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Mumbai: Tip of the Jihadi Iceberg

The series of explosions since last December in Mumbai, culminating in the twin blasts on Monday that killed more than 50 civilians, should be a matter of great concern to India’s policymakers and public opinion, for three reasons. First, there seems to be a deterioration in the preventive and investigative capability of the country’s security agencies in matters relating to terrorism outside of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). Second, despite the reports of task forces on the revamping of the intelligence apparatus and internal security management set up by the government in 2000, and those of the three National Security Advisory Boards, there seems to be no significant improvement in India’s counter-terrorism capability. Third, despite periodic claims by government spokesmen about the successes of the security agencies in detecting and neutralizing dozens of jihadi terrorist and Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) modules, dozens more of them continue to operate undetected and with their motivation and capability for action undiminished. Effective counter-terrorism depends on the ability to collect preventive intelligence and on physical security to deny success to the terrorists. And even if intelligence fails, a thorough investigation of the acts of terrorism committed is needed in order to identify those responsible, their supporters and their networks to take action against them. Full Story