By Yatindra Bhatnagar

The citizens of India, and its Capital city might not have become de-sensitized by Jihadi Islam's periodic terror attacks on innocent people, the rulers certainly have. They do promptly issue statements after the terror attacks condemning the incidents in "strongest terms" and promising to bring the culprits to book, soon. They have done the same in last week's attack.

Ho many terrorists have been arrested, tried and sentenced in the last 10 years? And how many people have died and injured? The answer to the first question would shame the authorities as the number is small, very small - can be counted on fingertips. And the answer to the second would shock the nation as the number is very large, more than 200 in Delhi alone. Maharashtra leads in this with over six hundred killed. What a record!

In the latest terror attack last week there were at least 13 deaths and injuries to about 100 people. This happened at the High Courts in morning, not in the dark at some remote place. The terrorists foxed Delhi Police and Central intelligence agencies and carried out their attacks - as they usually do. They know the lack of political will of the Congress-led UPA government will neither allow it to tighten vigilance against suspicious Jihadi Islamists, nor pursue the security matters with determination.

That seem to be the Politically Correct policies and Secular credentials of the ruling party that has been following a consistence policy of appeasement and not going whole hog against suspicious Jihadis in our midst or coming easily from across the borders.
This is not the way to fight the war on terror or to safeguard the security of the people and the country.

Not much can be expected of the UPA government that hesitates to execute confirmed, condemned and sentenced culprits of terror attacks. The government bows to the pressure of various regional satraps to delay execution despite the final verdict of the Supreme Court and even after the President had rejected the mercy petitions.

Take the case of Afzal Guru, the convicted terrorist of the attack on Parliament some 10 years back. It was ridiculous for the President to refer the petition to the Home Ministry to make it go round various government departments and authorities before finally coming up with a rejection decision. However, a fresh date for the execution has not yet been fixed.

Is the government waiting for some kind of deal - a hijacking and hostage-taking and release in exchange? I hope not.

There is a widespread demand - and the State Assembly in Tamil Nadu has passed a resolution to urge the Central government to not execute - or even pardon - the convicted killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was killed some 18 years back and the condemned killers are still able to influence a State Assembly to act on their behalf! And mind you, these convicted killers were acting on behalf of a foreign outfit - the LTTE of Sri Lanka that was fighting for a separate state for Tamils.

Similar threats are made by Jammu & Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for Afzal Guru.

Shame on these people.

The Delhi blast is followed by e-mails for further attacks on various targets, in other cities also. These may or may not be hoax as enemies of India are constantly planning to carry on their nefarious acts to rattle the government and kill the innocent people. The Indian intelligence agencies - much of their time is probably taken up by security of politicians or probing scandals of various nature - are hard pressed. They might be efficient but their masters are busy in other activities and have no time to focus on the nation's security.

In two days after the blast in Delhi, security agencies have received four emails claiming responsibility for the carnage and threatening more action on at least three targets - the Supreme Court in New Delhi and a shopping mall in the nation's Capital, in addition to Ahmedabad, in Gujarat.

The inability of the government to swiftly act - though even after the attacks - to get positive and solid leads and round up suspects is apparent. Home Minister P. Chidambaram conceded that there were promising, but not very convincing, leads so far. Wow!

That there are fanatics, terrorists and other miscreants and anti-India elements is a well known fact. There are websites spewing hatred for India, just one site is named "kill.india@yahoo.com. Somebody sent an email from that site threatening more blasts, at Ahmedabad also, as found from the code used.

Contrast this with the situation on September 11, 2001 in the United States when terror struck in New York's Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and another crash in Pennsylvania. The 19 hijackers, the symbols of Jihadi Islam's ugly reach, were identified within hours - though they had also died on the ‘mission.' Since then, of course, there has been no similar attack anywhere on the US soil.

India seems to be different, more tolerant, more secular, may be more appeasing and more unconcerned, and of course, de-sensitized.

That's not how you assure the safety and security of the nation and its people. It's not how you govern the country as diverse and as generous and rich as India. The credibility of the nation as a rising superpower is also at stake; the Government of India better start with a firm policy to deal with the situation.

Agencies have reported that so far, the authorities have been able to nab one man, Muhammad Sayeed Sheikh, in Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir for sending the first email claiming that the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) was behind the blast.

Two more persons were detained in Srinagar. One of them, Farooq Ahmad, had visited the High Court on the day of the blast. Farooq's accomplice, Ejaz Ahmed, had also been under police surveillance for quite some time as he had made a suspicious call to Srinagar central jail after the blast.

Sheikh, an undergraduate student, got help from two more persons, Muhammad Imran and Ashiq Hussain, for drafting the email. [Don't the names suggest something?]

The fourth email was received by television news channels on Sept. 9. It was sent from the same email ID, ‘chotoominani5@gmail.com', from which the second mail reportedly from the Indian Mujahideen was sent.

The sender claimed to be a member of the terror outfit held responsible for almost all the blasts took place in major Indian cities during the last few years. Investigators from the special task force of Kolkata Police suspect that the second email was sent from a mobile phone in the city.