First terrorist attack since Mumbai-08…. We managed to secure India for 1 year 2months 18 days…. The ministers have announced the relief package of X lakh of rupees for the dead and Y for the injured… An enquiry sorry a high level enquiry will be ordered.… Talks with Pakistan would be suspended…. Bal thakrey will blame it on Sharuk Khan…. A special coverage by Barkha dutt .. A candlelight vigil at the blast site…. A few blog posts like this…. And we go back to our lives waiting for the stopwatch to start again.
I know the challenges of securing India are next to impossible given the dynamics of the region we are located in…. It is unfair to compare our situation with USA, Europe, Australia even Israel…. We are not a country that sits thousand miles away across the Atlantic Ocean (even then they couldn’t stop 9/11 and Oklahoma bombing)…. We are not a continent of small countries that are so interconnected that they share a common currency…. We are not an island sitting at the bottom of the Indian Ocean (Aust)…..And we are not a small country that only has to defend one border (Israel) ….
We are India….. The only democracy that exists between Europe and Japan… Home
to every known religion in the world… Region that has the highest concentration of people in the
world…. Surrounded by Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Nepal, Burma,Bhutan, Bangladesh….
Here is a list of India border with its neighbours
COUNTRY =LENGTH OF BORDER (KM) = % OF TOTAL BORDER
Afghanistan = 80km = 0.52
Bhutan = 587km = 3.86
Myanmar = 1458km = 9.59
Nepal = 1752km = 11.53
Pakistan = 3310km = 21.78
China = 3917km = 25.77
Bangladesh = 4096km = 26.95
Even if we fence the entire Pakistan border (which in itself will be a hurricane task) we still have porous borders across Bangladesh, Nepal, China and Burma… Any of these countries can be used by the terrorists to infiltrate into India…. Add to it thousand miles of coastline. It’s clear we cannot stop them from coming in…
A terrorist just doesn’t walks into India and explodes a bomb…. Before he comes he plans it…. The plan includes a site of attack… the means to attack…. Money and various logistics… They use public infrastructure to make, communicate and execute this plan… And we own this infrastructure…. From cell phone networks to banking systems… We call the shots… Why can’t we have software to analyse massive amount of data that comes thorough our telecom networks… I hope the giants of Indian IT can take this initiative instead of doing donkey work for foreign companies…. Restrict access to stuff like RDX and other explosive material…Track their sale and purchases… Plus the standard intelligence routine of moles and money…
Well Im not a spy but I know blaming Pakistan will not solve anything… And blaming security agencies will not solve anything either… Fact of the matter is we live in a very dangerous neighbourhood …. We need to keep this fact in mind
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