Is India Well–Equipped to Fight Terrorism…?

Contributed by Ankit Dalal Std X

26-Nov-2008; 9:40 p.m.: Two terrorist entered the CST station and started firing indiscriminately with AK (Assault Rifle Kalashnikov) 47’s and AK56’s. The RPF’s attempt to stop their rampage was futile. Later, revelations showed that only 6 out of 200 RPF personnel are equipped with rifle that too, self loaded. Their obsolete weapons were no match for state-of-the-art destructive weapons used by the terrorist.

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26-Nov-2008; 10:15 p.m.: Taj Mahal Hotel-Colaba, Nariman House- Near Colaba Market, Oberoi Hotels-Nariman Point were next target by the terrorist. Small number of terrorist ramped into all these places and captured them with many hostages and killed many innocent people in the process. Once again, resistance offered by security people were no match to their equipments. The process of recapturing all these places required more than 300 commandos, took more than 60Hrs. and ended on 29-Nov-2008. More than 200 people were killed and more than 400 people were injured (as per the official number were stated). We also lost 3 most important Police Officials, acclaimed for their fight against terrorism.

Similarly, the serial blast in 1993 and again, in 2006 had mocked the security in India. This is the limit of the entire police force; no one is equipped with automatic or even semi automatic guns! How pathetic is it! The extent of damage suffered by the 105 year old heritage, Taj Mahal hotel is unimaginable. The commandos are the only one who are “supposed to be” well equipped. Are they truly well equipped..?The numbers of sophisticated equipments are far less then what is required. A comparative study between the British and Indian commandos shows that we are nowhere near the so-called well equipped force.

Investigation revealed that the terrorists were well trained in using Maverick’s latest rapid fire rifle with night vision and few of our commandos had this. While our commandos were trying to fight out these well-trained terrorists, what our politicians were doing..? Visiting and lecturing at the very site, mud-slinging each others to increase their vote bank. Will police provide protection to the “precious” politicians or recapture Taj and other properties..? (Handle law and order situation in the city). A Chief Minister of a particular state in India requires 350 police personnel and 35 cars along with him and creating curfew like situation so that the CM can make “safe” passage. What are these politicians doing in turn for the protection of common people of India, who have actually given them such position.

According to the law, ‘Z’ cover security should be provided to only the President and Prime Minister. Also official vehicles for MP’s, MLA’s and CM’s are Ambassador, but they are seen moving around in very expensive vehicles. From where are these expenses funded..? The tax paid out of our hard earned money is being used for their luxuries..! Or have they some other sources…? With such “Leaders” to run our nation, how can we be free from terrorism? We can learn some lesson from USA, after 9/11 attack not a single terrorist attack has taken place. A combing operation across the nation weeded out the terrorist and beefed up security averted any such possible attacks. Corruption in our country has taken major toll. Corruption in buying defence equipment has left us being ill equipped and India has become soft target for terrorists. Reports have shown that India has more than 80-90 ‘unused’ snipers.

The Guns like of AK47, AK56 which is now being used for years even by terrorist have still not found its way into our protection forces. Some of them are still using rifles, which by the time are loaded, AK47 can fire multiple rounds. The competition and distrust exists within the officials of RAW and IB etc and the information received earlier is not passed on to concerned authorities. Due to this, internal problems leads to inaction on sensitive information. Too much is TOO much! People have showed too much resilience but now water has gone above their head. People have shown their protest against the system, this resulting in resignation by Home Minister of India, Dy Chief Minister and Chief Minister of Maharashtra. After all “people, the ordinary citizen” has the power. Today, there are wide spread protest against terrorism, corrupt and irresponsible government official. We saw large flock of people coming together at Colaba after a week of terror attack. Similar rallies were seen in different part of city and country. The placard taken by people showed their frustration towards system and politicians. Some of them read like: “Give us weapons to kill terrorist or let them kill politicians.” “Let politician pay money for their protections, our money should be used to protect us”. How well does this express our anger?

Do we still think: “Is India Well Equipped to Fight Terrorism..?” And the answer is …..