A Diwali-Id without fear

While the Mumbai Police got a reprieve by solving a part of the 7/11 riddle, the focus on investigation of the blasts has prevented it, as well as other police forces in the country, from uncovering other militant cells. Estimates of their number range from hundreds — a gross exaggeration — to just a handful, an understatement. Thus the foremost factor which portends an episodic event is the inability to neutralise the operative and sleeper cells in the country in the past few months, despite greater awareness of their reach and expanse extending from Coimbatore to Varanasi. The key deficiency in this sphere is human intelligence which enables penetration, rather than technical intelligence which facilitates investigation.

We need to remember that terrorism in the country also has an economic motivation. While the actual sums involved in conducting a strike are abysmally low, exponentially large sums of money is laundered by the top hierarchy, all of which is unaccounted. A successful strike during festivities only raises the profile of the plotters of the crime, increasing their demands from funding agencies. These spurious investments also have a zero stop loss clause as the downside is negligible.

... contd.