26/11: Corruption allowed terrorists ravage India

It has been one year since the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks when India was brought down to its knees by ten terrorists who unleashed mayhem and paralysed Mumbai for a span of about 60-hours.



As it did on the day of the attacks, the general public directs the anger and fury towards Pakistan for sending a hate message through the acts of terror.

India observes first anniversary of 26/11 carnage

This attitude is the result of the continual claims from the Indian government as well as authorities around holding Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba responsible for the massacre that killed over 170 people.

However, over the past year the investigations into the attacks and certain related developments, in national and international spheres, raise questions on India's ability to handle a situation like this, if not the country's failure to predict and avert such a tragedy.

Besides the valid questions raised by the media post-26/11 operations, including why the security forces took too long to reach the terror-hit areas, or how the terrorists were able to infiltrate the western coast without even hitting a single roadblock, many new questions arise over recent developments indicating that it was the corruption in the country which allowed terror to enter and plunder the country.

One such instance is the ugly truth behind the 'misplaced' bullet-proof vest of the slain Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare. While authorities claim to have lost the vest, a media report exposed that the autopsy of the officer shows that the vest did not guard him from even a single bullet.

In Oct 2009, an American connection to the attacks was unearthed when the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) busted a Lashkar-e-Toiba terror plot and arrested two Pakistan-origin men, including American citizen David Coleman Headley and Canadian citizen Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

Ongoing probes have found that these men, who now being considered as the 'missing link' behind the 26/11, visited India several times over the past years. They have not only managed to travel in and out of the country, but also stay and communicate with Pakistan handlers while in India, unhampered.

This points out at a major lapse of judgment on the part of the Indian consulates which gave these men visas on applications which furnished false residential and professional details.

Apart from this, former Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor also recently sparked off a controversy claiming that the DGP had ordered removal of NSG from 26/11 operations and replace the commandos with Mumbai police personnel.

These are just few instances which draw attention to lack of transparency, dishonest authorities, incompetency, and lack of judgment due to the blinding force that works behind Indian netas and babus which is the true enemy of India - Corruption.