Terror in India has generated a devastating and chillingly familiar narrative. In a letter earlier this week, Sourabh Jyoti Sharma from Delhi succinctly expressed what most of us now feel the moment bad news of a certain sort comes in.

• The Mumbai attacks show the moribund state of our intelligence networks. We can no longer predict attacks nor work out a mechanism to prevent terror, let alone implement such a mechanism to root out terror. We’ve now become the victims of endless terror. It’s no longer a question of if, but merely when and where, the next devastating attack will come. After an attack, there’ll be the usual platitudes from politicians and then things will be back to square one: that is, another attack.

Salute them

• Hats off to Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad chief, Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and the other police officials killed during the fighting on Wednesday night. Praise should also be given to the Indian Navy and Coast Guard who managed to apprehend M.V. Alpha — the ship believed to have carried the terrorists and ammunitions into Mumbai waters — and started investigating the crew members.

Indian politicians of all different parties should shun the an appeasement policy and start acting tough. The meltdown, financial crunch and elections are all secondary issues. The first priority is tackling terrorism.

— Kulbhushan Kanwar

Chandigarh

TV, framed

• I am pained and shocked to see the grossly irresponsible attitude of the television news channels which continued to beam live telecast of the commando rescue operations. They must have been aware that television broadcasts are now fully available even on mobile phones. This could seriously hamper the effectiveness of the operations and the lives of people trapped inside.

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