Yet again there were blasts in Mumbai yesterday, many dead, many more injured and today life in Mumbai gets back to 'normal'. Having people very close to me in Mumbai, I know the whirlwind of emotions any heart having loved ones in Mumbai goes through, whenever a new terror attack surfaces. Resilience of Mumbai has been a quality often admired but is this resilience bordering towards nonchalance? Should we just sit back?
Who is to be blamed? Maybe, the government or maybe the people themselves, I do not know.....
What can be done?
Maybe one of the feasible solutions to reduce the terror attacks is to reduce the commotion and chaos in the crowded areas. Is it not possible to have better organization? For example have organized queues instead or unorganized crowds? Organization would lead to easier detection of aberration and suspicious activity. This is something, we as people can contribute to. This would also help probably to detect aberrations/suspicious things and activities automatically; because frankly, even if we have CCTVs in crowded areas, given the sheer density of these crowds makes manual detection of suspicious activity prior to a impending mishap well nigh impossible.
The bombs have to be hidden and whenever there is clutter, things (read bombs) can be easily hidden.
Therefore probably reducing the litter and clutter would also help, making the detection of suspicious things easier. Also, a rule can be enforced , something like 'everyone must keep his/her belongings close to himself/herself' , so that unattended things can easily be detected and handed to officials. Reduction of clutter, increase of cleanliness and clear association of what belongs to whom would lead to lesser scope to hide things (read bomb). Maybe government should take littering more seriously and maybe even impose a serious fine like Singapore.
We know places which are targeted- places which are epicenters of business or tourist activities and are crowded, places which when affected would have reverberations and repercussions felt in the entire country and the world at large.
Therefore another solution to possibly reduce these attacks is to have checkpoints through which every person has to go before entering these crowded areas something like what happens in airports. If we can have it in airports, why not in markets? Also having randomized checkpoints might help, some like what a group at USC has been helping the security officials at LAX with.
The disturbing timeline of terror attacks in Mumbai (and Pune) reads something like:
12 March 1993 - Series of 13 bombs go off, killing 257
6 December 2002 - Bomb goes off in a bus in Ghatkopar, killing 2
27 January 2003 - Bomb goes off on a bicycle in Vile Parle, killing 1
14 March 2003 - Bomb goes off in a train in Mulund, killing 10
28 July 2003 - Bomb goes off in a bus in Ghatkopar, killing 4
25 August 2003 - Two Bombs go off in cars near the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar, killing 50
11 July 2006 - Series of seven bombs go off in trains, killing 209
26 November 2008 to 29 November 2008 - Coordinated series of attacks, killing at least 172.
13 February 2010- A bomb explosion at the German Bakery in Pune killed fourteen people, and injured at least 60 more.
13 July 2011 - 13 July 2011 Mumbai bombings
It is time we should stop blaming others and maybe do something about it ourselves- collectively. As the maxim goes "United we stand....."!!
Jai Hind!
