What makes the latest act of Islamist terror more intriguing is it came at the very time that the police forces of Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana and UP had cracked open a terror module operating in three states and recovered arms, ammunition, detonators, timer devices and an astounding three tons of explosives that could so easily have caused mayhem in many parts of the country
The ugly head of terror has reared its head again, this time in the heart of the capital, and too near the historic Red Fort at that. Whether accidental or intentional, a car blast at an intersection that caused considerable loss of lives and damage serves as a stark reminder of more violent times when bombings were a recurring urban fear, as in the early decades of the millennium.
What makes the latest act of Islamist terror more intriguing is it came at the very time that the police forces of Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana and UP had cracked open a terror module operating in three states and recovered arms, ammunition, detonators, timer devices and an astounding three tons of explosives that could so easily have caused mayhem in many parts of the country.
An intelligence failure to pick up a live threat posed by other members of the same module who may have been carrying some part of the explosives until they blew up in Delhi will leave a psychological scar. There will also be lingering concerns over the state of preparedness of the nation to deal with the anxieties such events cause to people in their everyday lives.
The investigating agencies can get to the bottom of the conspiracy from which this major terror event, which took place after a long gap in a metropolis, emanated. But there is no scope for a blame game; nor can any political capital be made from an event that seems to have flowed from a homegrown terror conspiracy in which even educated members of the medical profession not only plotted but also personally tried to carry out acts of terror.
Questions about whether a group of people could be a suicide collective or if this act was simply that of a radicalised individual who was willing to sacrifice the lives of other plotters riding with him in the car, as suspected, may remain unanswered. But the fact remains that so long as scope is there for radicals to take on the world with violence, people will continue to pay with their lives in a world also filled with imperfect people.
Irrespective of religion or ideology, terror is terror and eternal vigil against it through security agencies and police forces is a price that must be paid. When a clear footprint was spotted in links with Pakistan in the April 22 attack on the Baisaran valley near Pahalgam, it was possible to take retaliatory strikes deep inside that country to serve a lesson to a nation that used terror as a state policy.
Keeping India safe while intending domestic terrorists conspire is a far harder task. Unravelling a huge plot in which tons of explosives were involved was a most impressive intelligence success. It is a pity a few persons seem to have slipped through the net to carry out this action against the people of India.
What this means is the tough talk on terror from which the Operation Sindoor was born must be followed up with smart action to deal with domestic terrorists, regardless of their religion. It will be the security forces that will be most tested post-10/11 if the capital and the bigger urban centres that are likely to be easier terror targets.
