Friday, October 31, 2008

Mayhem in Assam

After Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat and New Delhi, it is the North Eastern state of Assam which bore the brunt of Islamic terrorist attack.

While initial reports pointed towards United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the Intelligence Agencies are convinced that it is Bangladesh based Harkat-Ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) which has perpetrated this heinous act.

Around 60 people lost their lives and more than 300 injured in the serial blasts that occurred in the state capital, Guwahati (Kamrup District) along with the districts of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Barpeta - more than 30 in Guwahati itself.


Curfew was clamped in the Guwahati following the blasts after angry mobs set fire to several police and fire services vehicles near the blast site at Ganeshguri market and along the arterial Guwahati-Shillong road. The blast site is one kilometer away from the chief minister's office in the state capital complex at Dispur.

Interestingly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha.

Once again the blame falls on our Intelligence Agencies which have no clue on what is going to happen. It is learnt that RDX was used but later found that Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) were used to cause the havoc. The Indian Army is already fighting ULFA since decades and Army's intelligence wing should have been very very strong to detect something like serial blasts.

Serial blasts takes lot of planning and co-ordination which involves lot of people. When lot of people are involved, there is every chance that bits and pieces of information would reach our intelligence agencies through electronic surveillance by eves dropping on the telephonic conversation between known terrorists and also through Human Intelligence. Looks like there is an overall failure.

Our agencies need a thorough revamp of its structure and the way they function. They need to be more pro-active. For that to happen, they need clear political backing. The day they have support from both the Government and opposition, they would have no difficulties and tracking and neutralizing terrorist modules.

Until then, we need to wait for another serial blasts to occur !!

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