India Still Vulnerable To 26/11-Type Attacks: Chidambaram

New Delhi, India remains vulnerable to a Mumbai-style militant attack because neighboring Pakistan is struggling to control Islamist groups accused of deadly assault last year, the interior minister said Thursday.

In India prepares for the first anniversary of the attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people and foreign intelligence reports warning of possible new sites, Palaniappan Chidambaram, warned that any further attacks met with a “swift and decisive” response .

Two luxury hotels and a Jewish center were among the targets attacked by 10 armed men last November. India blamed the Pakistan national and tensions between the two nuclear powers.

“My assessment is that the vulnerability has remained the same since 26/11,” Chidambaram said in a rare interview, referring to attacks on 26 November. “There has declined nor improved.”

With an expenditure of millions in India new security measures, command centers in cities marine patrols and better intelligence gathering, the minister added that India had learned its lesson.

“Our ability to deal with him (the terrorist threat) has increased significantly.”

The prevention of further attacks is key to regional stability. Former Finance Minister Chidambaram, was appointed interior minister after criticism that the Congress Party-led government for failing to prevent the gunmen from razing nearly three days in the financial hub of India.

Commando units, eventually killed all but one of the attackers. Despite the pressure for military action against Pakistan last November, the Indians responded with a diplomatic offensive.

A second attack to test your self. “If there is another terrorist threat or a terrorist attack we saw on the 26/11, India’s response will be swift and decisive,” said Chidambaram.

Pakistan can really act?

New Delhi, Islamabad has been criticized for not fully act against the alleged masterminds of the bombings in Mumbai. Indians see the hand of Pakistani intelligence and military, who opposed any rapprochement with the old enemy of India, behind the raids.

India wants Pakistan to jail Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Toiba militant blamed for the attacks, before resuming a peace process broke last year.

In the last year Saeed has been arrested, released and most recently placed under virtual house arrest, after international pressure on the Islamabad government.

“Even if they wish, take action against the instigators of 26/11, that (the Pakistani government) may not have the capacity to act,” said Chidambaram.

“This failure could encourage some wild elements, some rogue elements, to be adventurous.

“I’m sure they’re planning (more attacks), but to what extent the State openly supports can not say … my guess is that state support does not exist to the extent that he was there in 2008.”

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