Mumbai: WHAT my team and I faced at Lokhandwala in 1991 was a five-hour shootout with the underworld gangsters who were no doubt merciless but those gangsters didn't have the kind of training or arms these terrorists in Mumbai had.
Surely, the trauma our city is going through is severe. These terrorists, all young men in their 20s who have been sent from across the border, have possibly got the most in depth training. I think it's mindless terrorism and I find these terrorists foolishly dedicated. Surely, they have been brainwashed. But their research has been thorough. To think that I have stayed in Colaba and I didn't know that Nariman building is occupied by rabbis and Israelis! This obviously means that terrorists must have got local help since they seem to have scouted the area and done their homework well.
Loaded with ammo
Also, the kind of arms and ammunitions the terrorists were carrying defies the fact that it's the work of a local outfit like Deccan Mujahideen which has claimed responsibility. Definitely some ultra terrorist union has helped them procure it. All this indicates that the terrorists have come in from across the border. We will only know more after the lone terrorist is interrogated.
But who could have imagined an attack of such magnitude? After the 1993 blasts when the RDX were brought in through the sea at Shikhadi, it was decided that the Coast Guard check would be upped in the Western coast. But who thought the terrorists will enter through the sea route in dinghies.
And now so many lives are lost.
I lost two of my colleagues ATS chief Hemant Karkare and additional commissioner of Mumbai Ashok Kamte. Hemant was my deputy commissioner and Ashok was posted in Bhandara. They were extremely fine boys who wouldn't do anything stupid. They were taken by surprise.
Their death happened on the road when they took over a jeep going towards the CP office. The terrorists took the cops by surprise and shot them dead at point blank range, near Cama Hospital. I feel those two extremely dedicated officers died for nothing. I feel anguished and sad.
Ill-equipped
If you ask me whether the Mumbai police is geared to handle such terror situations, the answer is no. Simply because, sheer courage doesn't help.
It's the equipment and training that helps. The bulletproof jackets our police force has is bulky and if you have been watching television grabs, the policemen wearing it can't even bend properly. In contrast, look at the bulletproof vest the US has it's titanium plated and are feather light. In fact the US army men have Kevlar jackets all the way to their knees to protect them from heavy gunfire. We need upgraded equipment and training. I say so because by the time our constable takes the rifle off his shoulder to shoot, he would be dead if faced with the sophisticated arms the terrorists were using.
As for my slain colleagues, I think the ATS is doing a tremendous job by cultivating intelligence sources. But intelligence building can't happen independently.
If you want to fight terrorism, it has to be a unified effort. See, intelligence gathering comes from the people. The beat constable wins the confidence of the locals and then gathers information.
The hostage situation at Nariman Bhavan could have been sorted sooner because obviously someone would have spotted these terrorists entering the building with bulky arms and ammunition bags. If they did spot them, no one came forward to report it. I guess, it's because they felt alienated.
Politics at play
Politicians play a major role too. It was in bad taste of L K Advani to blame the ATS when the sadhvi was caught in the Malegaon blast case. He tried to rake up the Hindutva issue and tried to encash on the sadhvi in Madhya Pradesh to secure his vote bank. Till a few days ago, Advani was lambasting poor Hemant Karkare, and then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi goes and visits Karkare's home! What can be a higher hypocrisy? I feel distressed with the turn of events. Because the police, which works so hard, doesn't get appreciation. Instead the force gets wrongly vilified.
Take a stand, now!
We need to take a strong stand now. We, as citizens of India, need to forget who is Hindu or Muslim and take up the issue with the government.
We need to see some action from the government, arm the agencies with resources, and take international action on the training camps across the border, by negotiation or by force.
-As told to Amita Amin-Shinde
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