Bangalore Terror Attack

The last week of 2005 in India was marked with a terror attack that struck India's IT capital, Bangalore. Similar to the bomb blast in Delhi in the last week of October 2005, this act of terror has again taken the life of innocent victim, a retired professor of IIT Delhi, as well as injuring five others. This attack has become a reminder to the unrelenting efforts by terrorist groups to disrupt the peace and tranquility in the society. Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka Sate, is a home for India's leading IT companies, the ISRO, the HAL as well as important centers of learning. The city also acts as a technological hub for India's ever growing IT industry.

The Bangalore attack that targeted a leading Indian institute of science has become a wake up call to other centers of learning in other parts of India. The soft target chosen by the terrorist to launch their heinous crime has forced the administration in the Center as well as throughout the Indian States to increase the security measures in various other leading institutes and establishments across in India. The Home Ministry had issued an order to provide CISF security at institutes like IITs (Delhi, Kanpur, Mumbai), IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta) as well as additional security personnel to scientists in Defense Research Development Organization Hindustan Aeronautical Limited and the Bhabha Atomic Research Center.

This Bangalore terrorist attack should be viewed as a clear warning for us that the terrorist war in India that is being fought is not about Jammu and Kashmir anymore. It is a war against the Indian state. It has become a deep-rooted conflict and the targets have been varied since: centers of economic growth, institutions of higher learning and other symbols of an open society and democratic culture. The 1993 and 2003 Mumbai blasts - the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India headquarter, Gateway of India and the Zhaveri Bazaar. Attacks to provoke communal riots and to draw fear over the country's populace are too many to be listed - the foiled Ayodhya attack earlier this year and the pre-Diwali Delhi blast were only the most recent.

Who is responsible for these attacks? In India, whenever terrorist attack appeared, blame is always mounted to the terror groups that have been working to destruct the stability of the India state: the Pakistani sponsored terrorist groups like the LeT, the Hizbul Mujahedeen and others. The same logic is also applicable to the recent Bangalore attack. The Pakistani sponsored LeT terrorist group has been blamed for this crime. The police have been gathering evidence and information to prove the involvement of this group in the attack. Even though so far there is yet to be found any concrete proof for the involvement of this group in the attack, but their records of planned attack in Bangalore in the past years as well as other parts of India are enough to suggest that this group is involved. But until the final clue is gathered, it is impossible to put finger on any certain groups or individuals to be responsible for the attack.

One thing that needs to be emphasized here is that whoever is responsible for this attack, as well as other attacks on innocent lives, is regarded to be irresponsible being. If any he/she is still willing to be regarded as human, there should be an end to this kind of act of terror. Their action is a crime against humanity and as long as they are alive and continue their acts of terror, humanity will not be the same. It is a duty for all of us to fight and eradicate this menace forever. Until and unless terrorism is defeated, peaceful coexistence between peoples of different shades of life is a distance reality. The eventful year of 2005 is finally coming to an end and with the arrival of the new year, a new beginning, a new spirit of harmony and peace should be revive. Let’s hope and fight for a better tomorrow.