JOIN USThe blasts that took place on Sunday morning in the Buddhist holy city of Bodh Gaya have again exposed the high vulnerability to terrorist attacks of any place in the country. The 13 serial explosions which occurred at different locations inside the pilgrimage centre show that they were well planned.
There are doubts whether they were meant to inflict real damage or to serve as a warning. There was no loss of life. There was no great damage to property also. The bombs were low-intensity devices. It can only be speculated whether a lean hour on a lean day, when the rush of pilgrims was low, was deliberately chosen for the attack. But the number of bombs which were used shows that a message was certainly meant to be sent.
What is of serious concern is that there were enough warnings about the possibility of a terrorist threat to Bodh Gaya but no proper security measures were taken in response to them. There is always a controversy in the country after every terrorist strike about the inputs given out by intelligence or other agencies and the actionability of such information. But in the case of Bodh Gaya the warnings were specific. There were disclosures made on the basis of interrogation of Indian Mujahideen operatives that Bodh Gaya was on the radar of the organisation. But the security arrangements were not tightened to handle an untoward situation. Most of the CCTV cameras were not working.
That was no way to protect a terror target, especially when it happens to be a world heritage site visited by large numbers of people from all over the world. Any damage to the bodhi tree, which is a holy symbol for millions of Buddhists and many others, would have been a terrible and shameful matter.
There is a Myanmarese presence in Bodh Gaya. The attack is considered to be an act of revenge against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims by the majority Buddhists in Myanmar. The reasons for different terrorist strikes may vary, but it is the duty of the government and the security and police agencies to prevent them. There was obvious failure on the part of the state security set-up in Bodh Gaya. A better security consciousness and more effective arrangements are needed not only at Bodh Gaya but in other vulnerable places also.