Mumbai:
When Mumbai's policemen were in the midst of protecting their city from its deadliest attack ever, they didn't really stand a chance.
The Maharashtra government has confirmed that the bullet-proof jackets worn by Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, and other policemen were not built to protect them from AK47s. They had been ordered in 2001, and could insulate the police force only from 9mm pistols.
These shocking admissions may be, for some, even harder to digest because they were made in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, on a day when the city saw the 26/11 trial conclude (the verdict will be delivered on May 3).
That timing meant that just like when the attacks were unfolding, Mumbai confronted its war on terror while contending with the fact that its officers were ill-equipped to save it.
The government's defence in court: that the jackets used during 26/11 were ordered in a time when the "threat perception" for the city had not taken into account an attack that would include simultaneous strikes and civilians held as hostages.
Hemant Karkare, the head of Maharashtra's Anti-Terror Squad, was racing towards Cama Hospital on 26/11. With him in his police jeep were encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Assistant Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte. The two young men who had wiped out close to 60 people at Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus with AK47s and hand grenades were reported to now be at the hospital. As Karkare approached the nursing home, he thought he saw something moving in the bushes, and slowed down. Seconds later, he was staring at the two terrorists. One of them, allegedly Ajmal Kasab, opened fire. The policemen were injured, later all three died. The terrorists drove away in the police jeep.
When the policemen were taken to hospital, Karkare's jacket disappeared. The police officer's wife, Kavita, asked in a public crusade and in a Right to Information application for an explanation of where and how it had been lost. On NDTV, on the first anniversary of 26/11, Home Minister P Chidambaram apologized to her.
A public interest litigation was filed in court by a Mumbai activist alleged that the jacket worn by Karkare was among a 110 defective jackets bought by the Mumbai police.
In court now, the Maharashtra government says that Karkare died because of injuries to his shoulder and neck; the jacket, the government claims, was irrelevant.