The Standpoint

26/11 – A year on

By

Abhishek Mukherjee

Entire Mumbai came to a standstill during the three-day long attack on innocents by guns, grenades and bombs. Terror strikes are not new in the country, but these attacks which happened on the fateful days of 26^th, 27^th, 28^th November 2008 and ceased only the next morning, got unprecedented attention for it was a rude awakening to the reality that even the economically sound urban elites were not safe anymore.

A whole year has passed since the horror, and for most of us it seems only yesterday. It was a shameful acceptation that our security is very vulnerable, and that a bunch of ten gunmen can cause havoc in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Mumbai and even its grandest and significant areas. The rage that had been building since times immemorial over the treatment of civilians as scapegoats for every trouble caused, reached a peak after these attacks.

A number of questions were asked: Why did the media play to the hands of the terrorists in being their virtual ‘eyes’? How could this group enter through fake passports? Why weren’t some fishermen’s reports about them arriving via sea taken seriously? Why did the NSG Commandos take as much as 10 hours to arrive in the wake of emergency?

As in the infamous 9/11 and many more grave acts of violence mainly by terrorist organisations like the Laskar-e-Taiba, attackers targeted the most significant places – the Taj Mahal Hotel, The Oberoi-Trident, Nariman House and the Victoria station.

After three thousand were killed in the heart of America on 11 September 2001, terrorists gained confidence that any part of the world could be targeted. The subsequent bombings in cities such as London and Madrid only reiterate the fact. No place in the world is totally safe, and therein lays the need for tight security and military defence. A country has to save its citizens, and be on guard all the time. Bombings and hijacking are the most potent and popular tools for terrorists to ‘invade’.

However, in Mumbai there was no such thing. Ten young gunmen easily breached all security and opened fire at will. Without a doubt it was thoroughly planned and ensured with sufficient arms and gadgets, but the freeness for them for three full days with a whole helpless country looking on in horror is a slap bigger on the face of the nation than on any other occasion, even the hijacking of IC-814 ten years ago.

A year on, Kasab’s court case still lies pending, and Pakistan, after taking ages to recognise him as its own citizen, has virtually done nothing to bring those involved to justice (nor is it expected to). It is said efficiency and awareness about security has improved, although authorities find Naxal violence difficult to end.

The phenomenon of the menace of terrorism and defence is just like an ongoing battle between development of viruses looking to cripple computer systems and that of softwares looking to save or defend them. Most of the terrorist activities take place irrationally – with its only purpose being violence and claiming of lives. It is necessary to accept that bloody attacks will continue to happen in the world, even when there is no logical reason behind them. After the two World Wars, a third one would be sufficient to make human species extinct. It has not yet happened but there are countless groups, radical and rational, who can go to any lengths to assert power and take revenge on anybody and for unknown and un-established reasons. The Arab world looks most potent in terrorism, for having no dearth of religious motivation for attack against ‘non-believers’, but the phenomenon cannot be generalised in any way. The Tamil Tigers, Shoko Asahara’s Aum Supreme Truth, Somalia’s late Farrah Aidid, and the Baader Meinhof Gang are no less aggressive and effective than Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.

The priority is for the country to be smart. In the Kandahar shame ten years ago, it was anything but smart, and was brought to its knees by a handful of people. In a similar incident, the Germany-based Baader Meinhof Gang were involved in hijacking a Lufthansa plane, and threatened to kill all aboard if their demands were not met. The German government did not give in, and its commandos were able to kill three of the four hijackers, injure the final one, and free its passengers.

Thus sometimes it is important to be repressive. The need of the hour is efficiency. There ought not to be any loopholes in the system. It is a lesson for civilians for not adjusting with terrorist mishaps anymore, to propagate peace, to learn to appreciate life, to be aware, and to be on guard always. We cannot annihilate campaigns of terror, but we can learn from other nations and at least do what’s needed- to be vigilant.