The bomb blast in a cinema hall in Ludhiana in Punjab on Sunday, which has left six dead and over 25 injured, is the latest in the series of terrorist attacks on soft targets which have been occurring with such sickening regularity that they have lost their shock value. Though no group has claimed responsibility so far, the hand of Islamic terror outfits is suspected. It has closely followed the blast at the shrine of Sufi saint Kwaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmer on the last Friday. Seen in the context of the attacks on dargahs and mosques in the recent past, including those in Hyderabad, the design of the terrorists is manifest. Having failed to provoke communal riots by setting off bombs in trains, buses, markets and other public places, the terrorists belonging to ultra-fundamentalist Wahabi sect are now targeting moderate Islam represented by Sufism which is for religious tolerance.

Though India has been living with cross-border terrorism which was initially confined to Jammu and Kashmir and which later spread to other places following the demolition of Babri Masjid – the worst to date being the serial blasts of 1993 in Mumbai and the attack on Parliament in December 2001 – there has been a spurt in such attacks post 9/11. Ironically, the failed suicide attack on Glasgow airport by Kafeel Ahmed from Bangalore has exposed the hollowness of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s claim that al-Qaeda had not been able to strike roots in India.

While ISI and Pakistan-based Kashmiri outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba had hitherto remained the usual suspects, the Hyderabad blasts have brought out the penetration of Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami, a Bangladesh-based outfit, and the existence of sleeper cells in several cities. The Glasgow attack has also shown how flawed the assumption is that Islamic terrorism lures only the poor and the uneducated. The masterminds are well-educated while the foot soldiers may be from marginalised sections. The repeated blasts reveal that the Indian intelligence has been reactive rather than pro-active. It needs to be improved in terms of quality and numbers. Now that the Muslim community itself has become the target, the time has come for the community’s moderate leadership to stand up against terrorism. That will certainly help in containing the menace.