NEW DELHI : Eleven years back, on 26 November 2008, it was business as usual in Mumbai as commuters jostled their way in and out of Mumbai’s busy Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST). Nearby, restaurants in and around the Taj Mahal Palace hotel were abuzz with activity.
Hours later, unknown to all, 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists hijacked a fishing vessel in the deep seas, breached security barriers and sneaked in through the porous Mumbai coastline. At 9.21pm, as the first gunshots rang out at CST, the next three days claimed the lives of 146 civilians and 20 security personnel, while more than 300 were injured.
Even as the attack altered India-Pakistan relations, it brought out glaring gaps in India’s internal and coastal security armament. While one of the main takeaways from the attack was the prposal to set up India’s National Intelligence Grid or NATGRID, under the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Finally rolled out in 2016, the project remains a pipe dream to this day, with current the Union home ministry still unsure about when the grid might actually start functioning.
In the ongoing winter session of Parliament, the ministry has informed that the NATGRID will come into operation only by the end of next year.
“Back then, there was a lot of intelligence which was ignored when 26/11 happened. It was clear that we needed an airtight intelligence network and that takes time. There are new rules in terrorism everyday and we are still slow on keeping pace with that. Why do you think Pulwama (Kashmir attack on 40 CRPF soldiers) happened? We need a robust intelligence network," said a former Central government official, requesting anonymity, who had served during the UPA government.
While Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve on Monday said that the city police was fully equipped to “handle situations like the 26/11 terror attack," the ambitious NATGRID project has yet to hit the ground.
In the current financial year, Rs84.80 crore has been allocated to NATGRID, with a total of 53 positions being filled as against the 119 sanctioned posts.
“Progress of NATGRID is reviewed from time to time at an appropriate level in the Central Government. NATGRID has developed application software for Proof of Technology (POT) which is yet to be fully rolled out. NATGRID Solution is planned to go live by December 31, 2020," the ministry informed Lok Sabha.
The National Intelligence Grid or NATGRID is designed to function as an integrated intelligence grid connecting databases of core security agencies of the country, including all police departments, to collect comprehensive patterns of intelligence that can be readily accessed by intelligence agencies.
Experts also suggested that India needed to be innovative in its counter-terror strategies to combat any future attempts at such strikes.
"A 26/11 need not happen again at Mumbai . A large number of smaller towns which are not under surveillance or a security cover of the scale of big metros. One more Innovative seige will be enough to shake us out of our nonchalance but only for a while. We assume that the enemy will take the three options we have but he always takes the fourth one we arent prepared for," said D.P.K Pillay, research fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), a Delhi based think tank.
No comments:
Post a Comment