Mumbai attacks continue to be amongst the most sensational terrorist attacks on the country till date. Six years later a lot many questions on Operation Black Tornado, the rescue operation launched by the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force on November 28, 2008, remain unanswered.
In an attempt to unravel the events through the testing days, journalist-turned-author Sandeep Unnithan, in his new book ‘Black Tornado: The Three Sieges of Mumbai’ has presented a semi-official account of the Operation.
The research, Sandeep says, took him six years. “The September 11, 2001 attacks on the US resulted in the comprehensive 9/11 Commission Report, which clinically analysed the outrage and generated a slew of recommendations. Closer home, the Kargil War of 1999 led to the outstanding Kargil Review Committee report of 2000. The 26/11 attacks were, in a sense, the globalisation of terrorism in India, combining all its aspects - suicide attackers armed with guns and grenades, sea-borne infiltration, car bombs and hostage situations. Recent revelations by LeT scout David Headley pointed to active collaboration of State actors inside Pakistan. Yet, there was no commission of inquiry ordered by the Central Government. (The Pradhan committee had a limited mandate in that it was to look into the Mumbai police’s response to the incident),” he says.
Nothing established how critical decisions were taken in those 60 hours or how the system failed to predict such an attack despite the presence of intelligence and failing to mitigate it when the tools were available.
“Such questions linger. This book is an attempt to understand the sequence of events leading to the deployment of the NSG and what lessons security forces could learn to be better prepared for such strikes,” Sandeep says.
Though a lot of literature has been written on the 26/11 attacks, the author claims this is the first book based on extensive interviews on MARCOS (Marine Commando Force) and the NSG officers who handled operations in all three locations, Colonel Sheoran, Lt Colonel Sundeep Sen and Lt Colonel RK Sharma, besides several other officers and men of the Army and NSG. Most of them have never spoken out before.
Sandeep went about the research before writing ‘Black Tornado’ in two ways. Official documents that outlined how the NSG and MARCOS deployed were corroborated with first-person accounts of the personnel who participated in the operations. A combination of these two ensured he got the best obtainable version of the truth.
However, getting witnesses to relive their experiences was among the toughest parts, he recalls. Several survivors and witnesses refused to be interviewed. “At least one of them said he wanted to forget the incident and I can see why. I had to be patient and persuasive without sounding insensitive. And, in the end, I am deeply grateful to all those who spoke up,” Sandeep says. The author believes although India has multiple capabilities scattered across various services and locations, it is unable to harmonise them swiftly at one location. “This is what I came to learn in the process of writing this book,” he says.
Sandeep feels India’s coastal security has hugely improved after 26/11. There is a huge build-up of coastal security forces-warships, patrol boats and aircraft - both in the Navy and the Coast Guard. By 2020, the Coast Guard will be more than double in size from what it was in 2008, he says.
And what are the threats he foresees? “The major weaknesses are the lack of training and adequate rehearsals for various contingencies. The Marine Police which comes under the State Governments, continue to be the weak link in the armour of coastal security.
Patrol boats do not take to sea and they are not allocated adequate fuel and money for equipment servicing. Non-State actors based in Pakistan continue to be our greatest security threat. I call them the biggest threat because they have the potential to trigger off war between the two countries,” he said.
His book, Sandeep says, has in a small way done justice to what Mumbai endured and withstood. The book, published by Harper Collins, was released on November 19 by parents of late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who lost his life fighting the terrorists and filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar.
