Bomb Blasts In India - 2

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<b>Carnage in Assam</b>

Terrorists strike with impunity

Thursday’s carnage in Assam, which has claimed the lives of scores of innocent civilians and left hundreds badly mauled, was waiting to happen. The series of bombings across the country in recent months has already established one indisputable fact: With a weak Union Government in New Delhi whose writ does not run beyond the sanitised corridors of North Block and South Block, terrorists can strike at will and with deadly effect any time at any place with impunity. The massacre in Assam not only re-establishes this point, it also makes a mockery of the UPA Government’s much-publicised pledge to crack down on terror after the Delhi bombings of September 13. <b>Worse, it shows up the abysmal failure of the Union Home Ministry and the intelligence agencies which, under the tutelage of Mr Shivraj Patil, have virtually ceased to fulfil their responsibilities</b>. In the past, whenever terrorists have struck in States ruled by the BJP, the Union Home Ministry and the intelligence agencies have slyly put it out that advance warnings were issued to the State Governments, thus seeking to pin the blame on local authorities while white-washing their own lapses. This ploy suffered a jolt when terrorists bombed Delhi although that did not prevent the Home Minister from trying to brazen it out, and laughably so. <b>Now that terrorists have devastated cities in another Congress-ruled State, the Home Ministry is understandably stumped for an adequate response, although it is unlikely that it will own up to its folly, nor will Mr Patil be made to pay for his stunning inefficiency</b>. The immediate official reactions have been no different from previous asinine platitudes.

<b>Little or no purpose will be served by trying to guess the identity of the organisation behind Thursday’s bombings. In the amorphous world of Islamic jihad, identities are as hazy as the shadowy faces of those who derive macabre pleasure at the sight of gore and flesh.</b> What can be said with some certitude is that the killers owe allegiance to an organisation which has struck roots in Assam and is sustained by patrons across the border: The Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, with its base in Bangladesh, fits the bill. The Congress Government in Assam has pathetically tried to deflect attention from jihadis by suggesting that ULFA planned the bombings. The police have been prompt in rejecting this suggestion and have named HuJI. There are three reasons why the needle of suspicion points to this Islamist outfit. First, the vast number of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh makes it easy for HuJI — or for that matter any terrorist organisation — to recruit foot soldiers to carry out their instructions. Second, places other than Guwahati that have been attacked have a history of militant Islamism with land-grabbing Bangladeshi immigrants clashing with the indigenous people, for instance in the Bodo majority areas. Indeed, Thursday’s assault may have been in retaliation to the Bodos trying to drive out Bangladeshis from tribal land.<b> Third, the Congress, to perpetuate its rule in Assam through vote-bank politics, which involves extending protection and granting legitimacy to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, has created a situation where even Pakistanis can register as voters in the State and contest elections, as was recently revealed</b>. Indeed, given its demographic profile, Assam was a sitting duck for jihadis. Had the State Government been alert and the intelligence agencies been doing their job, Thursday’s tragedy could have been avoided.