The sensational Friday the 13th attack on Paris is strikingly similar to the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai that rocked India’s financial capital seven years ago, according to security and intelligence experts.
The Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) sponsored fidayeen raid in Mumbai from November 26-29, 2008, claimed 166 lives and injured more than 300 others besides damaging property worth several crores of rupees. While the Mumbai attack has seen the role of rogue elements of ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency, and an imprint of al-Qaeda, the Paris attack shows that IS or ISIS is an offshoot of the terror group founded by Osama bin-Laden.
“Considering the reports that we have come across so far, given the number of attackers involved, the number of casualties, target selection, timing, precisions, weapons used, we can say with assertion that there are similarities between the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai and 13/11 attack in Paris,” sources said.
According to D Sivanandhan, a former Mumbai Police chief, the use of AK-47 and bombs in an orchestrated and precise manner stand out as a commonality. “Besides this, well-trained people were involved and they have selected crowded places,” he said.
“Unlike 26/11 where there was chatter and if our intelligence set-up had been careful we could have had or rather had an idea of attack.
“Here France reported there was complete secrecy, no chatter, no info, nothing,” said Col (Retd) M P Choudhary, who was part of the team that had raised the Anti-Hijack Squad and Special Operations Group – that later became the National Security Guard.
“On several aspects, the two attacks are similar, particularly the way these has been executed,” said Shirish Inamdar, former Additional Deputy Commissioner of State Intelligence Department. Like Mumbai’s Leopold Cafe, the Paris attackers picked crowded hotels. As far as the theatre that were attacked and a hostage-type situation, this was similar to the attack at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.