A terrorist attack every month through 2008. The scale gets bigger, and the attacks bolder. It is time the country mounted an adequate response. It is simply unacceptable that innocent people cannot go about their daily lives, without the fear of being bombed to smithereens or shot dead for no fault of theirs. This is the age of terrorism, and the government has to find a way to deliver security in the face of all the challenges that such an age poses. The fact that an attack has been mounted virtually every month should tell all concerned that the response from the security agencies has not been good enough. The country needs to see much more being done. This is not an issue of party politics, of the BJP demanding an anti-terror law and the Congress remaining unmoved. Anti-terror laws have been misused, but nor can it be business as usual. There has to be a better way. A home minister who has been in a state of denial all these years has now found his government announcing yesterday the creation of a federal investigation agency. Surely, this could have been done earlier. The country needs to see more determined action.
If it is indeed true that the latest coordinated attacks on key targets in Mumbai, unprecedented in scale and organisation, are the work of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), whose cadres are known to be funded and trained by the Pakistan army's Inter-Services Intelligence wing, it means that the country should not harbour any illusions about Pakistan's intentions. The LeT is known to regard India and Israel as its primary enemies, and therefore the Mumbai attacks fit into a pattern. As for the ISI's role, three months ago it was the embassy in Kabul. Now it is a bunch of high-profile targets in Mumbai. So, despite the protestations of peace and friendship (even the promise of 'no first use' of nuclear weapons) by the Pakistan president, it is clear that the ISI itself, or rogue elements in it, continue to wage covert war against India. The induction of a civilian government in Pakistan has changed nothing. India must act with this knowledge, and put the maximum international pressure to make Pakistan pay the price for its misadventures, even as it goes after the perpetrators of this attack.
But it is impossible that such a coordinated attack, needing intimate knowledge of the insides of large hotels, could have been carried out without local help. And if it is true that the terrorists came over the water, they must have come in at least a day or two before the attacks were launched. This confirms the existence of a jihadi terrorist network operating within the country. Is it too much to ask that the intelligence agencies penetrate this network and break up its cells?
Finally, there is the impact on business. The travel industry was already reeling from the shocks caused by the economic downturn-hotels and airlines were facing reduced patronage. Now they will face an even more severe downturn as foreign businessmen and international tourists choose to stay away from India. Mumbai itself has been subjected to repeated attacks; each time the city has responded magnificently. But the people of this great metropolis can legitimately ask for proper protection, and the lesson that has been driven home yet again is that security-consciousness has to be everywhere, and the old way of life cannot continue. The Taj Mahal in Mumbai introduced some security measures in the wake of the September bombing of the Marriott in Islamabad, but even a layman could see that this was a laughable operation, done without conviction. And what if tomorrow's attack is against a school or college? Or some other soft target that has high impact? Security is not the work of the police alone, because the police cannot be everywhere. Other countries have shown how the job can be done. It is time India showed the terrorists that it can and will meet the challenge.
