Is it Mumbai or 'Bomb'-Bay?

It was again city of dreams Mumbai, few days back which was again under terror attack.That black Wednesday was witness of another barbaric terrorist attack on Mumbai.The bomb blasts have outraged every patriotic Indian. No civilized nation can allow this kind of barbaric inhumanity to be partly or fully supported or sponsored by any neighbor or domestic insurgents.

In terms of our sovereignty, unity and integrity and our feeling of nationalism, terrorism strikes at each one of them. This is the enormity of the problem that we are addressing. Since past 20 years India is facing this proxy war of Terrorism and gradually this demon has taken giant shape.The terrorist activities and syndicate has grown since then it is spreading it roots and shoots in whole nation.Recent Mumbai attack was an example of their off-shoots and was reminder for all of us that how big is this problem and reminded us the loopholes in our security and intelligence.




These days India is facing multifarious challenges in the management of its internal security. There is an upsurge of terrorist activities, intensification of cross border terrorist activities and insurgent groups in different parts of the country. Terrorism has now acquired global dimensions and has become the challenge for the whole world.

It is not only Mumbai which has encountered numerous attacks since 1993.Be it Varanasi,Jaipur,Delhi, Bangalore,Pune.Terror strikes have grown and now they are targeting tier two cities.
Among all these cities Mumbai was always the favorite destination for terror strikes.The only reason to be prime target is Mumbai being Financial hub and capital of india it is the cynosure of whole world.It is the well know fact that all terror activities are having a strong financial and technical backup.
The reach and methods adopted by terrorist groups and organization take advantage of modern means of communication and technology using high tech facilities available in the form of communication system, transport, sophisticated arms and various other means. This has enabled
them to strike and create terror among people at will.
The only way to counter terrorism is the Intelligence and Strong political will to implement strong laws against terrorism.




After the 9/11 attacks on the world trade center the world's outlook towards the terrorist and terrorist organization has changed the laws have become much more stringent to curb such activities. The Indian outlook also changed specially after the 13 December attack on the Indian parliament which is seen as a symbol of our democracy then it became necessary to enforce a law which would be more stringent so that no culprit should walk freely.Since the lapse of TADA in 1995 there was continuous demand for strong laws.
And these are the two loopholes i.e. Intelligence and political will to frame strong laws where we lack.The bureaucratic paralysis has always stalled the implementation of strong laws and proactive intelligence approach.

Firstly the system which we need to counter complex terrorist threat that India will face in next few years is precise and proactive approach of intelligence about individuals and their intentions capabilities and locations that allow to arrest,kill or otherwise disrupt them before they can attack.That is achieved by electronic interception and human agents penetrating their networks.
We can take example of UK where after 2005 attack in London they sharpened their intelligence teeth and dig them deeper on radical groups active there ,and in 2009-10 they arrested more than 650 people on the basis of suspicion of terrorism.This helped them foiling any further future attacks and we have the live example ,since then London is living in peace.

Secondly comes the dedication to frame strong laws to curb terror threats.After 9/11 attacks US outlook towards terrorism has changed drastically.US realised the fact a strong law will be needed to spoof terrorism and enahnce their stealth internal security.
The Patriot Act has played a key part and often the leading role in a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from the deadly plans of terrorists dedicated to destroying America and their economy.Congress passed the 'USA PATRIOT Act' in response to the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001. The Act gives federal officials greater authority to track and intercept communications, both for law enforcement and foreign intelligence gathering purposes.Although it grants many of the enhancements sought by the Department of Justice, others are concerned that it does not go far enough.

Even our neighbor Pakistan has got such stringent laws against Terrorism.The creation of anti terrorist courts and giving wide powers of arrest and interrogation to the police and army has opened the door to grave those who violates the laws.

However in contrast to our Indian anti terror law scenario if we give a look we still don't have a full fledged strong law sgainst terrorisma and terror activities.We do have a law in early 90's called TADA(Terrorist and Disruptive Activities) When TADA was enacted it came to be challenged before the Apex Court of the country as being unconstitutional. That also got dissolved beacuse of vested political interests and vote bank politics.Then NDA government tried bringing POTA(Prevention of Terror Act) but later government brought drastic changes in it saying it is very unconstitutional.The new act does not define the word terrorist in its definition clause but defines a terrorist act.This made this law impotent and worthless.

It is normally said that terrorism is a low intensity war. But the loss, which our country has suffered in the last two decades due to the rise of terrorist activities, has been on a very large scale.This country has fought four high intensity wars and in those wars we have lost more then 6000 people. We have already lost more then 70000 civilians. In addition, we have lost more then 9000 security personnel. Almost six lakh people in this country have become homeless as a result of terrorism.Every year we are spending massively on our defence beacuse of this hidden threat of terrorism.This year's Defence budget was something around 36.03 billion dollars.Spending billions of dollars won't going to change the situation, the only thing that can bring changes is our strong top level command to implement vigilant and proactive intelligence.And unanimous consensus to frame strong laws.It becomes very necessary in a country like India that if a law regarding terrorism is enacted it should be made so stringent that the culprit be bought to book and does not go scot-free just because of the loopholes and lacunaes in the ordinary law because when our neighboring nation Pakistan which is the cause of perpetrating terrorism in India and can have such stringent laws why can not we have such laws.

Therefore it is the time to do something concrete on grounds of reality.Let us all understand the problem we are now dealing with. And this problem requires various kinds of provisions. Legitimate power has to be given because this is an extraordinary situation. Extraordinary situations require extraordinary remedies.Otherwse suck black wednesday's and black friday's are never going to end each day and each year will be remembered as black day and black year.And slowly people will forget everything and life goes on till the next bomb explodes...