India on Terror Radar: No Room for Complacency and Sloppy Investigation Now!
By Animesh Roul
Two major terrorist attacks within span of three days caught India’s security agencies not only napping, but oblivious of such happenings in their backyards. Numerous terror alerts, arrests of suspects and publicized breakthroughs in past and ongoing investigations notwithstanding, terrorist groups strikes at their whims in India’s urban centers, infrastructures and vital installations.
Terrorists have targeted a secular Sufi shrine located in Ajmer, Rajasthan on 11 October. The blast was of low intensity and possibly triggered by mobile phone, a tried and tested method employed by Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI) in recent years. Total death toll has reached three (one of the injured succumbed in a city hospital later) and 17 persons injured. The bomb was hidden inside a tiffin box and placed near the courtyard of the shrine. The method employed here was similar to that of Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad in May this year.
Again three days later terror struck Ludhiana (Punjab) multiplex. At lest seven people have died and more than 30 others sustained injuries when a blast ripped through Sringar Theater complex in the city 14 October when people were watching a regional movie. It is suspected that this could be a handy work of a evil nexus comprising local Khalistani militants affiliated to Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and some jihadi elements possibly Lashkar e-Toiba cadres.
The irony is both Intelligence and security agencies only claim to have uncovered deadly plots and neutralized terror sleeper cells, with naming some ‘name’ that will be doing the round by ever watchful media till the next name comes. Why do they all track individual terrorists (like US’s Osama fixation) and not the outfits or network of outfits? Why do they always name the ‘names’ immediately after the blasts and they even had the information and tale-tell sign of that strike beforehand? These questions of course any avid observer can think of after reading media coverage with intelligence inputs following any such attacks in India. The bottom-line is If any country needs to outsmart terror groups, it has to resort to proper investigations backed by human and technical intelligence rather than only rhetoric, false claims and complacency.
A List of Major Terror Strikes in 2007 (at CT Blog)Feb. 19: Samjhauta Express Attack, Read “Terror Attack on Indo-Pak Samjhauta Express”
May 18: Mecca Masjid Blast, Read, “Another Black Friday”
Aug 25: Hyderabad Twin Blasts, Read, “Hyderabad Rocked Again with Terror Blasts”