That the terror network had proliferated in the Nasik-Malegaon-Aurangabad areas of Maharashtra was established way back in May, with the recovery of a large cache of arms and explosives. That the network had not been entirely eliminated was clearly indicated by the police. The Mumbai serial blasts were a sign that some cells were alive and kicking. Yet there was no evident effort to penetrate these networks.

Given an understanding of the aims of the terrorists, an event-, location- and sensitivity-based risk assessment should have made it obvious to the Maharashtra police that communally sensitive places like Malegaon, temples and mosques and Friday prayers could be sites and moments of orchestrated mayhem. Yet it is obvious that the local police was not sensitised. It failed to spot the tell-tale signs of a terror strike, which many local citizens — some, no doubt, with the benefit of hindsight — have now come out with. A police with an ear to the ground is supposed to foresee events and put together the jigsaw of discontinuous pieces.

However, given the penchant of our police and political leadership for what can only be called ‘alibi policing’ — resorting to pretexts such as failure of intelligence, lack of strength, technology and the bogey of the external hand — the result was perhaps foretold.

Indian metros in general and Mumbai and Maharashtra in particular are vulnerable to the sustained campaign by indigenous terrorists. These places offer stark symbols of the inequity of our growth paradigm, malls raised over demolished slums. What we now require is firm leadership in the home department and of the police in Maharashtra. This implies accountability and responsibility, not just deft political management.

... contd.