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Some questions are bound to be asked, some will be answered while some will be manipulatively ignored while some may be left unanswered.

Why Mumbai?

It doesn’t need to be answered as Mumbai is strategically the most important place to attack to attract global attention or to create terror across India. A cosmopolitan city with tons of foreign business persons and tourists is like a jewel among other cities in India and would hurt the sentiments more if attacked.

How many of those entered Mumbai?

News channels earlier reported they were 20 in number and then chief minister of Maharashtra confirmed that they were around 20-26 and they came in 2 small boats (dinghies). Mumbai police also flashed registration number of vehicles which were hijacked by terrorists and could be any where in Mumbai or neighboring areas. Now after we have accounted for only 10 we see that media and the officials have changed their stand and only talk about 10 terrorists entering Mumbai. Maharashtra’s home minister repeatedly assured that the Intelligence and ATS are sure that they were only 10 in number and not a single terrorist in on loose in Mumbai city or nearby. How confident are we about our intelligence and ATS information? Isn’t this happening just because the so called “Intelligence” and ATS didn’t have a clue about Mumbai attacks?

Are we trying to manipulate the data to pass in an exam like we did in our Physics practicals? Its a question about life of innocent people on the streets of Mumbai, if we are aware that there could be more at least 3-4 Terrorists on loose wont we take caution or shouldn’t the police and ATS start a massive combing operation of the city the way Delhi police did after the recent Delhi blasts.

Why was one sporting a Red wrist band?

I don’t have a clue and from what it looks from the photographs it could be red and yellow rubber wrist bands or could be Mauli tied to appear like Hindu youths and avoid any naval inspection like what DNA seems to be confirming

After murdering four fishermen on board a trawler in the Arabian sea, the militants saw that the boat had several things including a “mauli” (religious thread used in Hindu religion), official sources said.

An arrested militant Ajmal Amin told the interrogators that when their hijacked fishing boat was approaching the Indian shores, they saw some Navy men.

Immediately, they tied the threads and some of them even put on vermilion to look like Hindus, the sources quoting the arrested militant said.

Is technology boon?

We the citizens were aware from the beginning (or at least after day 1) that the terrorists were technically smart and were carrying Satellite phones and even used GPS devices to land in Mumbai, it was confirmed by Marcos (Marine Commandos) that Terrorists were communicating with each other and their bosses across the border.

Now in this situation and after having all this information is it smart enough on our part to flash all the latest information on the TV and on the internet. Can all the information available on the internet be used by the Terrorists or by their control center across the border? Is it possible that all the hoopla on Twitter with #Mumbai tags was being read by their bosses? It could come as a surprise but right now as i type this, the wiki page of Twitter is already hacked barely hours after the operation being over in Mumbai. Was it monitored? Why was it hacked? probably after a lot of activity by Indians and the spread of hatred against Pakistan and the terrorists?

Terrorist using Blackberry to communicate will also turn against them as Blackberry services can be easily filtered to gain control over the conversations and the end points of the parties in touch like the way the GPS device used by the Terrorist to save the route can turn against them.

Were they Pakistanis?

Not sure about them being Pakistanis but yeah they were for sure Muslims. They could have been Pakistanis but raised in Britain or brainwashed youths from other countries. But one thing was sure that they were targeting US, UK and Israeli nationals along with Indians. One reason for them attacking a 5 start Hotel could be the presence of so many multinationals. Reportedly a Turkish couple was released just because they were Muslims.

The Muezzinoglus, however, found themselves in a hostage situation, along with a group of foreigners. That night, they shared a room with three foreigners – all women. Two machine-gun-wielding terrorists stood guard over them the whole night.

All the hostages were asked to reveal their religion. When the Muezzinoglus said they were Muslims, their captors told them that they would not be harmed. The other three Caucasian women were removed from the room next day, and the terrorists informed the Muezzinoglus that they had been shot.

Whose fault is it?

People and many of my friends say that its a failure of our intelligence. Really?

Do you safeguard your house or your colony depending on the intelligence? Do you protect your house or a part of your colony based on intelligence data? We lock our doors as well as possible, we feel safe living in gated communities with barbed wire on top and security personnel on the main gate. Housing communities have started having solar powered electrical fence or barbed wire or even the basic broken glass to stop someone jumping over.

Protecting our National Border is a responsibility which cannot be ignored even if it is too difficult a task or costly in terms of money involved. We can spend millions of dollars on sending Chandrayaan to probe Moon’s surface and to study its composition but we cant use satellites to observe our National border.

