India: Jaipur blasts, Terrorism and the Government

On 13th May, serial blasts rocked Jaipur. Reports suggest that more than sixty people were killed, and another 150 were injured. MyZone writes about Jaipur, which as a city has been relatively peaceful, and the sheer panic the blasts created.

Disbelief turned into shock as over the fifteen minutes the number rose from two to five, and the magnitude of what had happened started sinking in. For the first time in its almost three century old history had Jaipur been terrorized. Cell phones started buzzing with anxious parents and relatives enquiring about our whereabouts and asking us to return home immediately. We were among the fortunate few whose calls managed to go through. As the clock ticked, the networks became jammed. The lounge emptied within minutes, and a place buzzing with youngsters had a deserted look in no time.

While terrorism is not new to India, and various cities have seen terrorist attacks, Jaipur has never been attacked on this scale before. The blasts have exposed the vulnerability of cities and its citizens, and the failure of intelligence. There are hints that the attacks were coordinated by “other countries”. A blogger from Pakistan expresses solidarity and hopes that the Indian Government doesn't rush through things and point fingers at Pakistan.

Ha's Blog expresses concern for team members in Jaipur.

There were some signs that our colleagues were afraid that we from the Dutch side would consider Jaipur to be less safe because all of this. But I see it as my responsibility to show our Jaipur team that we are committed to support them, as they are one of us!

Hindustaniat takes a closer look at why Jaipur was a target for the attacks.

Jaipur is one of the foremost symbol of India's cultural heritage. Lakhs of tourists come to the Pink City every year and Rajasthan is the face of Indian tourism worldwide, along with Agra. The anti-national forces must have been desperate as there was no major communal or casteist issue in the country for long.


Indian Muslims
writes about the failure of the government to resolve previous terrorist attacks.

One of the reasons the government is so ill-prepared to either prevent or solve such terrorist attacks is that there is no follow-up on the previous such attacks. Case in point: Mecca Masjid Blasts. Andhra Pradesh government constituted an inquiry commission under Justice Bhaskara Rao in June 2007 to submit its report on the incident within three months. It has been more than 11 months since then and we didn’t hear anything.


Off Stumped
voices similar concerns about government inaction and apathy. Cynical Indian emphasizes that people need to be more vigilant.

DJ Fadereu twitters updates from Jaipur. A group on Facebook is discussing the events as they unfold.

The flipside of the solidarity that is expressed across the blogosphere is that some people appear to be jumping to vitriol. Some of the message boards in the main stream media have been filled with allegations against Muslims.

7 comments

  • Ravi Kumar

    In any case terrorism is the worst of all evils present in Indian Society, where we take proud of living unitedly inspite of Diversity. I think that our Saints or the said powerful persons are also helpless to just predict the occurence of such events or to have that exceptional vision of identifying persons behind. Then why take proud of being an advanced country with powerful saints that happened since centuries and are even today (I cannot name the most powerful few or their dignity gets hurt). Is their any true saint really in India with exceptional powers and visions they boast of on the channels and those who predict fortunes. Its really a shame to belong to a Country where powers lie unused or never exist ! No Mullah or any Hindu saint has ever before hand predicted such events or assisted police in identifying. Also, let us see our glorious past (Sone ki chidiya) – having saints like Tukaram and Gnaneshwar… But nobody could do any good to prevent India from becoming slave and ultimately stopping it from bondage – physical as well as mental… On the contrary the society has more hypocrates than being truly relegious and mighty. A handful of politicians, terrorists and their foreign tie-ups are now becoming a challange for a land of very learned people and powerful saints with all sorts of powers (some claim to have gone beyond Earth to see the other worlds) !!!! Is it not shameful to just praise than to prove in such times of Human calamanity… May the true vision come to our country and may we all unite to throw away the handful of such greedy saints and politicians who always keep Indians struggling since ages…

  • A sad thing indeed and lets hope that the government start paying attention to the root causes of terrorism. Indian government must also realize that what it is doing in the Pakistani Tribal areas through its consulates in Afghanistan has dangerous implications for itself and the whole region. Instigating terrorism any where in the world sometimes come back on one face and here we have an example of this in which so many innocent people lost their lives.
    Lets hope Indian government start thinking in a different perspective about things and work on eliminating the root causes instead of killing the actors.

