Is it possible to prevent a repeat of 11/7? That’s a question uppermost in the minds of commuters and security experts alike.
Is it possible to prevent a repeat of 11/7? That’s a question uppermost in the minds of commuters and security experts alike.
“Trains are soft targets and they are assailable,” is how Ajai Sahni, executive director, Institute for Conflict Management, describes the penchant of terrorists of all hues to attack trains to make their point.
“Terrorist organisations tend to choose high-fatality targets, and attacks on trains justify that logic,” adds Sahni. “The need of the hour is to micro-manage our counter-terrorism efforts.
For example, in the case of railways security, there should be an adequate number of effectively trained personnel on duty at select points, inside trains and on platforms and at other vulnerable points.”
Vulnerable railways
Intelligence agencies said they can’t discount possibilities of more 11/7 style terror attacks in future. There are specific intelligence inputs in recent months saying that railway property and trains are highly vulnerable to terror hits.
Additional director general of police and ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi said, “We cannot rule out the possibility. Trains are easy, convenient targets — basically sitting ducks for terrorists.”
Busy stations like Kurla, Churchgate, Dadar, Andheri and Thane offer terrorists the much-needed ‘anonymity cover’ to successfully execute an operation and ensure easy escape routes for the operatives. “Also, it is next-to-impossible to man all the entry and exit points at stations,” said a senior intelligence official.
Trains ‘cheap’ targets
Sources explained units of the Railways Protection Force (RPF) had undergone special training in counter-terrorism initiatives following the 11/7 attacks.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has been asked by the Centre to manage the security architecture of the metro railways network around the country.
Intelligence and terrorism experts asserted that hitting trains conform to a ‘low-budget approach’ on the part of the terrorist group. The attack on Samjhauta Express earlier this year and the Mumbai commuter trains bombings were essentially low-cost affairs.
In the first case, kerosene-soaked bottles were used as catalysts and in the attack on Mumbai’s trains last year,
pressure cookers were used to stuff the RDX.
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