Terrorists have struck an Indian city again. Jaipur, famously known as the “pink city”, witnessed 7 bomb blasts within a span of 20 in a radius of a few hundred metres. The injured have been rushed to the Sawai Mann Singh hospital. There are six women among the dead.
The blasts — which were of medium intensity — took place in the walled city area. All the blast sites have been identified.
The first blast triggered around 7.45 pm near Hanuman temple in Manak Chowk. Four more blasts followed in Tripolia bazaar, Chandipole, Sanganeri and Johari Bazaar. Two more blasts took place near the Kotwali area. There could be many more casualties as reports pour in.
Being a Tuesday, the Hanuman temple was expected to draw crowds in an area usually congested even on normal days. Apparently, the terrorists had one their homework well even as the Indian intelligence agencies were procrastinating. Some people say that the Jaipur police was so busy sending its personnel for security in IPL matches that hardly anyone was left to man the public spots of Jaipur.
And, why, just why are we seeing this pattern of terrorists attacking Indian cities at random while the Government of India scratches its head like a confused elephant?
In the last 5 years cities like Ayodhya, Varanasi, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad – all have been the targets of vicious terror attacks. Obviously, this means no city in India can be considered safe. But the more worrying factor is that unlike its counterparts in UK, the Indian leadership has never been able to pre-empt an attack, i.e. prevent an attack before the terrorists could carry them out. Of course, there’s a vast difference in the logistics of both countries. India is huge, with a population of around 1.2 billion people. Its easier for the fundamentalists to mix up with the local population in India than in any western nation. And, really, India is bordered with 2 countries notorious for harbouring terrorists – Pakistan and Bangladesh.
But still, its high time our intelligence agencies and our politicians woke up from their slumber. If terrorists can strike any Indian city at will with such ferociousness, they might just succeed in whatever they are trying to accomplish. And then, appeals for calm and peace after every such attack, might just be ignored by the people of the largest democracy in the world.
Read more on CNN-IBN
Tue, May 13, 2008
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