours does not augur well for India’s security. Unmolested by any naval action to intercept, the terrorists sailed leisurely towards Mumbai. There were no signs of warships, conducting radar sweeps conjointly with the Navy and Coast Guard run Dornier surveillance sorties or more intensive searches seaward by the naval and coast guard vessels” writes Bharat Karnad, Professor of National Security Studies at the Centre for Policy Research. Is it being done now?

I said that first!

Aftermath of terrorist attack on Mumbai saw how the big time politicians and administrator alike tried to take the claim for giving early warnings. The Chief Ministers, Ministers, Secretaries and Director Generals all clamoured to take credit of ‘I-said-that-first’. One would wonder that if so many people knew so much and so much in advance then what all they did! Beside twiddling their thumbs and now taking the claims of giving warning to concerned, they did sweet nothing as if doing nothing was their basic duty. The saga of usurpers, false-claimants and pretenders slowly unfolded and it is amazing that without any remorse or empathy for the victims of the carnage, these famous personalities  stacked claims for their prior knowledge of imminent terror attack on Mumbai though about which they did nothing!

Security Forces - take time but be timely!

For the security forces, the dilemma very often is to pinpoint when it is too early or too late to move-in in hostage like situations. If it is too early, security forces will suffer the losses! If it is too late, the innocents may die!

World over security forces take time to acclimatize with the ground situation. No security force or commando operation can be undertaken without proper planning involving the reconnaissance of the area to have ‘feel of the ground’ and to have ‘Plan B’. Only fools rush-in! The deliberate and prudent planning takes time as failure endangers precious lives and no ready-made ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution can be applied to all the situations.

Therefore expecting the commandos to rush-in the moment they reach the venue of their operation will be rather foolish. They will not immediately after their arrival swoop the whole area and neutralize the terrorists in a jiffy! They will tale deliberate time. However, once the course of action has been decided the entire operation must be conducted with time and precision.

 Rushing like fools, ending like angles!

 It is part of Indian culture not to criticize someone who is no more to defend himself. But, in the case of security and armed forces, if past botched-up operations are not examined thread bare, no lessons will ever be learnt! This post-event examination involves analyzing the deeds or misdeeds of deceased.

Kamte was notorious to always keep loaded AK 47 on the floor of his car. Salaskar was sharp shooter known to always move fully prepared. Karkare was extremely efficient officer known to move with full compliment of security! But when all three met their nemesis…

The sequence of action leading to deaths of Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar needs to be done in right earnestness then only we will come to know why all three of the traveled in one vehicle to the place of their encounter if they came from three different places and assembled at one location? One also needs to know why their individual vehicles and security contingent did not follow them. We all repeatedly saw a TV footage in which Karkare was unhurriedly putting on a helmet, but, this footage obviously is of different place and time. What about others? One wonders where their helmets were if not in the Qualis or on their bodies and also what happened to their bullet-proof jackets. There are silent murmurs that they rushed- in carelessly to the scene of their encounter, ill prepared and least expecting the kind of attacks they came under!     

The neighbour we love to hate!

The Rogue Nation! The Terrorist Nation!! The Dangerous Laboratory of Democracy!! Pakistan has been labeled differently though all meaning same – the nation is rudderless for decades and now with nuclear capabilities, the nation is probably the most dangerous nation in the world. Pakistan has been carved out of us and this fact has never let its leader live in peace. Nor has this fact given any comfort to Indians for we know that the feeling of disparity and inferiority in average Pakistani is mainly not due to what they do not have but due to what Indians have! The hard work, grit and toil which Indians have put-in while developing the country is of no consideration to Pakistani leadership, there only point of comparison is that they do not have those resources which India enjoys. This over-jealous neighbor has been thorn in our side and demanding to be removed since long!

Indian authorities and commentators point to Pakistan, and especially the secretive Inter-Services Intelligence, as having a hand in the Indian attacks. After an attack on the parliament in December 2001, India mobilized against Pakistan and the two very nearly slipped into a war - a frightening prospect for nuclear-armed powers. It is clear that arms and training have been provided by Pakistani groups, such as Lashkar-e-Toiyaba; that the ISI has been heavily engaged in helping insurgents and terrorists in Indian Kashmir; and that Pakistan has refused to extradite accused terrorists to India.

Those who know little Greek mythology will understand that cutting the snakes was never a solution as solution was cutting the head of Medusa! We can eliminate terrorism only by eliminating its breeding and feeding ground which is Pakistan.

There is nothing called Muslim Terrorism or Hindu Terrorism

There were reportedly jubilations in the Muslim world that a ‘Hindu terrorist’ has been found after the arrest of Sadhvi Pragyan Singh! More than sense of exhilaration, there should have been gloom all over the world. The oldest and most tolerant religion has not produced even a single Hindu terrorist so far! In fact there was not even a muslin terrorist from India and this was the influence the Hinduism has over all the citizens of Hindustan!

Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims hold true in most of the blasts. While most Indians think the issue of the bomb blast is way above Hindu Muslims problem, Muslim people and organizations should come in large numbers and show protests to the attack. People taking the name of Islam and killing innocent people is Un-Islamic. And if there are no protests from the Muslim Community, it somewhere shows that it is tolerant to these attacks!

