Terror strike in Bodh Gaya a wake up call for security agencies, say defence experts

Defence experts on Sunday said that the series of explosions in and around the Mahabodhi temple in Bihar's Bodh Gaya District serves as a wake up call for the security agencies.

Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar, who is one of India's leading experts and outspoken critics on security and strategic affairs, said that it was due to illusional institutional coordination in the 'terror attack' that no action was taken when there was time to prevent it.

"The preventive capability will only come if there is a much greater level of integration, much greater level of cohesion between the various agencies and they are able to provide actionable intelligence. The fact that Bodh Gaya happened today should be seen as a wake-up call, but the cynical citizen might ask how many wake-up calls does India need," he said.

Bhaskar further said that it was very unfortunate that the nature of internal security is becoming more complex and intense as various intelligence agencies were at loggerheads with each other.

Another defence expert Bharat Verma said that the red alert warnings were becoming a routine these days among the security agencies in the country.

"Surprisingly in Bodh Gaya, such wide number of bombs have been put at dispersed places and the management had no security. Local police was not there, despite every alert that had been made. So, if red alert becomes a routine then you cannot handle this challenge," he said.

Nine serial explosions rocked the internationally renowned temple town of Bodhgaya, including four in the Mahabodhi Temple complex, injuring two monks in the blasts suspected to be engineered by some terrorist organisation.

The blasts took place between 5:30 to 5:58 a.m.

An alert has been issued in the entire state with additional security forces being deployed at all religious places.