MUMBAI - Lights twinkled in the early winter night above the Queen's Necklace,
the stretch of Marine Drive ringing the Arabian Sea bay, as the Oberoi-Trident
and the Taj Mahal hotels officially reopened at 7 pm on Sunday evening. The
move to reopen was an unmistakable announcement that Mumbai is officially back
in business after the November 26 terrorist attack.
"We can be hurt, but can't be knocked out," Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata
Group that owns the iconic Taj Mahal, said at the ceremony to reopen the hotel
that accommodated the most exclusive glitterati of the 20th century. This was
before seaborne terrorists burst through its glass doors to unleash a maelstrom
of
mass murder that claimed nearly 200 lives.
The Taj Mahal and Oberoi-Trident, two of Mumbai's leading luxury hotels, were
the epicenters of a 60-hour siege in the world's most outrageous urban
terrorist attack since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
The reopening of the two establishments drew a cathartic emotional response
across a troubled, angry nation. "Mumbai's 'twin towers' rise again after
terror attack," ran the headline in the usually staid south Indian daily The
Hindu.
On the night of the terrorist attack, Schubert Vaz, a pianist at the
Oberoi-Trident, was playing in the lobby, as he had for 20 years, when two
terrorists came through the doors throwing grenades and firing randomly from
AK-47 machine guns.
"They showed little emotion, not even angry shouting, as they killed people one
by one," Vaz told Asia Times Online. "They just went about methodically
shooting at close range. Their cold-bloodedness was the most chilling part." A
senior hotel manager helped Vaz escape.
Three days later, on November 29, those entering the lobby of the newly freed
Trident-Oberoi were overwhelmed with the stench of death and sight of bodies so
bloated that clothes had burst at the seams. There were dried pools of blood,
bullet shells and glass shards in the badly mutilated Tiffin restaurant, a
venue generally more famous for its Japanese cuisine.
"The most shocking sight was of the tables, which still had half-eaten food on
plates," said an eyewitness. "It was as if the guests had left the tables for
something and would be back to finish their meals."
When diners did return, on December 21, they received instead an after-dinner
bill, a white card that simply read, "Thank you for your support."
The Oberoi-Trident opened its doors on Sunday morning to the fragrance of rose
petals and soothing sounds of multi-faith prayers. The lobby had been
redecorated since it was last opened to the public - only to be filled with
explosions, gunfire and the screams of the dying.
In the evening, a small group of policemen, private guards, dark-suited
managers and onlookers stood outside the Trident's entrance overlooking the
Arabian Sea.
Inside, the new lobby had its old look but was without the seasonal Christmas
tree. The lobby tea shop, now holding memories of lost friends, was full but
voices were subdued. A guest presented the reception staff with a one kilogram
package of chocolate eclairs as a welcoming executive in a sari stood smiling
near the lotus-filled pool.
While strolling through the adjacent shopping arcade corridor, the predominant
thought was of utter disbelief; how could any mind be so demented as to walk
into a peaceful scene such as this and open fire with automatic weapons and
grenades.
To help crack the more mysterious aspects to the tragedy, a three-member team
of New York Police Department (NYPD) investigators visited Mumbai last week.
They shared their discoveries when they returned in a teleconference with
senior security officials and business leaders gathered at NYPD headquarters.
"New York has not suffered another terror attack since 9/11, but that does not
mean terrorist groups have stopped plotting against large metropolitan cities,"
Paul Browne, the NYPD deputy commissioner for public information, told the
media.
Browne, a stocky, bearded, bespectacled native of the Bronx and a former
reporter of the New York Daily Times, has led NYPD investigators into
terrorist-hit cities such as Moscow, London, Madrid and Amman. He pointed to
many similarities between New York and Mumbai, namely that both are financial
capitals of their respective countries and cosmopolitan cities with long
coastlines. He also noted that both have extensive commuter train networks, and
are high on terrorist target lists. Now each has its own defining traumatic
terrorist attack - 9/11 and 11/26.
The most pertinent effect of 9/11 was the planning and hard work the NYPD
invested in turning itself into the world's premier police force in
counter-terrorism. Mumbai, victim of 11 major terrorist attacks since 1993, and
the world's other major cities can learn much from New York's finest.
In 2002, NYPD commissioner Raymond W Kelly created the Counter-terrorism
Bureau, the first of its kind. Kelly felt that New York City could not rely
solely on the federal government for its defense. The wisdom of this was proved
in India when Mumbai lost eight valuable hours after the terrorists struck at
9:30 pm, before the local government received 200 National Security Group
commandos based near New Delhi, and the navy deployed marine commandos. The
delay caused more victims to be killed and allowed the terrorists to fortify
their defenses.
