Anniversaries like that of the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26, 2008 (26/11), should be occasions to look back on the original institutional mistakes that had led to the ghastly tragedy rather than merely paying ritualistic homage to those killed. That is the only way we can improve our security architecture to protect society by catching up with or overtaking the innovative trends in terrorism.
The first mistake was ignoring a series of 16 advance intelligence alerts indicating a strong possibility that Mumbai would be targeted. The first alert on August 7, 2006, indicated that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was preparing sea-borne teams to attack Mumbai’s vital installations by August 20 that year. A series of alerts till October 11, 2008, indicated the possibility of “fedayeen” strikes on multiple targets, including luxury hotels in Mumbai.
