Prayers and more prayers

The only thing that people like me sitting in their homes can do in these days of despair is to pray to god that things like the terrorist attacks in Mumbai never happen, to anybody, anywhere in the world. So close it is, it could have happened to anybody as the places chosen were indiscriminate to religion, economic situation of people, city or village you came from - ranging from CST station to TajMahal hotel's most luxurious suite. How barbaric and violent a human being can be, can it be any more than what those cowards did?

For the first time in my life, peace-loving I am - to the core, feel like taking up a gun and killing those terrorists with only hatred and disgust for them. How can somebody shoot at children, old, helpless and people offering prayers to god ? And which instructor or mastermind can convince people to perform such dastardly acts? I don't know how to put my disgust into words, such things can' be performed by humans!

I followed those two and half days of continous news about terrorist attacks and commando operations. First thing that came to my mind during the very first scenes of the situation was how come we have NSG stationed only in Delhi? Should not we have NSG commandos or likes in almost every sizeable town? The 8-9 hrs that the commandos took to come and launch a counter attack gave ample time to the terrorists to kill as many people and plan so well to capture hostages, blast rooms, blast floors in hotels. What is our government doing even after so many blasts in this year itself? And after Akshyardham attack? Why are we so reactive always? Why can't we be proactive?

You form an anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and the chief does not even have an AK-47! What do you expect ? That the terrorists will come with pistols and revolvers? 9 Terrorists versus 18 officers. It is too costly for us - and even when you don't count the precious innocent lives.

And by the way, will one Raj Thakre wake up and ask the UP/Bihar commandos not to bother coming to Mumbai to save Mumbaikars? How much will our politicians continue to play the religion/region cards, the narrowminded thoughts to gather votes? And if they are busy doing this, who will take up the charge of ensuring that our intelligence department is functioning properly, our security is adequate and our borders are safe? This attack suggests complete failure of our intelligence agency, the holes in our naval borders and the un-preparedness of our state governments to handle terror attacks.

We lack a backbone to go and bombard the terrorist origins in foreign territory, because we as a government have been too tolerant over years. We always fear about the after effects, but somewhere someday we will have to take such drastic step if we don't want to go on facing such blasts and attacks over and over... where is the end? As long as our neighbour countries are unsettled, jealous of our economic positions or power, we will have to face these kinds of cowardly acts by terrorists. They are clueless, they don't have any other better things to do in life and completely mislead about life and goals. God, I just can't believe there can be a human who thinks that by killing innocents, people you don't even know - you achieve something!

Only thing that another human like me can do is to pray that such torture and unnecessary deaths don't happen to anybody, anywhere.

And what can the law makers do to make sure that more people don't take up such cowardly path? There seems to be one 21 year old terrorist captured alive. After extracting all useful information from that guy, our police should just show him the his own acts of terror, make him hear those screams and helpless people in blood over and over until he goes mad and becomes mentally unstable. Then the police should release him and make him go back to his family and live a life of shame and disgust. I am sure nobody in his family will approve his acts. But will that be enough to deter others from taking that path?

It is said that when there is too much injustice on earth, god will take birth to save the innocents and establish justice. How much is too much?