If the 9/11 attacks woke up the West to the threat of global terrorism, the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai forced it to acknowledge and focus on India’s security concerns vis-à-vis its neighbourhood. It also exposed India’s under-preparedness in combating asymmetric warfare of such scale. The ease with which the 10 Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) gunmen sailed across the Arabian Sea, from Karachi to Mumbai, and went on the rampage in the city for four long days, exposed the gaping holes in India’s maritime security, the chinks in its internal security grid, and the inadequacy of its counter-terrorism infrastructure and local police. Soon...