The Mumbai terror strikes have stirred a range of emotions among Indians. There was deep anguish, concern, anger and of course, contempt. There also was mockery and a certain indifference in the pent up feelings.

A string of SMSes that filled the inboxes of mobile phones in the last two days have carried these emotions across the nation.

The tone of these short messages was loud and clear: hang the likes of Afzal Guru and put down terror with an iron hand.

"Forgiving a terrorist should be left to God. But fixing their appointment with God is entirely our responsibility," read one short message which had a by-line Indian Army.

This was an obvious reference to Afzal Guru, the key accused who was awarded death penalty by the Supreme Court in the attack on Parliament case.

Another said: "We salute the brave officers who laid down their lives in protecting us and our country, including Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Chief Hemant Karkare, police officers Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar."

Yet another SMS urged people to pray for the people who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

"Vote properly to make this country worth dying for," read a terse message that was ostensibly kept in circulation by police officials.

There was one interesting message in in-boxes on Friday suggesting that date '26' has turned out to be ominous, going by the chronology of events.

"December 26-tsunami, January 26-Kutch quake, February 26-Godhra, June 26-Gujarat floods, July 26-Mumbai train blast, July 26-Ahmedabad blasts and November 26-Mumbai terror strikes."

... contd.