The terror strikes in Jaipur have come as a rude reminder of the fact that India continues to be a target for many organisations and outfits, from within and outside the country. More and more places across many states are coming under attack from terrorists; their methodology is getting more sophisticated, explosives more lethal and the results more deadly. The Jaipur blasts were an act of cowardice that we must condemn in the strongest possible manner. This, like other terrorist attacks, is not just an attack on a city and its people. Rather, it ought to be seen as an attack on our nation itself. We have been facing this menace for a long time — long before the West was rudely woken up to the reality of terrorism and long before the global war on terror was waged. But the ambit of the terror network and attacks in India has increased from the traditional areas infested with cross-border insurgents to other parts of the country. Every successful terrorist attack is not just a loss of life and property but also a blow to the values of free society, secular beliefs and democratic traditions. Extremists and terrorists aim to make headlines and instill fear in people’s hearts. But we all should be proud of the way the people of Jaipur responded to these ghastly attacks. Fellow citizens in private vehicles rushed the victims to hospital, volunteers swarmed hospital premises, doctors worked round the clock shifts. To give an example of how quickly the people reached out to those in need of help, while visiting the victims at the Sawai Mansingh Hospital on the night of the blasts, I was informed that there might be shortage of blood. But when I asked the chief medical officer, he told me that within hours of the blasts they had received more than one thousand units of blood from volunteers in the city and that now there was no shortage at all. I think the people also exercised calm and showed great restraint by not getting provoked. We all know that such mindless killing of innocent men, women and children can never be justified no matter what the motives or convictions. There has been an increase in the number of such attacks. It is therefore imperative that we take a new approach to tackling this problem. Law and order is a state subject and it is primarily the duty of the state governments to ensure that peace and the rule of law prevails. But state government sometimes don’t have basic intelligence gathering capabilities, let alone the ability to contain such activities. In most cases the state police are stretched to capacity and they therefore cannot match the resources and know-how of terrorist organisations, especially the ones that operate with the help of a global network.It’s important to realise that information is pivotal for being better prepared in combating the challenges of terrorism. It is the beat constable on the street whether in uniform or undercover, who is closest to the action. It is he who needs to be better trained and equipped.If we need to catch the perpetrators and bring them to justice, we also need to strengthen our prosecution procedures so that such people don’t get off the hook because of “lack of credible evidence” or due to the “witness turning hostile”. The new wave of terror attacks has brought with it a new breed of terrorists. These are people who are single-mindedly focused on bringing to fruit their evil designs by leaving behind as few traces or clues as possible. Members of such groups that are active in some parts of India sleep on railway platforms or footpaths, don’t rent hotels or guest houses, travel on foot or take rickshaws and never take taxis and autos, never use credit cards or mobiles. In other words, they try and leave almost no trail for the investigating teams to follow. These are highly motivated individuals who will not hesitate to give up their own lives in order to accomplish their dreaded missions. To be able to counter such threats, we must have a national agency with a mandate to gather, coordinate, analyse and disseminate credible and relevant intelligence inputs. We would also need a fully equipped special force that not only deals with insurgents from across the border but also pursues sleeper cells and potential threat elements that are detected. The sad truth is that the life of an event in India, no matter how horrific, is quite short. In such a large country with a multitude of challenges it’s perhaps difficult to focus too long on just one issue. But we must bear in mind that long after the stories about the Jaipur blasts die down and it does not top the agenda of newspapers and TV channels, the same terrorists and groups will be hard at work plotting other such attacks. We must not allow that to happen. The lives of those claimed by such attacks must not go in vain. A befitting tribute to them would be to apprehend not just those who committed this crime but the masterminds behind such bombings.The real loss ultimately is of those families who have lost their dear ones. It is they who will relive this tragedy every day.
