militaryhistory

As India mourned from an attack by militant extremists  on 27 November, Indian officials and their special forces personnel were being criticised for aggravating the crisis through their slow and unorganized response to the attacks. The attacks, which left over one hundred and forty people dead and some three hundred others injured, was among the worst terrorist attacks ever experienced in India and probably the world, while the death toll was lower than that suffered during the Mumbai bombings of 2006, the latest attack was unprecedented in terms of planning, execution and ruthlessness. The attack was perpetrated by approximately fifteen and twenty fedayeen, or suicide operatives, who seized two of India’s best-known hotels along with sixty to eighty hostages, as well as the nearby house of a Jewish rabbi.

Security sources indicated that this particular mission was executed with military precision. Arriving in well-equipped dinghies launched by a ‘mother ship’ some eight km from Mumbai’s coastline. The operatives then split up into teams, moving swiftly through crowded streets and giving the security forces no opportunity to effectively engage them.

According to Jane’s Defense Weekly, “one of the dinghies used, equipped with satellite communications, mobile telephones and GPS, has been recovered at Mumbai’s Sasson dock. “The terrorists were well orientated and determined to succeed in their goal of targeting Mumbai’s most visible symbols patronised by the rich and famous and by Westerners,” a senior security official said.