India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram announced on December 11 a
decision to establish National Security Group commando units in metropolitan
cities, a move to emulate the NYPD's decision that it would become the primary
anti-terrorism force for New York. The NYPD's counter-terrorism tactics start
at street level with uniformed "counter-terrorism executives" leading teams
backed with investigators and supervisors.
The Mumbai police started their Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2004. The formation
came with a five-point goal:
To get information about anti-national elements in Maharashtra, the state of
which Mumbai is capital.
To co-ordinate with central information agencies like the Intelligence Bureau,
the Research and Analysis Wing.
To co-ordinate with similar agencies of other states.
To track and eliminate activities of crime syndicates.
To detect rackets of counterfeit currency notes and the smuggling of narcotic
substances.
In contrast, the NYPD Counter-terrorism Bureau draws from a detailed
organizational structure, with primary support coming from its
Counter-terrorism Division led by deputy chief Joseph McKeever. The
Counter-terrorism Division is further divided into multiple sub-units:
The Technology and Construction Section that designs and implements large-scale
but localized counter-terrorism projects such as the Lower Manhattan Security
Initiative and Operation Sentinel.
The Training Section giving counter-terrorism training to NYPD patrols, other
law enforcement agencies and the private sector.
The Threat Reduction Infrastructure Protection Section (TRIPS) that identifies
and protects critical city infrastructure sites.
The Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) Section.
The Maritime Team for harbor security.
"We still do not have any crisis management system," said Tata Group chairman
Ratan Tata to the media after security forces allowed him to enter his Taj
Mahal hotel on November 29, after 60 hours of confusion and lack of
co-ordination from local authorities.
The 70-year old Tata, possibly India's most respected industrialist, is
becoming the face and voice of a city frustrated at the absence of a quick,
effective response to a terrorist attack even after 11 previous strikes in
Mumbai. The first was 15 years ago, when serial bomb blasts on March 12, 1993,
killed 250 and injured over 700.
After all this time, Mumbai still lacks a coordinated crisis management system
- despite frantic talks about it after every crisis. After 9/11, the NYPD
Counter-terrorism Bureau established its Emergency Preparedness and Exercise
Section that co-ordinates with the Office of Emergency Management that was
first formed in 1996.
Possibly the greatest failing of the Mumbai police is not working closely with
leading corporate groups and business establishments. After helplessly watching
terrorists overrun and burn his flagship hotel for three nights, Ratan Tata
publicly declared on December 16 that his Tata Group would no longer depend on
local police for its security and would establish its own anti-terrorism
measures.
In contrast to Mumbai law enforcement, the NYPD closely works with the New York
corporate sector through a separate department called the NYPD Shield Unit.
This oversees anti-terrorist training and information-sharing with private
companies. In effect, thousands of business establishments, including those
online, become eyes and ears of the NYPD.
Operation Nexus of the Shield Unit, for instance, runs a nationwide network of
over 25,000 firms that have signed up for this project in which NYPD detectives
train them to alert authorities of any suspicious purchase or trading activity.
Similarly, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative secures key financial
properties such as the New York Stock Exchange and the headquarters of leading
companies and financial institutions in Lower Manhattan. Both the Bombay Stock
Exchange and Air India headquarters in Mumbai were victims of the 1993 bomb
blasts in south Mumbai - the elite business and residential area that was also
a target in the November 26 terrorist strike. Mumbai could do with a south
Mumbai security initiative.
NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly could have been speaking for India and Mumbai -
as well as coastal cities such as Hong Kong and Sydney - when he said, "One of
the stated aims of the terrorists is to attack America's economy. Nothing
represents the nation's financial and commercial strength more than New York
and the world-class companies that call it home."
Mumbai police wielding bamboo sticks - called lathis and World War
II-era rifles were tragically outmatched by terrorists brandishing AK-47s on
November 26. In contrast, the NYPD has a massive counter-terrorism deployment
force, including Hercules and Transit Operational Response Canine Heavy Weapons
and emergency service unit teams with heavy weapons.
But the key difference between the NYPD and the Mumbai police is political
skullduggery which in the past two decades has communalized, corrupted and
politicized the Mumbai police force that was once called the "Scotland Yard of
the East". The Mumbai police first began as a police outpost when the
Portuguese owned the fishing islands of Bombay in 1661. Gerald Aungier, who
became governor after the East India Company purchased Bombay in 1669, is
credited as creator of the original force.
Nearly 340 years later, it's common public knowledge that various Mumbai police
postings are "auctioned" by politicians to the highest bidder who then makes
good his "investment" through corruption and underworld links.
Mumbai still does not seem to have learned its lesson - even after the November
26 tragedy that has hurt the city like no other terrorist attack before. Two
weeks after 16 police officers and constables died while lacking basic weapons
and effective bullet-proof vests, the municipality is paying for over two dozen
city officials to attend a junket to Thailand for a more important necessity -
to study Bangkok zoo.
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