The attacks on several targets across Mumbai on November 26 last year, clearly caught the Indian government off balance?since there had been an assumption that terror groups from Pakistan would avoid adventurism at such a scale. Hence the reaction that followed at the politico-bureaucratic levels and more specifically the clumsy and slow deployment of the National Security Guards (NSG) and Special Forces (SF) commandos, gave the impression that India lacked both the necessary preparedness for a rapid and robust response to such crisis and the equipments that is needed by special forces to battle such attacks of terror.

The immediate post 26/11 phase saw an initial flurry of activity and pronouncements that all the necessary equipment would be obtained for our military and police forces to prevent a ?Mumbai-II? in future. However, an year down the line, the army?s and police wish list remains far from fulfilled, for the necessary reconnaissance and surveillance equipment, that would keep the country alert towards another such terror attack.

Even the establishment of a maritime cum coastal security set up, possibly from the Indian Navy, to provide India?s vulnerable coastal areas a security template to prevent future attacks coming in from the sea, is yet to be implemented intotality. The story in terms of technology acquisitions is an equally dismal one too. Indian defence purchases are projected to double to more than $40 billion by 2012; and then to around $80 million a decade later. But little of that is likely to go towards internal security, an area that requires immediate attention. Part of the confusion lies in the fact that India?s armed forces wish to prepare for another Indo-Pak or a Sino-Indian war, but one that is unlikely to happen, preferring internal security?and the battles against terror?to be left to the police forces. And the police is hopelessly ill-prepared or equipped to do so. Very little if anything at all, has been done to acquire the necessary technology to equip India?s police forces, to avert another 26/11 type of attack.

For instance, the police and paramilitary forces do not have the protection system for their personnel or their vehicles. In an era when a terrorist will at least carry the automatic AK-47?s, our police men still carry antique bolt action rifles, that are slow and tedious to operate. While a terrorist uses sat-phones and GPS navigational systems, the policeman has VHF radio sets that cannot function in cities like Mumbai with high rise buildings. And as lethal explosives are now a norm amongst terrorists,our hapless policemen have few sensors with the small teams that is a key to the quick responses that battling terrorism requires. And training simulators haven?t even been seen in a police station. In short, we cannot expect the police to stall a terrorist attack.

Even, the National Security Guards who battled the terrorists in Mumbai for 60 hours after their shoddy arrival due to the confusion regarding their airlift from Delhi to Mumbai, have yet to receive dedicated aircrafts for each of their units now deployed in and around key metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. Each of these units would require their own airlift capability, by replacing the Indian Air Force?s fleet of aging AN32 and IL76 transport aircrafts. These specialised commandos still need to be integrated better with the local police force in each of the key cities that they are deployed.

All of this is yet to begin and without this they remain far from prepared for the next crisis. The armed forces too need to set aside their obsession for large and expensive force multipliers and equip the foot soldier, our bulwark against the threat posed by terrorist, with essential night vision devices, high quality bullet proof equipment and communication systems, that would give soldiers battling terror both in jungles and urban high rise building, the kind of quick high quality connectivity that cellphones now so easily provide.

Moreover, the army?s aviation corps still have to make do with obsolete helicopters like the Chetak (HSA316B) and the Cheeta (HS315B) after ministry of defence scrapped the bill of 2007 to acquire the Eurocopter (AS-550 C3 Fennec) due to allegations of irregularity. This happened after four years of trials and evaluations. Clearly the Indian Army is far from its stated vision of finding a high quality futuristic force, as its soldiers make do with equipment that gives them the advantage against the ramshackle insurgence in Maoist areas, but certainly not against the GPS equipment and Kalashnikov carrying brain washed suicidal Jehadis from Pakistan.

And most importantly, what the attacks on Mumbai highlighted was the huge failure of maritime security and intelligence. This could have been avoided, had the Indian Navy and the coast guards, possessed maritime reconnaissance aircraft such as the French Atlantique, the Boeing P81 multi mission aircraft or the Northrop Grumman Maritime reconnaissance platform, apart from an upgrade to the Navy?s aging fleet of ships and submarines, that do not inspire confidence in coastal areas any more. And the IAF, apart from being obsessed with a mysterious need for 32 and a half squadrons?and so the need for 126 new fighters?would do well to note that battling terror needs more ?eyes in the skies? like the AWACS and remotely flown UAV?s.

However, having said that, it must be highlighted that in a military to military confrontation with any of our neighbours, India will continue to have the necessary military capacity, with guns, tanks, missiles and bombers. It is the capability to battle terror that we still lack. Above all, what India lacks is the trust and synergy between the multiple arms of Indian security establishment. And even if intelligence inputs are available, they take too long to be shared.

In most other countries, the key agencies at both the national level and within hot target cities all share the same communication systems; so as to respond speedily in a crisis.

In India, this is far from the case. Moreover, the urgent need of the hour is to revamp our entire police force to make them actually equipped, trained and able to battle threat of terrorism which goes a lot beyond just finding the beat constable with a lathi in his hand.

They have to be equipped, empowered, trained and suitably lead, if we are to be in a position to battle Mumbai-II. As yet, we are far from it.

?(Maroof Raza is the author of forthcoming book, ?Confronting Terrorism?)