  • rajneesh

    India has stopped taking terrorist attack as serious issue.Our home minister is always ready with same excuses every time there is a terrorist attack.
    the media always say about spirit of the people as they continue with ther daily life after terrorist strike.

    I think people are intelligent enough to know that there is never attack on same city once it has been striked.It is always another city in some other part of country.

    hope our govt get smart enough than those terrorist.

  • Ravi Kumar

    Mr. Junaid Khan, whosoever he maybe has better knowledge than any of us about the cause of terror that spread in Jaipur. According to him, it has come back on India’s face due to its role in instigating terrorism in tribal areas of Pakistan. But, one cannot justify this when Pakistan Government itself is taking steps on the guidelines given by USA, rather than unnecessarily focusing India for its own acts. Mr. Junaid should review his stand before spreading such anti-Indian messages, because he should be mature enough to understand that no country in the world is so ruthless to proclaim itself as Hindu nation as compared to more that a dozen Muslim countries in world where a Hindu person is not even mentally prepared to go and visit, working there is far beyond. Rather, in India, Muslims always try to have upper hand and show vulgarity in behaviour rather than getting absorbed like Parsis and spread message of unity. There are some exceptions like Maulana Azad and many others, but that doesn’t make sense when the majority are blindly following in name of relegion, without understanding its true essence.

    Hence, if Mr. Junaid is really searching for the root cause, then he should have found it by thoroughly reading the paragraph above. May Allah give its followers true vision who are always breaking natural laws and doing acts which even Kuran denies.

    All must actively contribute to such open posts, and excercise the freedom of speech in right manner.

  • One more blast. It seems that this chain of bomb blasts is never going to stop. The frequency of these blasts is so alarming that tragedies like these are turned into mere numbers, nothing beyond statistics.
    Poor rate of solving blasts cases,slow and at worst unsuccessful convictions, lack of ground intelligence, poor policing are some of the factors adding to the menace of terrorism.And with current political sluggishness(see the reluctance shown by government to hang Afzal Guru) things are not going to improve at all.Thus they will keep bombing our cities, slaughering our fellow countrymen without fear. Brothers, we will have to prepare ourselves for the worst as there will be more blasts.
    I dont want to get into the debate of what are the root causes of this scourge. All I want to say is that what we are doing or we have done after every blasts, where are the culprits,are we going to nail them ever,do we have political will and political toughness to deal hard against terrorism(whichever party might be in the power). So long we do not toughen our stand against it, we will keep projecting ourselves soft poewer and as a lame duck.

  • Once again More Bomb Blasts.

    Once again another city.

    Once again more Humans turned in mere ‘statistics’.

    Once again the SAME AS ABOVE.

    Once again the Prudent Indian writing the same above.

    Once again, then again, then again ….

    When will it stop?

    Who will stop it?

    How long we will be ‘mere spectators’?

    How long before you or me or our near and dear ones will not be another victim of this unending spiral of terror?

    How many more bomb blasts to take place, before we wake up?

    How many more innocent lives to be lost, before we get angry?

    Yes, get angry now before you too are ‘NOBODY’ but a mere figure in the ever increasing list of innocent victims. Refuse please, to be sacrificed at the altar of some ‘perverse’ and misplaced ’secularism’.

    Very Angry,

    PI.

  • Pratibha

    In the ever busy lanes,
    life went on its own pace..

    A couple sharing an ice creme cone,
    a vegetable shop full of house wives,
    a grandfather buying a barbie doll,
    thinking to gift the child a smile.

    Girls walking down the road,
    dressed in their best clothes,
    guys lost in conversation about
    girls,machines and cricket score.

    And then time stopped its breath,
    too late it was,when it sensed death..

    all smiles went into hiding,
    leaving deafening wails behind,
    the red earth mixed with human flesh,
    was mourned over by the smoky skies.

    innocent lifes paid with their blood,
    for the fruits born on plant of hatred,
    how can some one be so cruel to them,
    is their soul long lost or dead ?

    the wounded city cried silently into the night
    but the morning saw it get prepared for a new life..

    The wounds will not heal fast,
    and tears will wet the face for long,
    but the mind has set itself,
    to win against all odds.

    a battle of good and evil,
    a battle of love and hate,
    a battle of need and greed,
    battle,never to let darkness win again …

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