The Ides of December

Terrorism, in all its foulness, screams into Bangalore; and, security fears are

revisited

The

incisive crack of a terrorist's bullet fractured the wintry air. On a cold

Wednesday evening of December 28, 2005, tranquil Bangalore lost forever its

pacifist tag. The pall of gloom, shock and fear which follows every terrorist

attack in Delhi and Mumbai would now extend its cold fingers into the mind of

every Bangalore citizen. When conference attendees at the prestigious Indian

Institute of Science (IISc) became a most unlikely terrorist target at 7.15 pm

that evening, Bangalore would soon realize the fact that no government

establishment or technology campus was free of the threat of guns; or, the

depravity of those who aim their weapons at the softest of targets.

Watched

by waiting accomplices, a gunman ran up the steps of the IISc's JN Tata

Auditorium, and sprayed bullets of his AK56 rifle upon innocent people. Hours

after the blood had congealed on the auditorium steps everybody in their right

minds could not even imagine the motive behind the murder.

Those

leaving the auditorium at the end of a day's conference were

academics-professors, tutors, research scholars, operations research policy

experts-whose deliberations on technology and its implications were far

removed from the world of the terror merchants. At least 24 hours after eminent

academic and IIT Professor emeritus MC Puri collapsed to the ground with a

hushed observation to those around that he had been shot, and Bangalore police

struggled to pin down Prof Puri's killer and his accomplices. Lashkar-e-Toiba

and Jaish-e-Mohammed were the first suspects and, according to police, their

complicity was natural, given the fact that arrests of LeT operatives in Delhi

earlier this year had revealed plans to attack IT facilities and other important

government institutions in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Besides, CDs

recovered from terrorist groups a week earlier, had only sharpened threat

perceptions across the country.

The

attack has unnerved companies in the city that is India's technology

outsourcing hub. Already reeling under the shock of the murder of a BPO employee

earlier in December, the corporates moved in quickly to further tighten their

existing security set ups. Government affiliated research organizations-many

of them on the hitlist of terror groups-were tense. Police also increased

security in Chennai and Hyderabad. While the manhunt for the attackers

continues, the government also announced that it was setting up special squads

to comb the city, and also asking outsourcing companies to step up security

measures.

Pre-empting threats



While the Bangalore police said that no motive for the shooting had been
established, they were exploring the possibility that a prominent militant group

based in Pakistan could be involved. The rapidly prospering IT companies could

be targeted on ideological grounds, but the true symbols of Indian Government

continue to be the PSUs and key research institutions in Bangalore and Hyderabad

who have strong research and student exchange links with American and European

universities. Post the IISc attack, it has also been felt that anti-US

fundamentalist groups could target top outsourcing firms across the country.

The unprecedented attack inside the peaceful environs of India's most respected research institute has shattered Bangalore's cloak of invincibility. The minute-long shooting spree ended in the death of IIT-Delhi Professor emeritus MC Puri and grieves injuries to four others, including Puri's colleague Prof Pankaj Gupta

However,

the Indian units of companies housed in Bangalore such as Yahoo, Amazon, Texas

Instruments, Cisco, Intel and Google, are likely to be on their toes when

allowing visitors into their premises, with more levels of security checks

thrown in.

One

clear lesson to take home from this shocking episode is that risk management and

resolution becomes difficult when the potential target is a research institute

like IISc or most large Indian universities-whose unprotected campuses are

scattered across large areas and are freely accessible by public roads. The

steps of the J N Tata Auditorium, where the shooting occurred, were just 50 feet

away from a public road. The gate had no security checkpoint, and all security

personnel were concentrated on the IISc main gate which is right across the

road. This, despite the fact that the compound was shared by the auditorium with

the Cipla Pharmaceuticals laboratory and Indian Institute of Forest Sciences.

The

issue to be addressed here was not just a question of security being more widely

dispersed across the campus or timely police warnings, but the question of

assessing the risk and narrowing it down to the auditorium. In this case, a

location-specific threat assessment would have required a high level of

intelligence gathering, which IISc alone would not have been in a position to

commit its scarce security resources.

With

India's premier space organization, ISRO, headquartered in Bangalore, as are

its aircraft manufacturing facilities and top government laboratories, a mere

'red alert' from the side of the organization or the police, will not do.

Real security readiness would mean clear entry guidelines for visitors on a

need-to-visit basis and strong identity tracking systems in place. IT companies

have enforced rigid security checks at their facilities and campuses, which

include thorough frisking of visitors, metal detectors, and photographs taken by

Web cameras which are stored in a database for future reference. On the other

hand, foolproof security systems have been virtually non-existent at most

premier educational institutions in India.

Biotech pioneer and founder-CEO of Strand Genomics Prof Vijay Chandru was the brain behind the development of the low-cost Simputer. Prof Chandru had visited IISc to participate in the operations research conference, which had over 300 attendees. He sustained three bullet injuries in the attack, and survived death after hours of struggle in a nearby hospital.

Come easy, go easily?



After the IISc shooting, police officials claimed that they had warned IISc of
the threat in writing, not once but several times. But raising risk perceptions

would mean nothing for an academic institution which has over six gates, big and

small and mostly unguarded, at various points around its main campus.

In

fact, IISc's entry and exit points are typical of India's larger

universities and research establishments. Gaining unauthorized entry into

Jawaharlal Nehru University is still a cakewalk. It is not uncommon to find

beggars, strollers and other persona non grata wandering inside the campuses of

many Indian universities and research establishments on any given Wednesday

afternoon. A fake student ID or a verbal reference to faculty members or other

employees would get an intruder past these gates too.

The

question of early police warnings to highly visible and visited establishments

like the IISc, Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bharat Earth

Movers Limited, DRDO and Hyderabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular

Biology, would be offset against the abilities of these institutions to assess

threats and follow the correct risk management procedures. Police and law

enforcement agencies rarely collaborate with institutions of higher learning in

threat-proofing their security set ups. IT companies and technology parks, with

access to professional security forces, and systems like motion sensors and

biometric fingerprint ID readers score better in this respect.

It

is clear that terrorism can be fought only through stringent security measures

at sensitive locations, corporate, educational and research-based, and by

creating greater awareness among people, especially those in the technology

sector.

It

has become extremely important that just like the IT companies, public,

educational and research institutions also invest in monitoring visitors and

individuals who work directly or indirectly in an organization and invest in

intelligence system in their premises. No cost would be too high to protect the

most valued intellectual resources our multifaceted organizations hold. A repeat

of the IISc bloodbath will prove detrimental to every grain of excellence,

enterprise and human dignity which we have so carefully nurtured over the years.

-Ravi

Menon 



ravim@cybermedia.co.in