New Delhi, Nov. 24 -- Life, once in a while, throws up events that brutalise your consciousness and traumatise you for the rest of your life. The terror attacks in Mumbai on 26 November 2008, and in Pahalgam and Delhi this year top such chilling incidents.

Two days from now, we will be observing the 17th anniversary of the gruesome massacre in Mumbai. On this occasion, it's pertinent to ask what lessons we learnt from that ghastly attack.

Phalgam and Delhi are fresh but the Mumbai carnage was far more devastating. Let's recount what happened on that fateful day. A flash appeared-Shootout in Colaba! I had the sinking feeling of gang wars returning to Mumbai. However, within minutes reports of the massacre started shocking everyone to the...