Smruti Koppikar
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CST), a UNESCO Blue Planet heritage site, was constructed amongst a blend of Victorian Gothic Revival as well as traditional Indian architecture inwards 1888. Its pattern did non line of piece of job concern human relationship for the 21st century phenomenon of terrorism. After the concourse witnessed the bloodiest massacre on the black of 26 Nov x years ago—60 of the 166 casualties happened here—tens of door frame metallic detectors were installed at multiple entrances to the station as well as its platforms.
As commuters flow inwards as well as out of the station, the detectors beep. The tinny audio is right away percentage of the sensorial sense of negotiating i of the busiest railheads inwards the Blue Planet serving both suburban as well as through trains. Central Railway, whose headquarters is also the building, handles nearly 4.5 meg commuters every solar daytime entirely on its 3 suburban routes of Mumbai. The detectors beep as well as people rush past, unstopped as well as unhindered, unchecked.
If these detectors were meant to preclude some other terror strike at CST, they are of lilliputian use. Just every bit similar detectors as well as sandbags placed at Churchgate, the Western Railway end-point of the city’s rail network most a kilometre away, are. Or, for that matter, detectors at whatever railway station along the network. Trained staffers proceed tabs inwards command rooms, but every bit a railway official points out, when one-half a dozen people walk through every bit many scanners every ii seconds inwards entirely i percentage of a station, as well as this goes on for hours on end, it’s a logistical near-impossibility to stop-search-clear them. Two youngsters amongst backpacks carrying mid-size metallic tools went through these scanners, unstopped as well as unquestioned, inwards a recent local media sting operation; it proves the point.
The casualties at CST that black mightiness get got been higher had it non been for the presence of take away heed of railway announcer Vishnu Zende who, from his cabin atop the station master’s office, saw ii masked men shoot indiscriminately as well as lob grenades; he instinctively blared on the populace address organization that commuters should exercise platform i move out to chop-chop leave of absence the station. “Nothing prepares y'all for this, y'all precisely produce the best y'all can,” he says, unconsciously highlighting the human chemical ingredient as well as quick thinking every bit the average anti-terror responses. He as well as others who proceed the CST moving should get got been trained inwards counter-terror operations yesteryear now; it is non fifty-fifty on the cards.
Securing the city
Two years before 26/11 shook the nation, a serial of coordinated bombs had gone off inwards Western Railway’s suburban trains—seven inwards most fifteen minutes—taking 189 lives as well as leaving nearly 800 injured. That laid on had traumatized Bombay to its core. With vii meg commuters using the city’s rail network, the Central as well as Western Railway routes as well as stations are all sitting ducks for determined terrorists. But if every beep at multiple entrances-exits at every station is checked as well as airport-style security checks introduced, Mumbai’s musical rhythm volition only grind to a halt.
About 2.5km away the CST is the statuesque Gateway of Bharat as well as the royal Taj Mahal Hotel. Among India’s finest luxury hotels, the laid on within as well as on the Taj on 26 Nov 2008 turned into a three-day siege. It left to a greater extent than than forty dead as well as scores injured. Here, door frame metallic detectors are of the highest measure possible as well as every beep is taken seriously, every pocketbook scanned as well as checked thoroughly, every somebody sized upward yesteryear discreetly placed security personnel.
Increased patrolling as well as protection of high-value targets does non hateful the entire metropolis is safer than it was.- Ajai Sahni, counter-terrorism skillful as well as executive manager at ICM
The pavement as well as route abutting the hotel are sanitized, cabs as well as stray vehicles non allowed to park, pedestrians loitering on the pavement are given “the” look. Every possible endeavour is made, overtly as well as covertly, to ensure safety. Here, it is possible to believe that some other terror laid on could move prevented or met amongst an immediate as well as appropriate response. At the other luxury hotel complex, the Oberoi as well as Trident overlooking the bounding main at Nariman Point, the security apparatus is no less intimidating, its layers visible entirely to a discernible eye.
