As charges of massive intelligence failure make the rounds, the cops admit their systems are hopelessly inadequate to deal with the "new face of terrorism". Most of the police network leans heavily on the IB for tip-offs. It's own surveillance branches are considered "punishment postings where you can't make money".
And even today the city police are geared to keep tabs on the mafia rather than terrorist groups.
Just how lax the systems are came out in a stunning interrogation of those arrested for the previous blasts. This January, after the grisly cycle of explosions had already begun, the mastermind of the attacks actually managed to enter the state secretariat and walk undetected through its corridors. The Lashkar leader for south India, Abu Sultan, surveyed the building's layout and left unnoticed, one of the accused told interrogators. He also revealed that a detailed plan to bomb the Gateway had been put in place for December 31, 2002, but the plan did not go through.
It's also incredible how the terror network behind the bus and train blasts managed to coordinate and operate without being noticed. Investigations have now revealed that Abu Sultan was apparently holed up in different locations in Kalyan, near Mumbai, for several months before the first explosion. The Lashkar leader, in tandem with isi operatives Abu Hamza and Imran Vasai as well as key SIMI leader Saquib Nachen, planned the whole operation. SIMI modules reported to Nachen but worked virtually independently of each other. And several training camps were held in the SIMI stronghold of Padgha near Mumbai last year, unnoticed by the police.
What makes surveillance all the more crucial at this time is the heightened interest of Pakistan-based terrorist groups in Mumbai. Although they have always maintained some contact with the metro's lucrative hawala network, the past few years have seen a keener infiltration in areas around the city. In November 2000, four Lashkar operatives, armed with AK-56 rifles and hand grenades, were arrested in Thane. Six months later, a group of Hizbul Mujahideen operatives were also picked up from Thane with a cache of weapons. And in March this year, three Lashkar members, including Abu Sultan, were shot dead in a police encounter in a Mumbai suburb.
But the police defend themselves against charges of intelligence failure. "We're dealing with an endless pool of jehadi terrorists and they are getting more sophisticated," says joint police commissioner (crime) Satyapal Singh. "How do you keep tabs on young, educated people with no previous criminal record?", asks additional commissioner of police Rakesh Maria, an officer who probed the serial blasts of 1993 as well as the recent spate of explosions. He says that SIMI modules communicated secretly, mainly through e-mail. Although the group went underground after it was banned two years ago, the network is active and has strong bases in Maharashtra. The police did arrest the main SIMI operatives since the blasts began last year but new modules and faces have kept the terror network going.
It's becoming clear that terrorism in Mumbai is now a cottage industry, with several small groups of young men and women, fearfully motivated riot victims and highly educated sympathisers waging a brutal war to avenge recent wrongs against their community. Most SIMI sympathisers belong to this strata: doctors, engineers, even mbas. Unlike those who orchestrated the '93 serial blasts, the new cadre are not drawn from the underworld.
Zaveri Bazaar, soon after the blast: picking up the pieces
