The twin blasts in Hyderabad in the night of 25th August, which killed over 40 unsuspecting and innocent people, deserve severest condemnation from one and all. The objective of the perpetrators of this ghastly crime against humanity appears to be creation of panic, disruption of normal life and causing harm to communal harmony in the sixth largest city of resurgent India.
It goes to the credit of Hyderabadis that they refused to play into the hands of the terrorists. Their resilience was evident the very next day when almost every thing became normal in the twin cities. Yet undercurrents of fear were apparent in the wake of the spate of hoax bomb calls on 27th August when the state secretariat had to be evacuated for several hours. The protests and demonstrations by political outfits also disrupted the normal life causing loss to educational and commercial activities.
Irresponsible newspapers published all sorts of stories and made wild speculations about the attacks and their possible sources. Even some responsible newspapers couldn’t keep up their cool and indulged in irresponsible reporting to satisfy the raw sentiments of some sections of their readers. It is the basic responsibility of the Fourth Estate to maintain sanity and equilibrium and guide the common man in such trying times
As it is suspected, one of the aims of the terrorists was disturbing peace and harming communal harmony. Irresponsible speculation on the part of the media is bound to strengthen the objectives of the terrorists. The degree of tension which spread throughout India, because of coloured reporting, was alarming.
The Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil refused to speculate about the perpetrators behind the crime and said that whatever clues had been found would not be revealed to the press and only be shared with intelligence agencies. This wise policy deserves to be appreciated. It is a matter of great concern that police and intelligence agencies are still clueless and appear to be groping in darkness. As occurrence of such ghastly attacks has become a frequent phenomenon, further strengthening of intelligence network becomes very important.
Extremism, abject poverty, sense of alienation, denial of justice and promotion of violence through films and media are some of the factors which nurture terrorist tendencies. The civil society must take note of these disturbing trends and suggest and implement measures to counter them.
The name of an obscure organisation Harkat-ul-Jihadul Islami has been mentioned in connection of the blasts. Let us stress that Jihad is basically a struggle for promotion of good and stamping out of evil. Violence, terrorism and killing of innocent people is most reprehensible in the eyes of God. Islam condemns and rejects it totally. These acts of violence are neither Jihad nor Islamic. They are terrorism pure and unadulterated.
It is being further said that inputs from central intelligence agencies had given prior intimation that such attacks may occur in Hyderabad. If it is so, why appropriate preventive measures were not taken to avoid these premeditated and well-planned attacks? The Andhra Pradesh Government cannot be absolved of its fundamental duty of saving the life and limb of its citizens. It has miserably failed in its bounden duty. It is meaningless to hide behind the lame excuse that some external forces were responsible for these attacks. Laying the blame on others’ doors and closing eyes to our shortcomings will not help us in any way.
Let our government be serious, let our civil society be vigilant and let us join hands to say a clear NO to terror, to injustice and to violence.