But just even for a second we assume (without believing!) that the trend of Hindu militancy is there to stay then Muslims instead of rejoicing must fear it most. The sheer number of Hindus in Hindustan must impress the Muslim militants (if there is any such term!) and they must realize that it is just impossible to eliminate or over power the Hinduism. Has Muslims not ruled us for more then 500 years? What happened thereafter? Has not Hinduism rebounded? They would be better advised to see the ground realties and come to terms – live and let live! There is no point fighting and getting killed when battle is already lost before it began!

Media! Please don’t mess-up with security personnel!

The media people have to realize that even when they have important duty to perform, their duty is still not more important then that of security forces. In their eagerness of ‘me-first’ they sometimes enter the area where they have no business to be in. There presence in such situation not only hinders the activities of the security personnel, they also become the liabilities of those security personnel who were risking their own lives to save others. The foolhardiness of one such correspondent surely must not have missed the attention of TV viewers when some correspondent was shown telling with bravado of having gone to the area where from he was rescued by the NSG commandos!  

Media Ethics, what is that?

The TV channels are known to have gone overboard in such situation in past and this time was also no exception. It was not appreciated by the TV channel while live telecasting the talk with the terrorist that it was almost verging at “offering a platform to espouse their cause”. A fact was overlooked by the channel that a ‘legitimate reporting duty’ of the channel may jeopardize the innocent lives, create law-and-order situation or incite some part of the society for more violence.

Credibility of Media News: Mom no homework!Common people must understand the most of the media people are ‘generalist’ journalist and being in young as most of them are, are not suppose to know all, even when they pretend otherwise. Their reporting may not be factually accurate or they might not have recourse to cross check the veracity of the facts when reporting live. In one case Kamte was referred as ACP and Additional CP in same breath! In other case NSG Havaldar was referred as senior officer! In both the cases the reporters had shown their very poor knowledge of rank structure of police and armed forces. Understand the affect on the police force of the news of death of Additional Commissioner of Police Addl. CP) when actually Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) died. Similarly people will tend to agree more with the news when it is reported that sources of the information is very senior army officer were as it was actually a havaldar!  So, morale is that take the media reporting with pinch of salt. They are known to be wrong some times!

Private Public Partnership – what happened to that? 

What happened to the concept of Public - Private Partnership which was talked about only a year back! There are so many ex-serviceman in pink of their health and at peak of their life, compelled to earn daily wages or get contract security guards employment whereas they can be used for private policing – a concept popular in European countries but only talked about in India by the politician!

There are more then 60,000 strong security personnel employed by the private security agencies across the country. This trained manpower can be utilized for law-and-order duties and police can be used for crime investigations and against terrorism and organized crimes. This will be in conformity with the dust gathering report of the committee constituted by the government for suggestion on police reforms.

Mr. Ten Percents galore in India

The ignominious title which Mr. Asif Ali Zardari got stuck with is embarrassing - to say the least. There are many worthies of such titles in India. The corruption in security and armed forces’ procurement departments has made deep inroads as a result of which no procurement done is without allegation of corruption.

There are rumors that the bullet proof jackets used by Maharashtra ATS were of sub-standard and rejected twice in past. While valiant soldiers and commandos are treated no more then security guards by the politicians, their lives do not mean much to them. The realization that secured security personnel can only secure them provably has not occurred to these politicians who want their share from every arms deal. The morale and ethics of these politicians have stooped to so lowly levels that total overhaul of the system is needed to be undertaken. Sooner the better!!

What do we do with the politicians?

Throwing them in the Indian Sea is the easiest option. A lot has been said and written about them – about their shameless behavior, their insensitivity, their lust, greed and corruption! We are well aware that these chief ministers and ministers are all paid servants and unlike other regular employees are entitled lifelong pensions even when they may serve for one and half years! Then what about their accountability? How is it that they only resign on moral grounds and are not sacked due to inefficiency and their services are never terminated on official grounds? Shamelessly they increase their salaries without discussion and dither on pay increase of armed forces. These are same politicians who want to make armed forces subservient to them and also expect them to make supreme sacrifices while protecting them. 

Our leaders shy away even naming Pakistan as country behind terrorists activities and on sly name it as ‘neighbouring country’ when actually they should name it as Pakistan. Terrorism cannot be eliminated by tough talks; it can be eliminated only by tough actions. Taking decision is the most difficult part; actions are easier for security forces to take. Is there any doubt that the training camps in Pakistan are the breeding grounds for serial blasts? Isn’t this what we have been telling our un-named neighbours since decades? Why are our leaders shy or afraid of naming Pakistan? If Pakistan is training the terrorists then it must feel the heat and pain!

Finally, we need a tougher Head of State - With due respect to the then Hon. President of India Mrs. Pratibha Patil – her say on the whole episode seemed more of a general message. ‘Address to the Nation’ with Zombie like glazed looks and monotone - devoid of any feelings and emotions cannot instil the trust and confidence of the citizens in the national leadership. We would expect more, at least one public assurance on National TV, the government’s plans on how to prevent such things happening in the future! Let’s have a strong leadership at the Centre so that he / she can issue orders and execute plans to prevent such things in the future.