The Hindu Business Line : ‘No co-ordinated counter attack’

Mumbai, Dec. 1 “What was seen in the Mumbai attack was lack of preparedness. There was no co-ordinated counter attack on the terrorist,” said renowned defence expert, Major General (Retd) Eustace D’Souza.

According to him, sensitive cities should have a joint command centre manned by all the three forces, local police and fire brigade.

It should come into action in a crisis situation with Army personnel leading the operations.

“The Army should also be acclimatised with all important civilian installations. Regular drills and rehearsals of rescue operations should also be carried out,” General D’Souza said.

The Director of SRG Techno Pvt Ltd, Mr Ajay Gupta, had a different view on the issue.

His company, incidentally, supplies arms and equipment to the National Security Guard and other commando forces.

Financing security

Mr Gupta said money, or lack of it, was the core of the problem.

In his view, the doormen in most luxury hotels sometimes give greater attention to getting tips from their guests rather than keeping an eye on people.

Also, roping in ex-soldiers to act as security guards and paying them poorly will not solve the problem, he added.

According to Mr Gupta, doorframe metal detectors are not used correctly at sensitive locations such as airports.

“To thwart attacks, a multiple array of scanners and devices is the best bet. Even if a terrorist manages to get past one barrier, it should raise an alarm in the next one,” he said.

Mr Gupta said devices such as the millimetre wave scanner, which detects metallic objects from a distance, should be deployed at sensitive installations.

It displays a body map on the screen and alerts security even before the person carrying a weapon approaches the barrier.

Trained personnel

The other problem, he said, is a dearth of trained operators to handle latest machines and interpret the images or data generated.

Lt General (Retd) D.B. Shekatkar, another expert on internal security, said security was “like a life insurance policy where the more you spend on premium the better is the life cover”.

“If we have to prevent terrorist attacks, we have to think like a terrorist.

“The key is to identify ways and means with which the terrorist organisation attacks us and then take steps to keep these in check,” he said.

More Stories on : Security | Terrorism | Maharashtra

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‘No co-ordinated counter attack’