By Vishal Gulati, IANS,
Shimla: Security agencies from many countries have got in touch with the National Security Guard (NSG) to know how they succeeded in killing terrorists who attacked Mumbai, a senior officer said Thursday.
“Foreign security agencies were quite impressed with the successful completion of ‘Operation Black Tornado’. They have been contacting the NSG to know more about anti-terror strategies adopted during the operation,” NSG Deputy Inspector General Govind Singh Sisodia told IANS.
“The security agencies of Britain, Germany, France and Japan have contacted NSG. Everyone wants to know more about the successful completion of one of the most horrid terrorist strikes in the world.”
A year ago, 10 Pakistani terrorists who had sneaked into Mumbai by sea went on a killing spree at select targets and slaughtered 166 Indians and foreigners.
NSG commandos, popularly known as Black Cats, shot dead eight of them after fierce combat. A ninth commando was gunned down by the Mumbai police who also captured a terrorist.
Sisodia, who hails from Himachal Pradesh and led the commandos at the seafront Taj Hotel and the Nariman House, claimed that the time taken by the NSG was the least in the world.
“The counter-offensive time (30 minutes) of NSG is the fastest in the world,” he said.
Sisodia said the government was concentrating on strengthening the NSG by giving rigorous training to the commandos and providing the latest weaponry to them.
Also, the NSG had reached an agreement with Air India to provide an aircraft within 30-45 minutes in case of emergency. “This would lessen the duration of the counter attack.”
He said the NSG had learnt valuable lessons from what happened in Mumbai in November last year.
“The force has learnt a number of lessons from the Mumbai attack. The government has increased the strength of NSG commandos in Kolkata as well as Hyderabad NSG centres.
“Similarly, commandos would be posted in Chennai and Mumbai too,” he said.
Sisodia justified the time taken in eliminating the terrorists in the iconic Taj hotel near the Arabian Sea to the hundreds of rooms, each of which had been to be checked one by one.
“The primary objective during the operation was to kill or capture the terrorists alive and ensure the safety of the people.
“There were over 800 rooms (in both hotels) to be searched. It took five minutes to search each and every room. Most of the tourists who bolted the rooms from inside were hesitant to open the doors fearing that terrorists were outside.”
The brigadier thanked the people of Mumbai, the Maharashtra Police and the staff of the Taj and Trident hotels for the successful completion of the operation.
Sisodia did his schooling from the Government Vijay High School in Mandi town in Himachal Pradesh and later enrolled in the S.D. College in Shimla before joining the Indian Military Academy.
When he was deployed in Sri Lanka to fight the Tamil Tigers in 1987, he was injured after being hit by a bullet in his arm. He also led operations against the militants in the Kashmir Valley.