The shootout on Wednesday found around 100 cops of the Railway Police Force (RPF) as well as Government Railway Police (GRP) ill-equipped to tackle two AK-47-wielding terrorists. Only six of those cops were armed with either Self-Loading Rifles (SLRs) or automatic weapons. The rest had lathis.
J N Lal, divisional railway manager of Central Railway, said no one imagined such fidayeen attacks at CST. “We were buying gadgets to tackle bomb blasts. Now we will surely think of modern weapons for our security personnel,” said Lal.
Click here to read what a Lathis is. Basically, it is not much more than a stick.