The arrest of six persons for planning bomb attacks during the coming festive season has brought to light, once again, the fact that Pakistan remains unrelenting in its nefarious designs against India. The attempt continues to create divisions within society and encourage the anti-national forces. As experts have noted, the police need to be a hundred percent successful against such conspiracies, because failing even once can lead to the loss of hundreds of lives. There is need to constantly upgrade the capabilities of the police and intelligence services to match the threat.
It is important in this context for the general public to realise that their cooperation too is needed for the situation to be kept under control. This has to be done directly – by providing information on suspicious activity – but also by remaining disciplined in everyday life so as to put as little strain on the police as possible. The latest equipment and other technical resources should be made available by the government to the police so that leads and suspicious activity can be followed up to the required extent. Specialists need to be recruited and trained in various disciplines of forensics and investigation, who must work in tandem with the general police.
It is also important that every case should be studied thoroughly from various points of view – the logistics, the planning, the handlers and agencies involved; as also the motivation behind the individuals’ actions. Why should citizens of India, born and brought up in a free and relatively fair society want to kill others as well as themselves? If it is due to fundamentalist religious belief, the sources of the inspiration need to be identified and dealt with in appropriate fashion. The system should have the political will to take action against those who remain in the background and flourish while others suffer.
There are many enabling ideologies that ally with extremists of various kinds for the sake of their political goals. These have to be combated at the political and ideological levels through effective interventions. The youth should be prevented from being drawn into such networks by promoting more positive role models. Psychologists and sociologists should be put to work on curing the disease at the roots.
As for Pakistan, the world is finally waking up to its duplicity. The Americans are only the latest victims of its treachery. Hopefully, the international community will take India’s warnings more seriously now.
