if the idea of a photograph, capturing a little boy brandishing a bunch of flowers to halt a convoy of armoured tankers bang in the middle of their tracks, splashed across the media all around the globe, can summarise the power of the media, it's the idea of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts destroying the lives of unsuspecting people that has in many ways come to define the concept of Breaking News; bright red alert sign, big bold lettering, urgent, shrieking voices, snugly in tag.
In 2007, terror came in the form of unexpected attacks in cinema halls, popular eateries and even at prayer hours. From mass killings of Hindi-speaking folk in Assam, to the Hyderabad spate of attacks and of course, the bombings on board what is soon becoming the easiest target across the country: The Indian Railways.
As we step into 2008, the fact remains that an idle walk in the park no longer remains as safe as we once assumed. With terror alerts sounded across the country, it is probably second nature to get on with life, taking many a lesson from the average terror-stricken Mumbaikars' lives. Are we only getting more vulnerable to such attacks?
Are we doing enough to make sure such 'elements' stay away from our everyday lives? Well, here's the icing on the cake: The Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in December 2007 admits that the government has a case of money being invested in the country's stock market from people suspected of having links with a terrorist organisation.
THE SAMJHAUTA BLASTS
Close to midnight, most of the passengers on the Delhi-Attari special train were fast asleep when the blast triggered a fire, leaving at least 68 people dead.
Survivors say the doors of the two bogies that erupted in flames near Panipat got jammed, and that passengers were hopelessly trapped inside. Travelling on the train in the dead of the night and deep in sleep, many mistook the sound of explosions as having been caused by a short circuit and ignored them. Others thought it was a robbery attempt.
All the unidentified bodies of the victims of the twin blasts on the India-Pakistan peace train were buried near Mehrana village, near Panipat. Muslim religious leaders, and relatives of the 'missing' passengers from both India and Pakistan were present during the mass burial. Some bodies were also taken back to Pakistan through the Wagah joint border check post.
TERROR STRIKES IN HYDERABAD
May 2007: Mecca Masjid blast.
August 2007: Twin blasts at Lumbini Park, Gokul Chat eatery. Two bombs ripped through Lumbini Park and a small restaurant, killing 43 people, many of them children and youth, three months after a bomb went off at the historic Mecca Mosque.
Police believe that both the Mecca Masjid blast and the August 25 twin blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat Bhandar are the handiwork of Bangladesh-based terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HuJi), and that its activist Mohammed Shahed alias Bilal, a native of Hyderabad, was its mastermind.
Bilal is believed to have triggered the blast from Bangladesh as a very sophisticated technology was used to detonate the improvised explosive device (IED), filled with a mixture of RDX and TNT. A phone call from anywhere in the world to a mobile attached to an IED is enough to trigger the blast.
THE AJMER DARGAH BLAST
October 2007: Terror struck the highly-revered sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer when a bomb went off inside the complex, killing at least two people and injuring 28 as thousands of Muslims were breaking their day-long Ramzan fast.
LUDHIANA CINEMA BLAST
October 2007: At least six people are killed injured as a powerful blast goes off inside the Shingaar cinema hall, crowded with a Sunday evening audience, in the industrial city of Punjab. The blast goes off slightly before 9pm when the evening show of Hindi movie Bhool Bhulaiya is in progress at the cinema hall located near the busy Samrala crossing area.
BLASTS IN GORAKHPUR, UTTAR PRADESH
May 2007: Uttar Pradesh gets on edge with communally sensitive towns across the state under high alert, as three low intensity blasts rip through Gorakhpur town. Alerts are sounded in Varanasi, Mathura and Ayodhya - all three towns are home to disputed religious structures - the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, the Krishnajanmabhoomi temple in Mathura and the
Babri mosque in Ayodhya.
VIOLENCE IN ASSAM THROUGH THE YEAR
In one of the most shocking incidents of the year, ULFA and Karbi Longri National Liberation Front extremists jointly raided Dehori village under Howraghat police station, called out the family members of Hindi-speaking folk, and gunned them down.
Soon after, hundreds of Bihar migrant workers fleed Assam to escape the bloodbath unleashed by militants in the northeast state. The ULFA militants went on to shoot dead more than 60 migrant workers from Bihar in a spate of attacks in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts.
After a spate of horrible bombings in cities, smaller towns and even villages despite a military offensive that officials claim is 'massive', no one could be sure of when or where the Assamese separatists would strike next. And in summary, a startling report claims that Assam has earned the infamous distinction of being the new leader in civilian casualties of terror strikes, surpassing Jammu and Kashmir in the latest figures.
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