A day after the 'Mumbai Attacks', I took the risk of traveling to my college which is located right in the middle of the locations targeted by the trigger happy terrorists. The sparse traffic, deserted roads and gloom spoke louder than the usual 8.00am cacophony of the busiest place in Mumbai city - the C S Terminus, a railway station used by more than eight hundred thousand commuters every day. Walking past the cordoned of patches where the previous day three officers of the Mumbai Police lost their lives in a gun battle with the terrorists, was numbing.

The impact of rapidly advancing and easily available geospatial technology on national security was evident in these terrorist attacks on Mumbai city. The Garmin GPS unit used by the perpetrators to reach Mumbai via a sea route and the apparent ease with which they moved around the city through the lesser known back alleys, points either to a prior knowledge of the geography of this city or the use of a PND - probably the later. This may restart the unfortunate bureaucratic thought process of banning PNDs or worst still access to services like Google Maps. If Egypt can do it why not we?

Here, I would like to highlight one of the many instances that happened on the same fateful night. My teacher and later colleague along with his family, managed to drive home safely just because he had access to the map data, which helped them bypass the war zone.

I am sure that the breadcrumb trail from the confiscated GPS unit will have its own value in 'geospatial forensics'.