As more information emerges about the most recent bombs in Hyderabad, many in India have begun to question the role of state and central government authorities, intelligence agencies and local police, asking whether they could have done more to prevent the attacks.
Less than two days before the two explosions in Hyderabad on Thursday evening, which killed at least 15 people and injured more than 100, the central government warned state officials of the possibility of a terror attack. In the days before the bombs exploded, CCTV cameras in the area had been disabled but were not repaired.
India Ink talked to intelligence experts Friday about the bombings and the difficulty of preventing terrorism attacks, even when there is some warning. Government officials also spoke publicly about the explosions.
J. N. Rai, former additional director of the Intelligence Bureau, India’s internal intelligence-gathering agency, in a telephone interview:
All alerts in intelligence are of a general nature. If you have specific information, you will arrest the guys and prevent the event.
Alerts that include a specific place, specific time or specific operation are next to impossible to provide. Even the guys who are planting the explosives may not know until the very last minute where they are going to plant them. Or someone is told to go park a cycle in one place, and they don’t know what’s on the cycle.
These alerts are so routine that you cannot act upon them. With more use of technology and online communication, it has become more difficult. The terrorist modules use code language. So it has become more difficult to detect.
At times we get information that some members of networks visited a particular town, so we send an alert to that town. But that is not of much use. At times we learn that a particular module is collecting explosives and arms and giving training, so we interpret that they are gearing up for a big operation.
One guy was arrested, and he said that he did a recce at Dilsukh Nagar in 2011. You cannot make much out of that.
Ajit Doval, former director of the Intelligence Bureau, in a telephone interview:
If you do not have any information, it is an intelligence failure. But if you have some information, and even then you cannot prevent the event, then it is the failure of the government.
All the intelligence inputs are of a generic nature. It is up to the government agencies to develop those generic inputs into actionable inputs. You need to do lots of followup on the ground. It can be done by hard work. However nebulous or generic the intelligence input is, it is to be followed by ground work by the state police.
S. A. Huda, director general of Andhra Pradesh state police, in a telephone interview:
It is too early and too premature. We’re getting back to the scene. We’ll not do ball and ball commentary.
The moment we give some information, the terrorists get an alert. It’s happened so many times before.
There have been no arrests as yet. It’s painstaking work. We don’t want to jump the gun.
Sushma Swaraj, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, or lower house of Parliament, during the Parliament session on Friday:
This is a very unfortunate, painful and shameful act. These events are not an opportunity for the blame game; they are an opportunity to fight terrorism together with determination. But that we can do only if we have a common thinking. I feel sorry that a common thinking to fight terrorism is not emerging in our country.
On many occasions we advocate for the human rights of terrorists and advocate to deal with them softly.
On many occasions, the central government gives an input to the state government and thinks that their job is over. In this case, this has happened. The home minister said that the input was shared with the state government.
If you have the input and even after that the incident takes place, then the failure is doubled. What was the central government doing, what was the state government doing? These are the questions which come up after every terrorist incident.
We all understand that terrorism is not to seen in religious terms or in any color. A terrorist is a terrorist. If the whole country starts fighting terrorism with this spirit, if the whole country gets together and political parties get together, we will be able to defeat terrorism.
Sushil Kumar Shinde, Home Affairs Minister, during the Parliament session on Friday:
I extend my heartfelt condolences for the bereaved families who lost their near and dear ones in the blasts. The Government is committed to combat such cowardly terror attack and it shall make all possible efforts to apprehend the perpetrators and masterminds behind the blasts and ensure that they are punished as per the law. (Read his full statement.)
