During mid-morning of April 17, the last day for filing of nomination papers for the state elections, explosive devices attached to a motorcycle ripped through the tightly secured area, severely injuring 16, including policemen.

Investigative agencies leapt into action assuring citizens of every possible step being undertaken to garner fool-proof evidence while stepping up surveillance at all public areas such as train stations, airports, roadways and important buildings.

While the police are yet to completely unravel the intricacies of findings and nab the culprits, sources state that the Union Home Ministry’s attention has been drawn towards a bunch of grassroots operatives working under behest of homegrown terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) based on the use of IEDs strapped to pillions, and nitrate-based explosives and shrapnel.

The needle of suspicion of the Central security establishment has fallen on IM operatives, Yasin Bhatkal, Waqas, Tabrez and Bada Sajid, already accused in 7/11 Mumbai and Hyderabad blasts, and dodging security agencies on their trail.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), formed after the Mumbai strikes to prevent terror attacks and similar strikes, has rounded up three men, Peer Moideen, Basheer and Buhari from Tamil Nadu for investigating into probable links between the Bangalore blasts and prior ones at Hyderabad as in both instances, a two-wheeler was used for carrying the bombs.

These men are known to be involved in crimes committed years ago, served prison term and still associate with banned fundamentalist outfits.

It was in mid-April 2010 when Bangalore last suffered a terror scare, when two low-intensity blasts took place outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium where the T20 Cricket League was to be played, injuring at least eight people while another bomb was defused at another place outside the arena.

Before that, a major terror scourge can be dated to 2008, also the year of the Mumbai blasts during which India, under the strict gaze of international community, bravely resolved to make its soil terror-free by infusing global help, renewed zeal and extra funds in its fight against the menace.

However, five years down the road, too little success seems to have been attained, if at all, numerous strikes continue to dot the nation’s geography, with each terror trail only reinforcing the notion of sheer collapse of intelligence system and general disillusionment with anything that pertains to terror tackling systems.

Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in India with almost all border-states afflicted with varying levels of political or territorial conflicts that have also evolved into religious ones right from 1947, but now it seems to have spread to coastal provinces in the south as well.

Even after more than a hundred thousand lives lost to terrorism, the country lacks a cohesive, codified anti-terror policy, counter-terror mechanisms (intelligence and surveillance), timely evidence collection, tracing, nabbing, fast prosecution and sentencing of perpetrators thereby putting life and property to increasing risks of destruction and disruption at alarming regularity.

The recent hangings of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru, terror mongers of Mumbai blasts and Parliament attack respectively, can be viewed in the light of not court sentences or intention of securing citizens’ lives but political decisions to arrest the dip in electoral prospects in the wake of scams and raging anti-corruption movements.

In such a context, it is no surprise that law enforcement agencies are largely dependent on draconian laws like the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act, Prevention of Terrorist Activities or Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, for any conclusions or convictions, if any.

What also cannot be missed is that the country needs a political determination to shun minority-politics of pushing these communities into dens of backwardness that are then placated with mere tokenisms and played up for a win during elections.

In all this mayhem it is indeed heartening to note that in India terror blasts are not followed by any religious riots and this speaks volumes of the larger secular nature of Indian society and culture and thus presents a chance for all problems to be resolved.

Taking a Leaf from Boston

Only a well-devised strategy can result in strict adherence and some result rather than fulmination or reactive approaches as have been the case with India so far and allowed repeat terror operatives to employ the same modus operandi to unleash a carnage of similar nature and magnitude.

It took just about a week for the Boston police to wind up the entire ‘hunting down operation’ while India is nowhere near nabbing its culprits.

The government could also allow the NIA and other investigative agencies to install proper and quick coordinating channels and interact with the FBI of the U.S. to understand pre- and post-terror attack methodologies that may need to be adhered to.

Perhaps a leaf can also be taken from the way U.S. President Barack Obama set the tone and tenor for fellow politicians and media of all hues to desist from provocation and speculation, and focus on victims and investigation.

In sharp contrast, no sooner had the news of Bangalore blasts trickled in, a political slugfest, speculation, and blame game started with allegations from “saffron” terrorists trying to wrest public sympathy for BJP coming from Karnataka Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed, whose post on a popular social networking site read, “If the blast near the BJP’s office in Bangalore is a terror attack, it will certainly help the BJP politically on the eve of election.”

A provoked BJP too did not leave it at a mere reprimand of Congress, as party spokesperson, Shahnawas Hussain, who requested the terror incident to be treated as a citizens’ concern, and BJP leader and state Home Minister R. Ashok inferred, “The target of the blast is clearly the BJP and its leaders.”

With no thought spared for the impact it would have on the investigation process of this serious incident, the political fraternity, commentators, anchors and experts competed with their conjectural theories, desperate to lap up whatever mileage the incident could bring.