New Delhi: On March 12, 1993, Mumbai was rocked by 13 simultaneous bomb explosions, triggered by RDX smuggled by, according to police reports, Abu Salem's men.
The RDX was brought in trawlers to the western coast and then transported to Mumbai.
Thirteen years later, a CNN-IBN investigation revealed that no lessons had been learnt.
Soon after the story was aired on CNN-IBN, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal responded.
Reacting immediately, he assured that the report will be shown to the concerned officials and action would be taken.
With terrorism on the rise around the globe and India continuing to suffer a number of terrorist attacks, it was expected that the government and the armed forces will be alert at all times.
But as CNN-IBN's Special Investigation Team found out in an secret operation codenamed Operation Water Rat that smuggling cargo into the mainland via the sea was a cake-walk for any amateur.
The sea has no borders and the Navy Chief admitted just how easy it was to saunter in without any check.
"Sea is a happy medium. There are no borders and people can wander about. It's difficult to detect. There are all kinds of things happening, piracy, terrorism and on a higher level nuclear weapons of mass destruction," Arun Prakash, Navy Chief, said.
The fact that the Navy was aware of the smuggling through Indian shores, but was still unable to stop or even control it is alarming making the entire country vulnerable to terror attacks.
"We are doing what we can with the available resources. Security levels have increased. What used to happen before 1993 it's not the same now. Now fishing boats come and tell us what they have got from where. Intelligence coordination has increased many leaps and bounds," G P Raj, DIG, Coast Guard
But if that had been the case, CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team shouldn't have been able to smuggle in three cartons unchecked from international waters to the heart of Mumbai.
"No amount of surveillance is enough and how many ships and aircrafts can you buy. What we need is a traffic management system whereby every ship should carry a small transponder system, which will automatically identify to the surveillance on the shore and give its identity," Prakash said.
After the expose on India's porous seafront, it is clear that whatever the security measures are, they need to be taken at the earliest.
A security lapse of this kind is something India just cannot not afford.
(With inputs from Seemi Pasha)
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