Tense night for PM as terror
hits Mumbai
By Murali Krishnan
New
Delhi, Nov 27 (IANS) It was a wakeful night of tension and
worry for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who remained in a
huddle with his close aides to assess information pouring
in about the daring terror attack in the heart of Mumbai.
The
prime minister's "war cabinet", including National
Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, Intelligence Bureau Director
P.C. Halder and Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, updated the
prime minister through the night about the rapidly shifting
developments in the city.
Right
through the action-packed night, the prime minister was personally
involved in all decisions taken, including sending 200 National
Security Guard (NSG) commandos and about 500 army and navy
personnel to Mumbai.
“He
was obviously concerned that terrorists had struck at seven
places in the city and had also managed to enter two luxury
hotels," said a home ministry official as terrorists
continued to lay siege to the Taj Mahal and Palace Hotel and
the Oberoi Trident Hotel.
With
operations at both the five-star hotels carrying on till Thursday
morning, the prime minister's election rally in the capital
was also cancelled.
Only
on Sunday, Manmohan Singh had announced the formation of a
task force to tackle terrorism and warned of the scale of
the threat facing the country.
In
his annual address to the country's top police brass, the
prime minister emphasised that the country could not afford
to repeat of terror bombings anymore.
“I
only wish to emphasise here that time is not on our side.
We cannot afford a repetition of the kind of terrorist attacks
that have recently taken place in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore,
Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Guwahati and some other urban centres,”
he said.
“Every
time a terrorist attack takes place there is a public outcry
over the failure of the government, accompanied by criticism
of the police and the intelligence agencies. I am aware that
many terrorist attacks have been prevented, thanks to the
vigil of the police and intelligence agencies, but a single
incident of reasonable magnitude causes repercussions, and
calls into question the capability and the capacity of the
government and its various agencies.”
Notwithstanding
the scale of the operation and the degree of coordination
involved in the terror attack in Mumbai which saw 101 people
being killed and 250 injured, the Intelligence Bureau had
no inputs of this attack that was planned and executed meticulously.
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