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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Mumbai blasts & our role

Resilience, spirit of Mumbai-wallas and the never-say-die attitude: phrases one hears so much after such catastrophes. Of course, residents of this bustling metropolis have an attitude that distinguishes them from rest of the cities.

All of us salute Mumbai for its resilience. But what next? The blasts keep happening and we will keep lauding the spirit! Is that all? Picking the pieces after a tragedy and seeing the silverlining shouldn't become the norm for us.

After all, Mumbai is clearly on target. We forget too easily. The blasts in Delhi were not too long ago. Clearly, terror has infilterated Mumbai deeply. The extent of disaster and the planning has been shocking and no less in magnitude than Madrid bombing or other major terrorist attacks across the world.

Rather, 11/7 suggests that terrorists are getting bolder and we need to take them headon. One thing is clear we have to be prepared and watchful. The police and citizens will have to coordinate and the ordinary people will have to help law-enforcers in all possible ways.

This is through providing intelligence inputs to the security agencies and not just put the onus on police. It is a city of 15 million and if most of them keep their eyes and ears open, such synchronised terror attacks in so many trains across the city, can be warded off.