Ironic, we eased just before being hit by terror: Ratan Tata

New York, Nov 30 (PTI) It is "ironic" that extra security
measures, taken after being warned of a possible terror
strike, were eased just before the terrorists assaulted the
landmark Taj hotel, Tata group chief Ratan Tata said.

"It's ironic that we did have such a warning, and we did
have some measures (for the additional security)," Tata told
US news channel CNN from Mumbai.

The over 100-years-old iconic hotel stands mutilated in
the financial capital of India after about 60-hour long siege
by terrorists who indulged in arson and explosion before being
gunned down by NSG guards yesterday morning.

Post attack, Tata rued that crisis infrastructure was
"woefully poor" and the attacks revealed deficiencies in the
law enforcement, especially in areas of crisis response and
management.

"We are indignant but not scared," he quipped.

Although he did not elaborate on the additional security
measures, Tata felt even these steps could not have prevented
the terrorists from entering the hotel.

Speaking to CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he said that "people
could not park their cars in the portico, where you had to go
through a metal detector" due to the additional security.

".... If I look at what (measures) we had (enacted)... it
could not have stopped what took place," Tata said, adding
that the attackers did not come through the front door, where
additional security measures had been temporarily enacted.

"They did not come through that entrance.. they came from
somewhere in the back... they knew what they were doing and
they did not go through the front. All of our arrangements
were in the front.

"They planned everything...I believe the first thing they
did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went
through the kitchen," Tata said.

"They seemed to know (the hotel) in the night or in the
daytime...they seemed to have planned their moves quite well,
and there seem to have been a lot of pre-planning," Tata said
about the attackers.

"...they were so well planned and they did so much
damage...took such a loss of lives...people were shot... they
spread bullets from automated weapons, lobbed grenades."

Tata said that it took three hours for firefighters to
get water to the hotel after fire broke out in the oldest part
of the building and there were "people who died being shot
through bulletproof vests."

The CNN report quoted Tata as saying that not even the
army or commandos who took the offensives were prepared for
the level of organisation and execution that terrorist seemed
to have put into their plan.

Noting that the attacks underscored the need for the law
enforcement authorities to develop crisis management
infrastructure, even if it required seeking outside expertise.

"We have been very complacent, because we have really not
had this kind of terrorism inflicted upon us... we should not
stand on ceremony to hold back. We should go to the best place
possible to get the expertise," he said, hoping that the
incident would unite the Indians for a common goal of
preventing recurrence of any such tragedy. PTI SKR
PMR