Consider 26/11/2008 Terrorist strike in MUMBAI, covered extensively by the Media, especially the ongoing operation, was showing 69 hours, of mindless carnage by human animals who had no value for human life, of visions of smoke and flames from buildings that stand for what Mumbai is. The Victoria Terminus (VT) now known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the Taj, the Oberoi, and also, other locations that had their own special image and status, the Leopold Cafe, the CAMA Hospital and the Nariman/Chabad House.

What are the things that stood out during these 69 hours? The commitment and heroism, of some of the Railway Staff and of some of the Policemen on the ground. Also, the heroism, the discipline, the willingness to even sacrifice one’s own life for others, shown by so many of those involved especially the staff of the Taj hotel, and the empathy, resolve and steadfastness of those who watched and wanted to do whatever they could to help.

But, also, what stood out and what we all need to note and resolve to avoid in the event of any such crisis in future – was the lack of any sort of leadership, the lack of coordination of efforts, the lack of ‘Someone’ from some ‘Authority’ standing up and saying that “till someone else more competent comes along, I am the one who will be coordinating and directing whatever needs to be done now and I will answer for my decisions later, if the need arises.”

Crisis management demands that there must be a leader to manage the crisis from the earlist moment and unfortunately, at this time of crisis, that is who we did not have.

The one person who should have been there as such a leader, the head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), but who unfortunately got carried away, perhaps by his desire to display his personal courage and his enthusiasm for action, into forgetting his primary responsibility as the “GENERAL”- who needs to stand back and go about gathering all information, planning, coordinating and directing all the Forces at his disposal as per his plan, to bring about as quick a resolution to the situation as possible, and who without even positioning someone to act on his behalf, unnecessarily put himself and two other senior Police Officers and four policeman into the ‘frontline’ and fell unsuspecting victim within minutes to an opportunistic ambush without having achieved anything except demoralizing his own Forces. As destroying the enemy’s Command structure has always been an objective in war, this was a ‘self-goal’.

This was the biggest blow to the effort to react appropriately to the rapidly unfolding events. It was something that the terrorists in their wildest dreams could not have ever hoped to achieve but did, purely inadvertently and unknowingly.

This blow allowed the Terrorists hours of near uncontested freedom to do as they wanted, as confusion seemed to prevail amongst all those others who should instead have reacted to this calamity and come forth to take up the responsibility to resolve the crisis.

The bravery of a few exceptional policemen and the quick thinking of an announcer (Vishnu Zende) at the CST and the action of some personal of the RPF (Senior Inspector S.D. Khirotkar and Head Constable Jillu Yadav) and of the GRP (Senior Inspector Shashank Shinde) all of who were amongst the few that had engaged the Terrorists and had thus not only prevented greater carnage but also, drove the Terrorists from there to an easier target the CAMA Hospital. But their aim was said to be, to get to the Mantralaya, and after some aimless firing at CAMA Hospital, and not finding any easy targets there, due to the prompt action of the Hospital Staff in locking Patients behind doors and with the determined action of a Police Officer there, who would himself be wounded, as he shot at the Terrorists and
wounded one of the terrorists in the arm, later identified as Ajmal Kasab. This forced the Terrorists to seek another way out and find an easier target elsewhere. Exiting the Hospital through the rear entrance, they shot at and sought to hijack a Honda car there but were distracted by an approaching vehicle, which happened to be the Police vehicle occupied by the ATS Chief, the two senior Police Officers and four other Police personnel. Ambushing this vehicle, the Terrorists killed all but one of the occupants, who was injured but played dead, even as the bodies were pulled out of the vehicle and left there. The Terrorists then ‘Hi-Jacked’ the vehicle and drove towards Mantralaya.

Accosted by the police at the Metro junction, they killed four policemen and diverted toward Girgaum Chowpatty. But their vehicle was now having a punctured tyre and they hence, stopped and hijacked a passing Skoda car and continued. It was a brave and alert but unarmed policeman (ASI Tukaram Gopal Omble) who, informed of the incident via his walkie-talkie, saw the Skoda car whizzing past and chased it on his 2-wheeler. At the Girgaum junction other alert policemen had quickly set up a barricade causing the Skoda car to slow down and thus allowing ASI Tukaram Gopal Omble to overtake and block the way with his motor bike. The terrorists while trying to bypass the 2 -wheeler hit the road divider and came to a stop. By then the policemen at the barricade rushed up, killed one of the occupants, Ismail Khan, while ASI Omble grappled with the other Terrorist who had been injured earlier at CAMA Hospital. This brave policeman was fatally shot but his action allowed the other policemen to capture this 2^nd terrorist (Ajmal Kasab) alive. A purely inadvertent happening, possible only due to the brave act of ASI Omble, that has been the most important and vital part of all the subsequent investigation and which helped determine the involvement of Pakistan in the attack and de-railed their plan to show this as a ‘Saffron’ terror attack executed by Hindus.

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