Terrorist attack on IISc

On Dec 28, 2005 an international conference that was attended by both National and International delegates was attacked by terrorists at 19:30 hrs at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Prof Puri of IIT Delhi was killed in the attack and other four people were seriously injured including Prof Vijay Chandru of IISc and other distinguished scientists. This is the n-th time that terrorists have attacked innocent civilians on the Indian soil.

These attacks are a coordinated effort by Islamic jihadis to destroy the integrity of India and its indigenous culture and civilization. They are leaving no stone unturned to achieve their goals. To name few of the terrorist attacks in the recent times, Bombay blasts, IC-814h ijacking, Delhi Diwali blasts, attack on Indian parliament and attack on Ayodhya. Unfortunately, the Indian Government has been totally insensitive towards these terrorist attacks which are affecting and hampering the lives of innocent people and the progress of the country.

Instead of taking serious action against those who are responsible for propagating heinous ideologies, gun-culture and human bombs, the attitude of the government is really disappointing. Government issues strong statements to fight the terrorism very frequently, but these statements are not put into action. It appears that the Government is trying to solve a 21st century problem of islamic terrorism with 18th century laws (framed by british). For IISc researchers, it is like sending a moon/mars mission with feathers attached to the rocket to ensure its bird-like flight with no propulsion devices.

It is high time Government comes out of the shell and vote bank politics to take strong actions to fight this Islamic terrorism emanating from neighbouring countries. Otherwise, our great civilization shall again perish into the darkness for centuries. After the destruction of Takshashila and Nalanda Universities by Islamic invaders, it took almost thousand years for India to setup world class institutes like IISc, IITs and other institutes of repute. If the Government does not stand upto the expectations of 1 billion Indians by taking actions we may be seeing an end to all that we achieved in the past 50-60 years. It would take another thousand years to reach this level of innovation and scientific culture, if we let these Islamic jihadis to overpower us.

Simply increasing the security around these universities will not help much as it hampers the working conditions of the scientists and obstruct the free flow of information and environment of mutual discussion among the scientific community.

Therefore we all scientists, researchers and engineers urge the Government of India to take tough actions to prevent any possible future attacks. We hope that Government shows a strong will power in terms of action (not just empty rhetoric ) to fight and erase this dangerous ideology of Islamic terrorism to save our great culture and civilization.

Dr. Sudarshan Kumar