As these lines are being written, close to 100 people, including at least a dozen policemen (many drawn from the Anti-Terrorist Squad or ATS), have already lost their lives in the terror attack in Mumbai. At least 200 people are reported to have been injured and it will be some time before a full assessment about its repercussions is made.

The Mumbai police has already lost its ATS chief Hemant Karkare, ACP Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. Mr Karkare was a well-known officer who was handling several important terrorist-related cases.

The trio were the faces of the anti-terrorist establishment of the Maharashtra police and maintained liaison with the other state police oranisations. The loss of these three men is a serious setback to the ATS.

The attack has paralysed the economic capital of the nation as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and schools and colleges have been ordered to be shut. For the day. when was it the last time the BSE and NSE had to be closed, like this, due a situation over which the authorities seem to have little control?

The final toll in the attack which started on Wednesday night may go up. The economic loss and loss of face will take some time to be assessed fully. An attack on five-star hotels in the heart of Mumbai is not something which anybody will be able to brush aside easily.

The Taj, Nariman and Oberoi house buildings (attacked by the terrorists) are the pride of Mumbai, its most visible symbols, known the world over. These brick and mortar buildings are better known than the film stars that Mumbai produces and have seen several generations of these stars.

The attack on the hotels which have become the face of Mumbai, worldwide, and are known to host foreign nationals, has shaken up the confidence of the world community in India as a safe destination. So far, the embassies of various countries have only been advisories to their nationals to avoid traveling to J&K.
The attack on Mumbai, the heart of Indian free economy, and an icon of its cosmopolitan character, will go a long way in shaping the nation’s policies towards handling of terrorism.

There are reports now saying the English cricket team no longer wants to continue with their tour and call it off. It is pertinent to point out here that the team led by Kevin Pieterson was scheduled to play a match in Mumbai also.

The terrorists who have carried out the attack, according to intelligence reports, had entered Mumbai using speed-boats. The leaks from intelligence agencies suggest that these terrorists had come from Karachi (Pakistan) using the sea route.

The agencies have claimed that the manner in which the attack has been carried out makes it clear that it was the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Tayebba (LeT), an organisation known for its motivated cadre and their training.

Some days ago, officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had talked to their Indian counterpart saying any cancellation of the Indian team’s tour to Pakistan will hit the confidence building measures (CBMs) the two nations have been taking.

It would be a pity if the Pakistan tour of Indian cricket team is called off but to brush aside the very real threat to the young guns led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni will not be an easy call for the establishment. It will not be the conditions on the cricket grounds that will form the basis of assessment regarding the Indian tour but things far beyond the patches of 22 yards and their surroundings.

The memories of attack on Marriot hotel in Islamabad in the recent past are too harrowing to be brushed aside or wished away. The Indian establishment will have to be extremely cautious and careful in assessing the threat perception to the Indian cricket team before a final decision is taken.

In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto lost her life almost an year ago in an attack which was classified as the handiwork of terrorists. After that, it has come repeatedly under attack from terrorists but yet India and Pakistan are poles apart when it comes to joining hands to combat the menace.

The Union minister of state for home, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal, has already declared that the Central government is doing all it can do to counter such attacks. He admitted that close to 200 National Security Guards (NSG), Navy commandos and the Army were involved in flushing out the terrorists.

His comments condemning the incident as being the most heinous terrorist attack on India is fairly predictable. So is his admission that the intelligence agencies have failed to piece together actionable intelligence. In the past, and in this case as well.

All his comments are, however, not very reassuring because they have been heard before. The attack in Chinore (Jammu) a couple of months ago was an occasion when such comments were heard last. The predictability and pattern of these comments are sickening because the government seems to have done little to strengthen the anti-terrorist agencies.

The capacity-building of these agencies and giving the confidence to the people that the government was keen on combating terrorism, whatever be the cost, are messages that the people have been waiting to hear. For a long time.

The first terrorist attacks started in J&K almost two decades ago. These attacks then became sporadic as days passed and before anybody could do anything about it, Srinagar city was entirely in the grip of youth who thought guns would solve the Kashmir problem.

The kidnapping of Rubiya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, then home minister of the country, only emboldened these gun carriers. The government capitulated before the demands raised by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) of Yaseen Malik and what happened next is too well known.

(Incidentally, Malik decided to give up gun some years later and now pursues his cause of ``Azadi’’ using non-violent mobilization of masses.)

Soon, the whole of the Valley erupted and gun-carrying youths achieved iconic status in the Kashmir valley. It was then routine to see the JKLF cadres exhorting the youth on the streets in the downtown areas of Srinagar city to take to the guns.

Thousands and then lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) fled from the Kashmir valley where they had lived for thousands of years. They moved to Jammu, Delhi, Mumbai and all over the country and some even went abroad.

They have not been able to return to their homes and hearths.
Some time later, the arc of terrorism spread and moved to south of mighty Pir Panjal mountains which separate the 16000 square kilometers of Kashmir valley from 26,000 square kilometer mountainous Jammu region, geographically.

Initially, Muslim-majority areas of Poonch, Rajouri and Doda were engulfed and then it was attacks on railway station and Raghunath Mandir in Jammu city. Both these places were attacked twice.
Spreading far beyond the borders of J&K, the scourge of terrorism has now engulfed the entire nation.

But have our politicians been able to mobilize the masses for fighting this battle together? Are there any cohesive policies being formulated to take things further to restore the confidence of the masses? To make them feel secure.

The nation wants answers to these questions and the politicians can ignore them only at their peril.