ISIS is the new spectre

The astonishing level of coordination and alacrity in “solving” the Madhya Pradesh train blast case seemed improbably professional. But within hours of the blast, the UP Police tracked down all the alleged perpetrators and managed to gun one down in a “live” shootout in Lucknow. Skeptics drew attention to the coincidence of an all-day live encounter on the eve of the crucial last phase of voting in UP. But we owe it to ourselves not to rush to form conclusive judgements from all-too-inconclusive evidence. Our own record of dealing with past terror cases does make a case for caution and circumspection.

The court’s observations while acquitting the 2005 Delhi serial blast accused punched holes in all the grand claims made by the Delhi Police then, very similar to the UP Police’s assertions now. Or take the 1998 serial blasts that took place in Delhi, UP and Haryana. The police officials who had laid out the blueprint of a trans-national conspiracy at that time were left unscathed by the collapsing of the case in all the 19 cases. The only loser was the youngster who spent most of his dozen years in solitary confinement. Despite the all-too-neat tying up of loose ends in Lucknow, security managers suggest a formless apparition as the master controller. 

The need to exercise greater vigilance of the Internet has never been more acute if the police’s version that the motivators are Syria-based is taken at face value. This may be because the Central Government's aversion to accommodating Muslims in political arrangements is stark. There are bound to be counter-effects in the community, especially among the restive younger elements, being painted as the “other”. Skeptics may say the ISIS bogey provides the common ground for reopening talks with Pakistan which claims to be under attack from the same source. It could also put India on the right side of US President Donald Trump currently obsessed with rooting out the ISIS. But given the Indian investigators’ consistent inability to get to the root of the conspiracy, we should take care that we do not end up chasing shadows and incarcerating innocents.