Five Reasons why 26/11 is the worst terror strike in Mumbai
This is my first post in here. I had always planned on making this first post on a much peppier topic (such as the "perfect phone call" study), but something like such a large-scale terror attack is much more important.
I got news of the attack at about 10:30 in the night, and the stark difference between this attack and the usual bomb-blast type attacks immediately hit me. I analyzed the happenings, and found that there were many things pointing to the fact that Mumbai (or rather, any other place in India) had never faced such a terror attack. Here are five reasons why I believe 26/11 is the worst terror attack so far on Indian soil:
1. New 'Organization'
It isn't the usual Indian Mujahideen or SIMI that have claimed responsibility for the blasts, but a hitherto unknown organization called Deccan Mujahideen. (I am not particularly fond of calling such groups 'organizations', but the fact remains that they are much better organized than our Police forces.) The fact that their first operation can result in such widespread havoc is especially disturbing. Of course, one of the 'famous' organizations might just have adopted a new name to mislead the investigators, but it's disturbing all the same.
2. New Modus Operandi
Usually, as we all know by now, the strategy of the attackers has always been placing bombs, with emphasis on stealth, you get the drift. But in this case, many things were different:
- Weapons used (Guns and Grenades as opposed to bombs),
- Timing (late evening, almost midnight, as opposed to early evening)
- Relatively less stealth
- Choice of relatively high-profile targets
3. No Intelligence Reports
Usually, news about Terror strikes is accompanied by news about how Intelligence had warned about the strikes, and how the reports were ignored. Have you noticed the absence of such news in this case? What does this show? Flawless planning? Sleeping security? Or *shudder* both??
4. Top Cop Deaths
How many terror attacks you know have been followed by encounters in which the terrorists have managed to kill high-profile leaders of Police organizations in the nation? At least three highly important police officers have fallen in the encounter operation following the firing attack, them being:
- The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare
- ACP Ashok Kamte
- Encounter Specialist Vijay Salaskar
We Mumbaikars have always prided upon the so-called 'spirit' of the city, according to which everything in the city comes back to normal within hours of a terror strike. This incident has burst the bubble. Even after about 45-odd hours of the incident taking place, the threat has not yet subsided. Mumbai has virtually come to a standstill. The following are a few pointers:
- Schools and Colleges are closed;
- Stock Exchanges are closed;
- Bollywood and TV shooting called off, Releases pushed forward by a day;
- ICL World Series and England ODI series called off, T20 Champions League "indefinitely postphoned"
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