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Yesterday night one of the most audacious terrorist attacks in the history of India took place in the very heart of Mumbai. Coordinated terrorist attacks struck the commercial heart of India late in the night. The attacks were completely different in scale and execution. Usually we witness terrorist attacks involving serial blasts with the modus operandi of striking terror into the hearts of the citizens. But this attack even went beyond that, it held an entire metro in fear for the better part of the day. The entire execution was in a completely different and unpredictable manner this time. Multiple crowded sites were attacked simultaneously by heavily armed terrorists. Terrorists were openly moving on the roads of Mumbai shooting and killing innocent bystanders.

In some cases they were even using hijacked police vans. Imagine the plight of a common man who is hit by firing from what else but a Police Vehicle itself. This atmosphere of terror has still not gone away in Mumbai. Hostages have been taken at many places including the renowned Taj Hotel. People are still afraid to get out of their homes and come out in the open. An atmosphere of terror has engulfed the whole of Mumbai. The latest estimates put the casualties at 100+ and the wounded at 250, these are just initial figures and the numbers are expected to rise. Many senior police persons like the ATS head and the Mumbai DIG were killed while bravely taking on the Terrorists. Such an attack which held an entire metro like Mumbai in terror has never been witnessed anywhere before in the World. According to reports coming in foreign nationals specifically American, British and Israeli citizens were targeted. The scale and execution of the terrorist attacks have an all too familiar hall mark of Al-Qaeda, and if this is true it will be the first direct attack by it on India.

How many terrorist attacks does India require before it is going to wake up to the fact that we have become a major terrorist target? Terrorist are attacking one Indian city after another with complete impunity. The politicians just keep on bickering among themselves. The last thing they are worried about is the innocent man who has to bear the brunt of these terrorist attacks. How many more people have to loose their lives before any real action is taken? At a time of such national calamity instead of showing a united face our politicians are busy in the blame game, accusing each other for failing to protect its citizens. Just compare this with America after 9/11, the politicians there came out united against the Terrorist attacks, and they brought into action measures to stop another recurrence and the result is before all of us to see for ourselves, America has not suffered another terrorist attack on its soil after 9/11, that’s 6 yrs free of any terrorist attacks. In India it seems we can’t go without a major terrorist attack happening somewhere for even 6 days leave alone 6 yrs.

One of the reasons that India witnesses so many Terrorist attacks is that we don’t have a central organization tasked with preventing terrorist attacks. Only a Central Anti Terrorist agency on the lines of CBI filled with competent persons free of political pressures can perform this duty. In India we completely lack such an organization. Preventing terrorist attacks is a very long drawn out process. It can’t be solved in one day or one month or even one year for that matter. It involves detailed Intelligence gathering and meticulously working upon the leads that are found eventually. And there should be no political intervention of any kind in their functioning. Political parties should not be allowed to impede a fair investigation at any cost. Both the two major political parties in India are more concerned with vote banks and electoral prospects then preventing terror attacks.

In Mumbai the current situation on the ground is that our already stretched and under manned police force is stationed at bars and restaurants to see if bar girls are dancing beyond the scheduled time. This type of wastage of police resources for moral policing leaves the police force with no men or resources to do the much more important task of protecting its citizens from terror threats. It seems like the politicians are more bend on imposing their own morality on the people instead of protecting its citizens, the main reason for which they were elected in the first place. There are some who talk about new laws to tackle terrorism, but it is a very well known fact in India how even existing Laws are not implemented, what good will a new terror law do when we don’t even have enough policeman to implement them. The police instead of looking out for criminals are busy protecting the ever increasing number of VIP’s and their kind.

The police in India needs to be free from such distractions so that they can focus on their core aim of protecting the citizens instead of protecting the wealthy and powerful. The need of the hour is to give the police and other investigative agencies a free hand to go after these terrorist and there masterminds, and prevent such attacks before they can be implemented. Terrorist attacks happen with regularity in India and they will keep on happening unless and until the citizens of our country become more aware of the reality and start putting pressure on their elected representatives to do something concrete to prevent such an occurrence again in the near future. Otherwise we can again wait for another terrorist attack to happen yet again.

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