Chapter 3 continues.....

While Pakistan-abetted Islamic fundamentalists are the sheet anchor of the terrorist menace in Kashmir, there is a recent trend for these terrorists to penetrate the vast mainland of the Indian peninsula to seek local recruits as well as to strike terror nationwide. The Students of Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), now banned as a terrorist organization, is one such recruiting agency.

Terrorists’ attacks are not targeted mainly at security forces and government establishments in Kashmir, but have expanded to include strikes against India’s economic and strategic assets, nationwide. Thus Indian railway networks, Mumbai stock market, the atomic energy establishment and the Indian Institute of Science have come within the purview of terrorists’ goals. The metropolis in India has thus become a terror target in keeping with the trend noticeable around the world. From New York to Madrid to London and Mumbai, urban terror has become a major trend—bigger the city, greater the fallout.

A new pattern of attacks on commuter and mass transport system has also emerged. In March 2004, Madrid’s train network was hit by a series of explosions at the rush hour. In all 191 people were killed and over 1,700 wounded. In July 2005, a series of coordinated bomb-blasts, now known as 7/11, struck London’s underground rail during the morning rush hour, killing 88 people.

Terror attacks on big cities make the maximum public and media impact with its identifiable landmarks, its heterogenous mix of citizens. City-based media and 24x7 news channels ensure immediate coverage. For patrons of terrorists, the resultant mayhem and carnage needs to be watched and the chaos and panic is a measure of the “success” of their acts. The Mumbai serial blasts on 11 July 2006 followed this pattern timing it for the “rush-hour” in the evening.

India has now witnessed a series of terrorist attacks on its major cities, since the Mumbai serials blasts. In Delhi, some of the earlier major attacks were the 22 May 2005 blast in two cinema-halls, the 29 October 2005 serial blasts and the Deepavali eve blasts in Sarojini Nagar in 2005.


to be continued...