YEAR 2006 IS taking leave and we are ready to welcome the New Year. This year, as any other, has been a mixture of failures and successes, sadness and joy. But for some of our countrymen, this year has been a nightmare. For them, remembering this year would mean pain, heartache, agony and death. They would rather forget the year than remember it and hope the defeat of terrorism in the years to come.
Tony Blair was right about the new danger the world faces today: “This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today.” What was true of the world, was true of India as well. Year 2006 witnessed a number of terrorist attacks in the country — few major and some minor. But all of these were destructive and viscous and left behind devastation and deaths.
The first terrorist attack was on March 7 in the holy city of Varanasi in which at least 28 people were killed and 101 others injured. The first blast took place at 6:20 pm at the crowded Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple near the Banaras Hindu University. Hundreds of pilgrims were in the temple as it was a Tuesday, considered holy by the devotees of Hanuman. Another blast ocurred at the Varanasi Cantonment Railway Station, in the waiting area next to the travel office.
On May 1, militants massacred 35 Hindus in Doda and Udhampur districts in Jammu and Kashmir. As many as 22 villagers of Kulhand and Tharva were shot dead outside their homes late at night. Thirteen shepherds were shot dead north of the Lalon Galla, a high-altitude meadow above the town of Basantgarh.
On June 12, one person was killed and 31 were wounded when terrorists hurled three grenades on Vaishnodevi (Jammu and Kashmir) shrine-bound buses at the general bus stand.
On July 11, 209 persons were killed and another 714 injured in the blasts that took place in first class compartments of trains at Mira-Bayandhar, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Santacruz, Khar, Matunga and Borivli on the Western Railway between 6:00 and 6:40 pm. These seven blasts in seven local trains in Mumbai were the worst terrorist attacks of 2006. The loss of life and property that occurred on that day is unimaginable. It can be called the black day of 2006.
On August 16, a bomb exploded in a Hindu temple (ISKCON) near Imphal killing five and injuring nearly 50 others.
On September 8, at least two bomb blasts targeted a Muslim cemetery in the western town of Malegaon in Maharashtra. The blasts killed 37 people and left 125 others wounded.
These were the major terrorist attacks in India in 2006. Tackling this ruthless killer band is the biggest challenge before the world and India. This evil must be crushed with force and determination, in the world as well as India. Guns and bombs cannot be allowed to determine people’s destiny.
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