Mumbai Police joint commissioner, law and order, Deven Bharti who participated in an operation during the 26/11 attacks, feels the similarities aren’t a sheer coincidence.
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“Unlike 26/11 where there was chatter and if our intelligence set-up had been careful we could have had or rather had an idea of attack”.
Bruce Hoffman, head of the national security programme at Georgetown University, in an interview to National Public Radio, referred to a call by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden five years ago to carry Mumbai-type attacks across Europe.
“The attacks show a level of sophistication we really haven’t seen in an urban area since the 2008 Mumbai attack”, Michael Leiter, former director, National Counterterrorism Center, US, told NBC News.
“This will be a game changer for how the West looks at this threat”, Leiter said.
The Paris terrorist attacks which took place on Friday evening reminds of the day when Mumbai was bleeding seven years before on 26/11.
Eyewitnesses say the attackers were young and not wearing masks, like that in Mumbai terror attacks.
“Timing of the attack, style of combating by coming in a group, selecting multiple locations, targeting the civilians at places of gathering or iconic spots, targeting of worldwide tourists to intimidate global communities, opening indiscriminate firing with guns and granades were a few of similarities between the attacks in the two capitals”, he added. Nineteenth century Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin described the terrorist act of the deed, “the most popular, the most potent, and the most irresistible form of propaganda”.
At least six terror attacks have been ascertained so far in the city as per the local report among which three of them are claimed to have been most deadly. “The tactics have been used before, in Mumbai and elsewhere”, it said.
“On several aspects, the two attacks are similar, particularly the way these has been executed”, said Shirish Inamdar, former Additional Deputy Commissioner of State Intelligence Department.
Also, in both the cases, the terrorists carried out attacks at multiple targets nearly simultaneously.
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The blueprint for the Mumbai 26/11 attack came from two sources-the March 1975 seaborne landing on Tel Aviv beach and the capture of the Savoy Hotel by Palestianian terrorists and the “Landmarks” plot foiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 1993.
