Towards the close of 2009 which ended without a major terror attack, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in a speech to the intelligence community that “there is the danger of a terror-free year inducing complacency, signs of which can be seen everywhere.” Last weekend, when a terrorist bomb ripped through the popular Germany Bakery in Pune, Mr. Chidambaram’s warning was underlined in stark relief. Ever since last summer, India’s intelligence services had been warning of a renewed offensive by Pakistan-based jihadist groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Police in several States, as well as neighbouring Bangladesh, had foiled multiple jihadist attack plans. In August, Indian communication intelligence detected plans to stage a car-bomb attack in Pune, while the interrogation of Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley made clear that the Lashkar had ambitious plans to stage large-scale attacks across India. Earlier this month, top Lashkar ideologue Abdur Rehman Makki had even held out explicit threats to target New Delhi, Kanpur, and Pune. But even though India’s police and intelligence services knew that Pune, apart from other cities, was facing a threat, they were unable to learn just when terrorists might strike and where.
If Saturday’s bombing does turn out to be the handiwork of Pakistan-based jihadist groups, Indian policymakers could soon find themselves confronting a difficult dilemma. Many in New Delhi’s policy community believe renewed operations by jihadist groups are the outcome of the desire of powerful elements in Pakistan’s military-dominated elite to maintain an adversarial relationship with India. This, the argument goes, is because tensions with India give Pakistan’s military an excuse to go slow in its ongoing offensive against Islamist groups at home -- a war many in Pakistan believe has been foisted on the country by the United States. Encouraging jihadists to target India allows Pakistan’s army to rebuild its long-standing relationship with the religious right, and to maintain its political primacy at home. If this turns out to be the case, it will bring India’s renewed efforts at dialogue with Pakistan under enormous pressure. Neither calling off the dialogue nor engaging in it will protect India from attack -- dialogue, after all, is only a process, not an outcome in itself. Pakistan’s half-measures against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, as well as its refusal to dismantle the military infrastructure of the groups, illustrate the need to acquire the means to deal with a Pakistani establishment that seems to think it has nothing to gain from acting against anti-India terrorists. It is a situation that calls for a mature response that is firm and result-oriented and not one stemming from passions of the moment.
Keywords: Pune blast, Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, LeT, David Headley, Germany Bakery
For me the appropriate title for the editorial is Challenge from terrorism. Now is the time to change the way we deal with terrorism. People involved must be severely punished in a timely fashion. How long will the Kasab case go on? When will Parliament attackers get their punishment?
I strongly believe that corruption, complacency and vote bank politics are the main reasons for everything that is wrong with India. Look at punjab, not long back it was plagued with terrorism, but just because of strong hand used by Police and State government they got rid of it. Time for another round of it has arrived.
I completely agree with the comment from Mr. K.Vijayakumar. The people of the country do have a right to know WHY things are going wrong, and for which the present government will do better by admitting its failure instead of simply pointing the finger at Pakistan. Admitted that such terrorist strikes are supported by certain elements in Pakistan, but isn't this something we know already? Why can't we strengthen our own security and adopt a no-nonsense policy towards terrorism? Why can't we have an efficient judiciary which can deliver justice to victims of terrorism? Why can't we have a stringent and impartial probe to see if there are elements within our own society who support such dastardly acts? The media needs to come forward as well to expose things as they are from the point of view of the people's opinions and anxieties. Why are the views of other political parties sidelined or ignored both by the present government and the media with regards to this issue, which all along has been treated like it were a mere ideological battle between the Congress and the BJP instead of seeing it as a serious problem?
We have to do a delicate dance with Pakistan but should not give up talking option. Talking is not going to end terrorism in one stroke but is a good begining. Unless democracy takes deep root in Pakistan we are going face the same situation. Americans are not much worried to pin down India specific terrorists. Our police and security forces need a sea change in their training, equipments and attitude. New generation police forces are needed to face Pakistani and local bad elements.
Whatever India's Home Minister may say, the simple fact is that India's security system failed once again to thwart a deadly terrorist attack. The people of this country are not interested in knowing whether the Home Ministry in Delhi or its security agencies had passed on intelligence inputs about the Pune attack to the Maharashtra government or not or who was behind the attack. The people only want to know why the Central and the State governments once again failed to ensure the security of their lives and property. Why can't Home Minister Chidambaram admit that in spite of what he might think as his best efforts, he and India's security set-up could not prevent the Pune attack. After the 26/11 Mumbai attack the media helped the government to take cover from peoples' ire by constantly hammering away at Pakistan. Such efforts are on in the present case also. We cannot blame the enemy for our failures. We have to own up our failures and gear up adequately to prevent another failure.
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