The availability of weapons and explosives in and around Mumbai is a known fact. An AK-47 rifle can be procured at a price less than that for a motorcycle in the city. Also, large quantity of explosives — meant for road building in Afghanistan — have been known to be missing from ships off the Mumbai port. There has, apparently, been no follow up of such thefts and very little of this is known in the public domain.

The availability of such large quantities of explosives is not doubt a boon to the terror cells operating in the area. Lack of effective grassroots policing in the form of beat policing at the Mumbai railway stations — particularly at Churchgate, CSVT, and elsewhere — is another issue which needs serious consideration. Airport-like security at such densely packed public places may not be feasible, but prophylactic security by mobilising bomb squads, periodic surveillance and checks, can be a powerful deterrent. Such measures, apparently, are being ignored.

Crime and the coagulation of terror has been the highest in Mumbai, despite frequent crackdowns. Terrorism needs a critical mass of criminal activity to flourish, apart from the existence of a permissive police environment. Maharashtra — Mumbai particularly — provide just such an environment. Ironically, Maharashtra has a preventive law — the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCCOCA), which has been used by the state to control the rise of terrorist activity in the past. But the law does not appear to have been successful in preventing terror strikes of the kind we saw on Tuesday, primarily because of the lack of effective implementation.

... contd.