For terror solutions, think local

The key to breaking the back of terrorism is in penetrating the terror cell. This can be achieved more easily than is imagined

The killing of innocents in Malegaon is a grim reminder that terror has no consideration for faith or penury. From the first class compartments of local trains in Mumbai to a congested mosque in dusty Malegaon, the gruesome pictures have shamed the nation. The story is all the more saddening because it was, like Mumbai, a tragedy that could have been averted.

The home-grown terrorist supported by his counterpart abroad is focused on weakening India8217;s secular fabric. The targets are carefully selected to create a Godhra-like response, to tear asunder and not merely strain the country8217;s rich social and religious tapestry. Tectonic events with mass casualties closely linked to religious symbols, sites or activities are tactics used by these terrorists over the past few years, be it in Akshardham, Ayodhya, Sankatmochan Temple in Varanasi and now Malegaon. A subtle shift in the strategy is evident. Having failed to evoke a response at places of worship of the majority community, a mosque was made the target this time, in the hope that it would trigger a violent response from the volatile youth of the town who have been known to demonstrate such a proclivity in the past.

So far the reaction has been muted. Perhaps it is because the community at large, including the Muslim ulema, has understood the larger game plan and is not supportive of a design which strikes at the root of harmonious existence with other communities. How long we can sustain this spirit, though, is a moot question. With Dussehra and Diwali approaching, the key issue is our ability to take proactive and preventive measures to negate the possibilities of another terror attack.

That the terror network had proliferated in the Nasik-Malegaon-Aurangabad areas of Maharashtra was established way back in May, with the recovery of a large cache of arms and explosives. That the network had not been entirely eliminated was clearly indicated by the police. The Mumbai serial blasts were a sign that some cells were alive and kicking. Yet there was no evident effort to penetrate these networks.

Given an understanding of the aims of the terrorists, an event-, location- and sensitivity-based risk assessment should have made it obvious to the Maharashtra police that communally sensitive places like Malegaon, temples and mosques and Friday prayers could be sites and moments of orchestrated mayhem. Yet it is obvious that the local police was not sensitised. It failed to spot the tell-tale signs of a terror strike, which many local citizens 8212; some, no doubt, with the benefit of hindsight 8212; have now come out with. A police with an ear to the ground is supposed to foresee events and put together the jigsaw of discontinuous pieces.

However, given the penchant of our police and political leadership for what can only be called 8216;alibi policing8217; 8212; resorting to pretexts such as failure of intelligence, lack of strength, technology and the bogey of the external hand 8212; the result was perhaps foretold.

Indian metros in general and Mumbai and Maharashtra in particular are vulnerable to the sustained campaign by indigenous terrorists. These places offer stark symbols of the inequity of our growth paradigm, malls raised over demolished slums. What we now require is firm leadership in the home department and of the police in Maharashtra. This implies accountability and responsibility, not just deft political management.

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The focus must be on local intelligence. The key to breaking the back of terrorism is in penetrating the terror cell. This is the significant lesson drawn from the tracking of Al Qaeda cells by Scotland Yard and MI5.

This can be achieved more easily than is imagined. This is particularly so when a large segment of minority youth are not disaffected and will be more than willing to help the authorities. Greater investment in human and technical intelligence, particularly communication surveillance, will pay rich dividends.

Immediate succour, however, calls for a return to the focus on grassroots policing, checkpoints, surveillance of temporary residents and new entrants to an area and the tagging of known anti-social elements and criminals, while strictly avoiding racial profiling. Encouraging locals to report unusual occurrences, being citizen policemen just as some of our television news channels are exhorting them to be, will involve the people in positive ways. Every terrorist incident has enough tell-tale signs before the event. Sniffing out plans can come about through effective local policing. That alone will show some light at the end of this dark tunnel.

The writer is a security analyst