Mumbai remembers 26/11 victims, no lessons learnt even after 4 years

Mumbai, Nov 26: Mumbai paused in its busy tracks Monday to remember the 166 people who fell to the indiscriminate bullets of 10 Pakistani terrorists during a 60-hour siege, India's most wounding terrorist attack, that began this day four years ago.Brief commemoration events were held at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, Oberoi Trident, Leopold Cafe and Nariman House, some of Mumbai's most loved landmarks that were targeted by the 10 terrorists who sneaked into Mumbai on the night of Nov 26, 2008 through the Arabian Sea route and landed at Colaba.The main function to remember the martyrs and victims of the terror strike, which began on Nov 26, 2008, and continued till the afternoon of Nov 29, was held at the Mumbai Police Gymkhana at Chowpatty where a permanent 26/11 memorial has been erected.Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde laid wreaths and offered their homage at the memorial.With them were Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil, Minister of State for Home Satej Patil, Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh and other dignitaries who also offered floral tributes.The family members and relatives of the martyred policemen and other victims of the terror attacks as well as survivors were also present on the occasion. Five days ago, on Nov 21, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani terrorist caught alive, was hanged in a Pune jail.The terrorists had launched war on India for 60 hours, killing 166 and injuring around 300 people even as combined security forces battled them and managed to gun down nine.As in the past, it was business as usual at the two high-profile commercial targets -- the Taj and the Trident. In fact, the iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, just across the road from Gateway of India, had bounced back to normalcy within a few weeks after the terror attacks four years, an official from the hotel, who declined to be identified, said. Shortly thereafter, even Trident had become operational.Over the past four years, in an act of solidarity and thumbing their nose at terror, both hotels, barely a couple of kilometres apart, have seen top national and international VVIPs either visiting or staying there during their trips to Mumbai.These included US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other international personalities .Over the past four years, both hotels have remained the top favourite venue for various national and international conferences, business summits and lavish weddings, though security measures have been considerably tightened. Experts say, lessons are yet to be learnt from any future seaborne attack by terrorists. India has a 7,517- kilometre long coastline which is vulnerable to terror attacks. “ The national security texture still remains inadequate,” says retired Navy Commodore and security analyst Uday Bhaskar, pointing to the deficiencies in the system. The first two installations of the ambitious Coastal Radar Network were opened only in August this year to cover Gujarat and Mumbai. These are part of a 110- radar network that will keep a watch on the entire Indian coast, up to 80 km from the coastline. But the first phase of 36 radars in the mainland and six in Lakshdweep will only be completed by mid- 2013, say media reports. The second ring of electronic maritime surveillance will be provided by the Automated Identification Stations with a range of 240km. But for them to function, transponders will be put on all fishing boats. This data will also be linked to a system that tracks vessels arriving into and leaving ports. This is a task that has barely begun. The third and outermost ring consists of satellite- based Long Range Identification and Tracking ( LRIT), which can keep an eye out for any vessel passing through the waters about 1,600km off the Indian coastline, but it will only come up over the next decade. There is complete lack of coordination between the local police, Coast Guard and the Navy. More than 700 Indian boats are in Pakistan's custody. More than 250 Indian fishing boats captured by Pakistani Marines have already been auctioned off to various people in Pakistan — any one of them could stage a 26/ 11- type attack using the country's porous coastline to sneak in on boats that'll be impossible to separate from the rest. The National Security Guards (NSG) was set up to deal with urban terrorists only. West Bengal governor and former National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan says NSG was never designed to tackle tasks like 26/11 attacks. Though Maharashtra has already made a beginning by creating its Force One, it does not yet have the kind of training levels to be able to deal with another challenge such as 26/ 11. One big gap in the country's ability to track terrorist groups lies in the internet. During the 26/ 11 attack, the( LeT) used VOIP technology to communicate. Indian intelligence agencies had the last- mile mobile numbers to which the calls were made and they were able to track the operation. Mobile phone rules require providers to establish interception facilities. But the problem with VOIP is the technology itself. There have been claims made by software specialists about their ability to tap VOIP conversations, but says an intelligence officer, “ we're yet to see technology which is really effective”. The National Counter Terrorism Centre ( NCTC) has come a cropper. Former home minister P. Chidambaram's dream project seems to be as much a victim of politics as the over- reach of its supporters. Four years after the grand design to have a National Intelligence Grid ( NATGRID), a database of all the intelligence, the mechanism is still not fully operational. But the biggest handicap is the poor intelligence networks of state police forces and their coordination with the central intelligence agencies.