Questions

I was seething with anger when I read this report (The Report). If the intelligence had such detailed reports of which terrorist outfit had coffee with whom ,met with whom and did what not, were they sleeping over it all this while? Or is the entire piece a figment of some "experts" imagination? Hard to say but assuming the IB does indeed have such granular level of details I find the whole situation very confusing - Why didn’t they act ? Rather than publishing rendezvous records once the damage has been done?

Anyone with any experience in planning and execution knows the importance of "Plan B", In terms of mission critical projects there is a Plan C as well. Terrorist cells operate in the same fashion because the men are known to chicken out of panic and fear - good for us. The difference in their execution is that the cells operate independently and don’t know the other's whereabouts. Cell 1 does not know Cell 2 and in turn Cell 2 does not know about Cell 3, reason being if one cell cracks up then the whereabouts of the rest would not be at stake. The subsequent cell is activated only when the previous one is incapacitated. What’s new? Any well-read high school kid knows this.

As is known the penchant for dates. 16th December (1971-surrender of Pakistani forces in the then East Pakistan) and 26th December (Kargil Vijay Divas) are some of the more memorable dates that are known to be on the probable list of the terrorist’ favourite strike dates – for obvious reasons. Should not the threat perception be heightened in these days.

But what we have is a dismal political scenario with every political party trying to score brownie points over the attacks. Lives have been lost, children have been orphaned and our esteemed leaders are more interested in finger pointing. The congress is blaming the BJP as the attacks have happened in BJP ruled states, whereas a senior leader of the BJP is actually blaming the UPA for staging the attacks. Its the same story whenever the country faces such an attack. The leaders have to look beyond their petty skirmishes and look at the matter at hand. A matter of national security should not be a vote bank issue! please!!!!

What is required is a concerted effort by the law enforcement agencies. They should start cracking the whip ferociously, stake out the suspicious cells and be given a slightly free hand. A soft stand does not curb terrorism, we have a standing example in Punjab, we know what it takes to clear it – we have the state machinery, whats required is a little political backing to go all out and attack the problem at the root and wipe it out forever.

Hopefully we will have more answers than questions soon.