What will happen next?

Are we going to learn a lesson from this? Will this event change any political situation or the minds of mostly corrupt politicians? Will add a new angle to our vote bank politics? Are we going to learn from this and rebuild are security systems and patch them wherever necessary?

I just fear that the so called “Mumbai Spirit” will force people to be back in action and to their routine as if nothing happened. Many will probably talk about this and discuss about this for a few days but I am sure after a month they will be more worried if Yuvraj is still on the crease or if India is still going to win the cricket match.

In near future we may see increase in the defense budget or new fund allocations to Maharashtra to strengthen the police force or train more NSG commandos, but will it help? From an eye witness on Mumbai CST station “the CRPF jawaans and Railway police officers were hiding on first floors when attackers were firing bullets from their AK47’s for 45 minutes on the station”.

from Sebastian D’souza who shot the famous pic of terrorist on the CST station

But what angered Mr D’Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. “There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything,” he said. “At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, ‘Shoot them, they’re sitting ducks!’ but they just didn’t shoot back.”

As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D’Souza realized a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. “I couldn’t believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn’t run, we told them to stay put.”

The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D’Souza added: “I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera.”

I will not, not for once blame the CRPF jawaans for a single reason that they are inadequate to counter them. Most of the police force don’t even have sophisticated automatic pistols and still have to do away with their service revolvers, forget about equipping them with AK 47. Do i feel proud of such policemen, not at all. If Marcos are the most celebrated lot then the policemen are the most hated lot. Do we Indians trust our policemen?

We need reforms to recreate our police force, to eradicate corruption from the force which is supposed to protect us and maintain law and order. Most would agree with me that the majority of our country’s problems would be over if we can enforce all the present laws forget about the newer ones. Whats the point of creating newer laws if we cant enforce the basic ones. Politicians think that a minority community is against some strict laws like TADA or POTA and would cost them heavily during election if they pass such laws. But on the other hand being from a majority community do i trust the current situation? I myself don’t feel that the Malegaon blast suspects are getting a fair trial, could be heavily heavily politically motivated, then why blame the majority community only.

If India really needs something to fight against terror then, we need to get rid of corrupt politicians, we need a police force which can be trusted, we need to get rid of bureaucracy in the execution, we need a security force which protects our national borders, we need a force which doesn’t have to wait for orders before using their gun against anti national elements.

Like one of the Marcos said “You have to fight a Militant like a Militant”, we will have to equip our security forces with all the latest machinery used to combat such attacks and train them to counter in future. A very interesting perspective from Daily News (US)

Pros deride terrible tactics and poor equipment in face of Mumbai crisis

One U.S. counter terror official said the Indians looked clownish compared to commandos of the British Special Air Service.

Hesitating may have cost lives at places like the Mumbai Jewish community center, experts said. Grenades were still blowing out windows at the Taj on live TV 48 hours after the horror began. Indian authorities “were caught completely unaware,” said Vince Cannistraro, a retired CIA counter terror chief. Supposedly elite commandos appeared to be lacking standard tools: tear gas and masks, laser-sighted guns and stun grenades.They also ineptly rappelled from choppers to rooftops and raised machine guns over their heads to indiscriminately fire into windows at terrorists.

“I find it hard to justify that kind of shooting,” said Chris Voss, a former FBI lead international hostage negotiator.

How can I help?

How can we the citizens of India help to avoid similar or even stronger attack in future and to make our country safe?

I feel helpless right now. I find myself of no good other than sitting in front my computer and searching the internet to gather more and more information possible and try to share it with others.

People say that I should vote if i have to help in any form but

Will my voting choice help?

Will boycotting the elections help?

Will it help if I discuss this with more like minded people?

How can I be of any help, who has very few skills other than things involving a computer?

I will try to find answers for the above in the coming days, weeks, months and probably years. If you also feel like I do and have similar questions or have answers to some of them, please make yourself heard.

Update:

A similar story is going on CNN IBN’s website and there are some interesting reader comments

1. India Police force to be created (Federal level, better pay, good training and latest equipment.) Can even guide state police for better security.
2. Train 5.5 million private security guards standing outside people’s houses,offices and factories etc to be the eyes for the security forces.
3. In peaceful times keeping armed forces at home is of no use when we pay huge yearly bill to sustain them, they should be watching our borders and coast line. They are to be utilized for country security.
4. Security cameras to be used in public locations.
5. No visa from terror countries to India for education, health etc. reasons.

Please push these steps to Indian Government to solve problems rather then scoring political points.

Paul Singh