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Twin blasts in Hyderabad : Govt. should get going |
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B.I. Saini
The terrorist strike in Hyderabad on Saturday, August 25, is another signal to the Governments at the Centre and in the State not to take lightly the menace of terrorist outfits. Over 40 people have been killed in the explosions which were carried out by the terrorist elements in places where they would cause the maximum havoc. Luckily, three explosive devices elsewhere were detected by the police and defused before they could explode.
That the terrorist strike is part of a plan to destabilise the country and its polity is evident from the fact that the next day, i.e. Sunday, August 26, the security agencies discovered as many as 19 bombs with timer devices at public places like bus stands, cinema houses, road junctions and pedestrian bridges. The objective obviously was to strike at soft targets and cause maximum casualties as these places are frequented by the general public.
Saturday’s terrorist attack in Hyderabad has to be seen as a continuation of the plans of terrorist outfits to strike at the symbols of the Indian State. The Mumbai serial bomb attacks in trains, the Samjhauta Express blasts and the Mecca Masjid blastin Hyderabad itself in May this year also had the objective of destabilising the country. The Mecca Masjid explosion, especially, appeared to have been aimed at creating a communal divide.
The way the bombs had been planted at a large number of places shows that the intention was to create mayhem and raise doubts in the public mind about the ability of the state to protect the citizens. As in the case of the Mecca Masjid blast and the Samjhauta Express explosions, the authorities suspect that Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HUJI) is responsible for the latest terrorist strike. HUJI’s senior functionary Bilal, who hails from Hyderabad and is now said to be operating from Karachi, is reportedly masterminding the terrorist operations in Andhra Pradesh. At the India-Pakistan Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism meeting on March 6, India had demanded that Pakistan should apprehend Bilal and hand him over for further investigation of his involvement in terrorist strikes in this country. But as in other such cases, there has been no positive response from Pakistan to the Indian demand.
The Governments in New Delhi and Hyderabad need to spruce up their act and take effective steps against terrorist elements operating in the country. These may include steps, both at home and abroad, in terms of putting pressure on neighbouring countries to end their support, active or passive, for terrorist organisations operating against India.
The UPA Government did away with the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), perhaps for valid reasons after it came to power at the Centre. At the time, there were accusations that POTA was being used selectively against members of a certain community.
The Government had said at the time that though POTA had been withdrawn, there would be no let up in the fight against terrorism and that other existing laws would be used to put down terrorist elements. But the way terrorist incidents are taking place shows that the measures taken by the Government have not been entirely effective. Government agencies and the political leadership have to adopt a more pro-active approach to tackle the menace of terrorism.
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