Bloodstained 2008 India’s decades old bloody tryst with terrorism can probably be compressed into 70 hours when death danced on Mumbai’s streets

Mehak Kasbekar and Nidhi Bhardwaj

Source: livemint
Mumbai: 2008 was when terror reigned supreme. About 60 bombs rocked eight key cities in 2008. It started with bombs exploding in Jaipur in May claiming 68 lives. In June blasts claimed 58 lives in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

On September 13th Delhi was under fire. And in October 45 people died in Assam’s serial blasts.

But India’s decades old bloody tryst with terrorism can probably be compressed into 70 hours when death danced on Mumbai’s streets, its iconic railway station and its landmark hotels.

This time there were no bombs kept secretly to explode in packed trains and bustling neighborhoods. A combat-like situation was seen for the first time in a key metro city when terrorists took hundreds hostage in three separate buildings in south Mumbai- The Taj, The Oberoi Trident and Nariman House – a Jewish outreach center.

The multiple strikes, which left almost 200 people dead, finally got the government machinery into action.

23 days later two terror bills were passed. One on the formation of the National Investigating Agency or NIA and the other on the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act were introduced in parliament and passed the very same day on 19th December.

For many the swift passage of the terror bills is a sign of things changing for the better. But many think otherwise.“This is going to have absolutely zero impact on our capacities to fight terrorism. We have dozens of central dysfunctional agencies in existence. The government has been unable to provide them adequate resources, adequate manpower,” said Ajai Sahni, executive director at the Institute of Conflict Management. Existing agencies like the Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate suffer from a huge manpower crunch. There is a 15% to 40% deficit in all IPS cadres in most states as well.

Those opposed to the setting up of NIA point to the way India successfully dealt with terrorism in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura, within the existing infrastructure.

“If you see the model applied in all these three success stories it is a model of building up the strengths and capacities of local police. That is how you fight terrorism. The rest is symbolism,” said Sahni.

Two major trends emerged in the terror attacks this year in India. The country with the second largest Muslim population in the world, did not have a single home-grown jihadi. There were attempts to bust that claim by terror groups calling themselves the Indian Mujahideen and Deccan Mujahideen. The second more diabolical change in 2008, was the said birth of Hindu terror. On September 29th just a day before Eid, five people died after a bomb kept in a motorbike went off outside a Mosque in Malegaon, a little known town in northern Maharashtra.

“I don’t accept it (Hindutva terror), I don’t agree with this kind of terminology. If you say terror has no religion, then it cannot be Hindutva terror. But if you accept Hindutva terror then you will have to accept Islamic terror. Are we prepared for it?,” says the BJP’s Sheshadri Chari.

So in the end, our politicians have learnt little from the Mumbai or Malegaon attacks. The idea is to continue to play vote bank politics. But the writing is on the wall. Some of these walls are virtual, like on Facebook or on twitter, but some are real. The vengeance with which Jammu and Kashmir voted against extremism this year. That spontaneous demonstration in Mumbai should serve as a reminder to our administrators, times they are a changing… Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist who was captured alive in the Mumbai attacks was traced to be a Pakistani.

Tension continues to brew between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks. The Pakistani army and political class continue to deny accepting Ajmal Amir Kasab as a Pakistani and dismissed India’s demand to hand-over 21 terrorists.

Experts feel the need of the hour is to better equip police forces and expand their budgets, as they are the first who come in contact when terror strikes. And that better implementation of existing laws across the country will go a long way in combating terror as well.