ANUPAMA KATAKAM

“Before the Navy commandos, the NSG and the Army came in, it was we who entered the Taj and Oberoi hotels,” said a police sub-inspector who was stationed at the Oberoi hotel for three days during the siege. “We held off the terrorists for at least five hours before the other security forces came in. The carnage would have been far worse had the local police not reacted the way it did.”

At the funeral of Hemant Karkare, chief of Mumbai’s Anti-Terrorism Squad. Fourteen police personnel, including three senior officers, died in the terror attacks in Mumbai. Opinions differ on the police force’s role in the incident. While the police too acted with courage during the crisis, there are many who say that had the force been more vigilant and better equipped, an attack on this scale would never have happened. Some family members of those who died also pointed to the callousness with which the police handled information during those three days. (Full Story from Frontline)