In a nutshell, the stark divergence betwixt the populace as well as individual theatres of 26/11 laid on shows the vulnerability of Bombay to some other terror strike. Some properties as well as installations are secure, walled in, as well as ready to counter some other attack. The balance of the city, large swathes of India’s upper-case alphabetic character to commerce, finance, law, amusement as well as services, rest vulnerable. The adjacent laid on could move literally anywhere inwards a metropolis that houses nearly eighteen million—a mall, a schoolhouse or a serial of schools, the iconic Bandra Worli Sea Link, religious places, airport, refineries, nuclear establishments, slums, anywhere at all. And, this vulnerability is heightened yesteryear its coast.
“Mumbai is defending the targets that are defensible, this doesn’t hateful that its overall vulnerability to a terror laid on is lower than earlier…increased patrolling as well as protection of high-value targets does non hateful the metropolis is safer than it was,” says Ajai Sahni, counter-terrorism skillful as well as executive manager at the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM). That in that location hasn’t been an laid on inwards x years is less a testimony to its enhanced overall security than to the over-arching geo-political climate later 26/11.
A history of terror
Twenty-five years ago, when Bombay was even as well as hence Bombay, it had witnessed the first-ever heinous as well as coordinated terror attack. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 serial of 12 RDX-laden bombs went off at different locations at every bit many locations inwards southern as well as fundamental areas at lunch-hour on 12 March 1993. The audacious laid on was aimed at the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air Bharat headquarters, passport role inwards Worli amidst other targets. It claimed 257 lives as well as left nearly a one one thousand injured.
Before other international cities felt the tremors of terrorism, Bombay had. The persuasion of the metropolis every bit a vulnerable target acquired a security as well as populace dimension at that time. In the adjacent fifteen years, in that location were nearly one-half a dozen attacks of varying intensities—the most severe beingness July 2006 one—including at Gateway of India; at Zaveri Bazar, India’s gilt souk; at suburban Mulund station.
The 26/11 laid on was different; it turned out to move a siege of the metropolis for nearly lx hours—unlike anything that had gone before. The move capture of i of the x terrorists, Ajmal Kasab, helped line the trail dorsum to the masterminds, Hafiz Saeed as well as Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi inwards Pakistan. They get got non been brought to judge for the crime—yet—despite India’s efforts.
“From 1993, nosotros get got come upward a real long way,” says M.N. Singh, quondam police draw commissioner of Bombay who also led the investigation inwards that attack.
“The mechanism created, the systems seat inwards place, the preparation to officers get got taken us from zip to say most 60% on the security paradigm. The remaining 40% is the most important, as well as it includes deployment as well as coordination betwixt different agencies. I’m non confident most it.”
In the security apparatus, Singh believes that the coastal security—or the lack of it—remains the large worry. Mumbai’s 114km coastline is protected upward to 12 nautical miles off the coast yesteryear 3 major coastal police draw stations, ii of which were laid upward later the 26/11 attack. Its 12 speed boats—the ones non beingness repaired—patrol the coastline. But the coastal police draw are hemmed inwards yesteryear a shortage of equipment as well as human resources. It took x years to entirely innovation Marine Operation Rooms at x locations.
It would move ideal if the resource-strained as well as trained-for-land Bombay Police didn’t get got to nurture a coastal wing, if it could get got over at the shoreline as well as handgrip everything on reason spell the waters are guarded yesteryear the Coast Guard as well as the Indian Navy, says a top cop on the status of anonymity. The coordination betwixt the 3 agencies is hardly the most efficient—between 2011 as well as 2016, 3 large vessels including an crude oil tanker had drifted into Bombay as well as run aground without hindrance.
