Bombay New Details

ORBAT ^ | 12112008 | Ravi Rikhye

[swarthyguy]

Thanks to the Indian media's inability to tell a coherent story, it is only now we understand how the top officers of the Anti-Terror Squad died. Earlier the impression given by the media was that they were killed at one of the hotels while leading the counterattack.

Since two of the terrorists went to shoot up a hospital, and were killing randomly on the way, the two top Anti-Terror Squad officers plus the senior most officer responsible for South Bombay got into a van with three constables and a junior officer and rushed to the hospital. They were ambushed in a fusillade by the two terrorists, who then got into the van and shot six of the seven just to make sure they were dead. The junior police officer was wounded, but managed to play dead.

When the two terrorists left the van and moved on, the wounded police officer managed to radio his control room. The Bombay police immediately blocked the roads around the hospital, and battled it out with the terrorists, killing one and capturing the other.

This shows some remarkable coordination by the local police: anyone familiar with India will know what the police successfully did was a very difficult task.

Now, of course, new questions arise. Were the terrorists carefully positioned to fire on any reinforcements or did they know these particular officers were enroute? We get some impressions from the junior officers account that the terrorists may have known who they killed. If so, then a whole mess of questions needs to be answered.

The security personnel interrogating the captured man say he has done his fair share of evasions and lies, so it is not that he is cooperating on everything. The interrogators are in two teams representing two different agencies. They use an interesting tactic, and we wonder where the Indians picked this one up from. Within two minutes of one team finishing a session, the second team, which has been listening to the session, comes in and asks the terrorist the same questions and presses any discrepancies that might quickly been apparent. This gives the man no time to develop his story.

It seems fairly clear that the man is sufficiently trained with his very plausible cover story, which he gives freely, but that he is simultaneously hiding a considerable amount of information. Standard tactics, but again, you have to have proper training to pull this off, and you have to have rehearsed the story again and again. Just one more indication this was a thoroughly professional job.

[swarthyguy]

Discovery of the wounded cop was carried on some of the Indian TV channels....

did they know these particular officers were enroute? We get some impressions from the junior officers account that the terrorists may have known who they killed. If so, then a whole mess of questions needs to be answered.

Most emphatically, yes, the targets were the ATS chiefs. The Taj was gravy. The Train Station was the Killing Field.

[swarthyguy]

Shades of a 2003 Operation in Jammu and Kashmir, circa 2002/3, rampage of terror.

IIRC, pictures were in a “GOTTA SEE THIS”.

[Carley]

From the start it was noted that there were locals involved in the planning and choosing of targets.

I have to surmise that the chabad was one of those sites pointed out by a local.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Kurukshetra War - Kali Yuga ping...

To be added to or removed from this ping list, please FReepmail Sir Francis Dashwood.

[little jeremiah]

Thanks for the ping.

Inside moles. I hope they find them all and take care of them quickly.

[ConservativeCompendium.net]

two top Anti-Terror Squad officers plus the senior most officer responsible for South Bombay got into a van with three constables and a junior officer and rushed to the hospital.

SO we got 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 7 cops in a van. Nobody had a weapon they could use?

Sheesh. I'm on the way to a possible terror attack, that weapon is gonna be halfway out of the holster with the adrenaline pumping anyways. We get stopped accidentally, I can't see that it's gonna stay holstered long at ALL!

Yeah, armchair general I know.

But still.

I'm just astounded that so few people took out so many with so many armed cops around.. Why didn't the cops respond?

Seems like we have a swat team show up everytime someone sneezes the wrong way.

[PGalt]

Interesting. Thanks for posting. Linked to this thread from twitter...reading about Mumbai.

http://search.twitter.com/search?max_id=1052478468&page=16&q=mumbai+OR+bombay+OR+terrorist

[ajay_kumar]

Because the SWAT team was stationed 600 miles away in New Delhi, in a central location! I understand now the Indians will spread them out to several large cities.

[Candor7]

All the poice need to do is investigate all the Muslim officers they have or had in dispatch.

This is how Islam terror works.

This attack could not have been carried out without the help of local Muslims militants under cover.

[swarthyguy]

I think it’s shocked everybody the keystonekops look to the Bombay Police.

But, one to be fair, they for the most part are a constabulary, and more often carry bamboo sticks to beat back demos of various kinds.

To me, putting Enfields in their hands is more of a PR stunt anyway, which now stands exposed for what is was.

However, the lack of a SWAT type team was shocking to most.

As far as the officers you mentioned, I believe they were ambushed while in the car a distance away. They shouldn’t have been surprised. You are correct.

I hope the new security minister can crack heads and take full advantage of a strong desire for positive improvements.

[swarthyguy]

>>swat team show up everytime someone sneezes

well, they do tend to go overboard, oth, you’re all primed and armed, and there’s nothing much to do most of the time.

The lack of the swat teams is more a result of state/federal politics and devolved, distributed power.

The Army Commandos should be permanently stationed now in various cities and places like Goa until the system is geared up of US style SWAT additions to the regular police.

[ConservativeCompendium.net]

When a simple photog runs up to "masses of police" screaming red-faced livid, "Shoot them! They're out in the open" and the cops do nothing, then you have to come to the conclusion that the cops in Bombay are only on the force to use the uniforms as a babe-magnet, not to protect and serve.

It's not like it's the first time Bombay has been hit and its a given that it's going to be hit again.

That PD needs to be broken down from the lowest recruit to the highest commissioner and someone needs to be brought in from NY or London or another big league PD and rebuild it from the ground up.

It's ridiculous to have "masses of police" immobilized against two crappily trained terrorists.

[sukhoi-30mki]

The Bombay police don’t need to go to New York or London for a revamp-they can get it done with a few tips from Indian states like Punjab,Jammu and Kashmir or even Nagaland. The Punjab example,evolved in the 80s could even be applied to places like Iraq.

About the terorrists being crappily trained,nothing can be further from the truth.They were trained by the Pakistani army’s special service group-as good as a special ops force as you can get. As much as it was macabre,their methods will become textbook material for terrorists and security units the world over.