18
2008
'Helpless', screamed the headlines of the 'Times of India' on September 14, as it carried gory images and stories of those killed in the five bomb blasts that ripped through Delhi, India's capital the day before, killing 30 and injuring more than 100 people . This was the fourth time that terror had struck in the last five months in India, a frightening fact that the country is trying to come to terms with. That one word aptly summed up what Indians are feeling today: helplessness in the face of terror.
The modus operandi in these blasts was chillingly similar to the previous three, which occurred in Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad: e-mails being sent to media houses warning of the attacks, minutes later, series of bombs exploding in densely populated areas, wreaking complete havoc. These homemade, low-intensity bombs are easily assembled and disguised, often making for small packets, which are dropped in dustbins or strapped on to cycles or three wheelers.
What ensues is now almost predictable: police, ambulances and news reporters rush to the sites, hospitals get flooded with the injured and their grieving relatives, the nation tunes in to watch the horrific scenes on their televisions, and mobile networks across the country get jammed, as people try and call their loved ones in the targeted city. In the recent blasts, as people sat glued to their tubes, there was a sinking feeling of déjà vu - the gruesome, bloody images seemed too similar for comfort, having been flashed repeatedly a little over a month ago. Similar too were the stories of loss and destruction, as with other blasts, families were ripped apart in a matter of seconds; children lost their parents, mothers lost their sons, or wives lost their husbands.
The terror outfit that claims to have carried out this gruesome act calls itself Indian Mujahideen, and it seeks, in it's own words, an eye for an eye, revenge, it says, for what the Hindus have done to the Muslims in the past. It's a long-standing tit-for-tat grievance. The history of the Hindu-Muslim animosity, has its roots in India's partition in 1947, when Pakistan was created, and the communal riots that followed left half a million people dead from both communities. At the center of this divide was the northern state of Kashmir, which, despite being a primarily Muslim region, ceded to India. The state became a bone of contention between the two neighbors who proceeded to fight two wars over it, and in the last twenty years some 40,000 people lost their lives in Kashmir-related violence.
As Kashmir slowly descended into anarchy, some of its unemployed youth fell prey to violence, with help from Pakistan, forming militant groups and demanding independence from India. In the time to come these groups started carrying out acts of terror in different parts of India - the 1993 and 2006 bombings of Mumbai being examples of such acts. Over time, hatred between the Muslims and the Hindus has only increased.
This hatred may have died a natural death, or at least, it may not have intensified the way it did, had the politicians not fanned it for the sake of appeasement and votes. If one political party favored the Muslims, the other rallied the Hindus in the name of religion. Things came to a head in 1992, when a politically backed Hindu mob demolished a mosque, the Babri Masjid in the northern town if Ayodhya, which it believed was built on the birthplace of Lord Rama, a Hindu God. In the aftermath more than 2,000 people died in communal clashes across India.
Then came the Gujrat riots of 2002. A train carrying Hindu devotees from the controversial town of Ayodhya was burnt by a Muslim mob near Godhra, in the Western Indian state of Gujrat, killing 59 Hindus. What ensued was one of the worst acts of mass violence in India's history - Muslims were massacred without mercy, in any way possible, some bludgeoned, some shot, women raped, then killed, and all this with the complicity of the authorities. Approximately 2,000 people died in this carnage, mostly Muslims.
Indian Mujahideen, thirsting for blood, seems to have recruited technically proficient members who hack into wireless computer networks, sending emails warning of revenge and more violence. A 13-page e-mail titled 'An Eye for An Eye: The Dust Will Never Settle Down' mentions both Babri Masjid as well as Gujrat. And just like they had predicted the Delhi blasts, the next target, they now declare, would be Mumbai.
The government is under extreme pressure to crack down on the terrorists, but though some arrests have been made, nothing concrete has been achieved yet. There is also pressure to bring back an anti-terror law, a controversial version of which, called the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), had been scrapped by the present administration in 2004, as it was prone to abuse, used, at times, to arbitrarily round up innocent Muslims.
But, even though the opposition wants POTA back, the authorities have completely ruled out any such possibility, stating that, if necessary certain provisions would be added to the existing law to deal with terrorism. What is needed in addition to the law, the officials believe, is better security, thus 7,600 posts have been sanctioned for the Delhi Police, and the city will probably get 17,000 more cops.These measures notwithstanding, there now seems to be a race between the terrorists and the authorities, and few believe that India's government can really stop another attack, despite the security. Delhi, for one, seems to be of that opinion. Helpless, indeed.