Curse of faceless terror

Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

Is it on?

Walk into a restaurant on the Raj Bhavan Road and the tell-tale beep-beep of the metal detector goes off.

A few days back, it was not so even if you were carrying a cellphone and loads of coins. “We have switched it off,” said the security guard then who doubles up as parking attendant.

Now, again it has been switched on. But it goes off during the scheduled power-cut of 210-minutes.

At another mall, there are uniformed guards who check the bags and run the metal detector over the pockets, belts and buttons but if you park and climb the stairs you can walk in unchecked. Incidentally, the CCTVs inside the mall to deter shoplifters are all connected to UPS and don’t go on a blink when the power goes off.

In some of the malls, after passing through the detector, there is frisking (call it patting the pockets).

Tell the person that you are carrying a pistol in your socks and not in your pocket, he will laugh and wave you in. But he will not bend.

Need a better example of India’s losing battle with terror which is delivering a hundred lacerating blows every year?

Perhaps not. Indian terror is still faceless. While Mohammed Atta who slammed a jetliner into the WTC’s north tower in New York was captured on a CCTV at the Boston airport and Mohammed Sidique Khan who carried out the Tube bombings in London was also captured on CCTV.

The terrorists who struck Ahmedabad and Surat stole a car, drove hundreds of kilometres, sent emails, parked their cars and cycles and disappeared without a clue.

If only the hospitals, hotels and thoroughfares had CCTVs then we would have faces to terror we are seeing and not a few dozen names that the police throw at us with the regularity of the bombing strikes.

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