KARACHI, Jan 18: Though questions over the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the response of the Indian security agencies in combating the 10 armed militants reportedly responsible remain largely unanswered, the event has set alarm bells ringing at the Central Police Office, where the authorities have decided to acquire the building plans of major structures in the city, which are seen as places popularly frequented by the citizens of Karachi.

A recent discussion with senior officials and a few people at key positions in the corporate sector established the fact that the law enforcers were conducting an exercise to take stock of building plans of structures built mainly in Zone South of the police organisational set-up, which could emerge as potential targets for terrorist activities not too different than the Mumbai attacks.

“The idea to obtain building plans of major structures was approved recently in a high-level meeting, which discussed security issues of the city days after the Mumbai attacks,” said a source privy to the discussion. “The participants were surprised to know that the city police didn’t have building plans of major important structures, which could be used in case of any emergency, rescue operation or hold-up like situation similar to Mumbai.”

He said it was decided that the police would undertake the exercise and acquire all available figures, data and plans of major structures in the city, which could be susceptible to terrorist attacks.

“Apart from terrorism, the police should have all necessary information about mega-structures in the city and most importantly public places, as this is part of the law enforcers’ job to secure people’s lives and all legitimate interests,” added the source.

The Indian business capital came under a series of terrorist attacks in November 2008, which killed more than 173 people and injured over 300. Allegedly, only 10 militants targeted the city’s main railway terminal, a café, luxury hotels, a cinema and the Orthodox Jewish-owned Nariman House.

The militants held hostages at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers and the Oberoi Trident and tested the skills of the Indian security agencies and their military commandos for more than 90 hours. The attacks drew widespread condemnation across the world and the local police authorities found it a wake-up call to devise a strategy for the safety of more than 15 million citizens of Karachi.

“One should learn from mistakes before it’s too late and we did so from the Mumbai attacks,” admitted Waseem Ahmed, the Capital City Police Officer. “We observed that there is a strong need for such an exercise that can equip our police with all the necessary information regarding major and important structures in the city that we can use (in a timely fashion).”

He said the police in the first phase had been coordinating with the managements of prominent hotels, which can accommodate hundreds of people at a time and most of the time had 100 per cent occupancy. Foreigners visiting the city for different events also preferred to stay at these places, which further highlighted their importance in terms of security, he added.

“Currently, we have marked district south in our organizational structure as the most important area of policing for this particular (purpose). We have already declared this area a ‘red zone’ for (containing) important government buildings, hotels, business centres and other important structures. We are acquiring building plans of all those structures,” added the CCPO.

Abandoned structures