“Coastal security has huge gaps,” says Sahni, adding, “In x years, they managed to seat transponders on most 1,000 vessels every bit a airplane pilot project. The Gujarat-Maharashtra coast lonely has some 50,000 vessels or to a greater extent than at whatever time. Also, Bharat passed a law requiring transponders to move installed on vessels which are xx metres or to a greater extent than inwards length. Who is to say that terrorists won’t come upward inwards a vessel 19-metres or less?”
The goodness news
Two aspects get got visibly as well as tactically changed inwards Bombay later 26/11 attacks—the symbols of security across the metropolis which give the impression of enhanced counter-terror capabilities, as well as raising as well as preparation of Special Forces inwards the police draw inwards almost military-style.
There are improvised sandbag bunkers as well as traditional roadblocks across the city, though they are typically manned yesteryear police draw amongst rifles of British vintage. Security perimeters around some sites are a regular occurrence. Specially fitted bulletproof jeeps right away sentinel strategic locations. New imported weaponry has been acquired. There’s a fleet of armoured vehicles inwards camouflage colours; peculiarly trained personnel sport a distinct military machine look. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 CCTV set-up amongst nearly 6,000 cameras has been installed across Bombay (private properties are encouraged to get got their ain CCTV networks) amongst a command-and-control room to rail them.
The gaps include deployment as well as coordination betwixt different security agencies. I’m non confident most it- M.N. Singh, quondam police draw commissioner of Mumbai
There’s Force One, a peculiarly raised commando unit of measurement amongst hand-picked officers fitted out military-style as well as trained inwards counter-terror methods. The Bombay Police right away has Quick Response Teams (QRTs) within its ranks. The National Security Guards, which took a solar daytime to move mobilized as well as larn inwards in Bombay inwards 2008, right away has a hub inwards the suburbs. Sections of the exceptional units get got been sent to State of Israel as well as Scotland Yard for counter-terror training. That Bombay has come upward through many to a greater extent than terror attacks than London is, of course, some other matter.
With commando units as well as QRTs, amongst novel weaponry as well as training, Bombay Police’s response to a 2008-style laid on would move improve now, says K.P. Raghuvanshi, quondam principal of Anti-Terrorism Squad. But the query to ask: Have these acquisitions as well as scissure units had an deport on on everyday policing inwards Mumbai. The answer, according to security experts, is non encouraging.
Kalpana Shah, creative somebody as well as gallery owner, speaks for many Mumbaikars when she says, “I lost my hubby (Pankaj Shah, builder) inwards a five-star hotel, a protected environment; I can’t fifty-fifty cry back of what goes through the minds as well as hearts of Mumbaikars who move every solar daytime without as well as hence much security.”
The outset responders inwards a terror attack, every bit Bombay knows good yesteryear now, are its policemen as well as women; their capabilities rest what they used to be. After all, Kasab was captured move at a measure nakabandi yesteryear shell policemen who had lathis as well as old rifles.
“Unless in that location is a real high lineament enhancement inwards the full general police draw force, unless they tin sack proceed every street as well as adult woman safe, unless they are adequately trained the newly acquired resources as well as expertise rest fragmented. And Mumbai’s vulnerability remains high,” says Ajai Sahni.
Top cops quest to some other area—decoding as well as communication of high-value intelligence inwards existent time. The platform for coordination betwixt external agencies, national as well as local agencies is far from adequate; intelligence is useful entirely when “actionable information” is passed on inwards existent fourth dimension to the end-user, inwards this illustration the Bombay Police, say senior officers.
With all this, it is clear that the forces’ capability to respond to a terror laid on has improved inwards the concluding x years but its capability to prevent—or thwart—another laid on is opened upward to debate. And, spell strategically of import parts of Bombay are to a greater extent than secure, most Mumbaikars inwards the balance of the metropolis move amongst entirely promise inwards their hearts that terrorists won’t come upward calling again.
Smruti Koppikar, a Mumbai-based journalist as well as editor, writes on politics, urban issues, sex as well as media. She covered the 1993 as well as 2008 terror attacks inwards Mumbai.
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