Paris attacks prove cities are sitting ducks for terrorism

Since the Second World War, France had not witnessed such violence as that in Paris on Friday. At least 150 people were killed in a night of gun and bomb attacks in Paris. Terrorism is not new to Paris, especially in recent times.

As a fallout of the Charlie Hebdo cartoon controversy, gunmen stormed the central Paris office of the satirical magazine on January 7, 2015, killing more than ten people.

However, Friday’s attack was something totally different. There were well-coordinated attacks on multiple targets at the same time, something Paris had not witnessed in the past.

This attack brings out the memory of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The Mumbai attack also involved multiple targets. Another recent urban attack was the September 2013 terror attack on a premier shopping centre in Kenyan capital Nairobi which had resulted in around 70 deaths. All such attacks raise a larger question about the safety of metropolitan cities in the world. Today, metropolitan cities are probably more vulnerable to such coordinated and simultaneous attacks on multiple targets.

There have been a few other major attacks on cities in the past. More than 20 years back, the Oklahoma City bombing had resulted in the death of 168 people. It was the deadliest terrorist assault on US soil until the 9/11 attacks. The Oklahoma City attack involved a single target and the job was done by an insider and was associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement.

Currently Baghdad, located in the conflict zone of Iraq, tops the list of the world's urban centres with the highest risk, according to the global risk analytics company Verisk Maplecroft in May 2015. The company says that in India, Imphal in Manipur and Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, are under “extreme risk” of a terrorist attack.

However, Nairobi, Mumbai and Paris show that in non-conflict areas too, some important urban centres could emerge as lucrative targets for terrorists. Such attacks help attract global attention, and the high population density of such places makes the job of the terrorists easy. Also, it is humanly impossible for security agencies to monitor all underground activities happening. It is difficult to seal the borders of such huge cities. The multi-ethic nature of the population and easy international connectivity helps in developing terror networks and procuring arms, ammunition and human agents.

India has a history of urban terrorism. During the 1980s, the Tamil issue had become the reason for attacks on Chennai. A bomb blasted happened in August 1984 at the Meenambakkam International Airport at Chennai killing more than 30 people. In 1993, Mumbai witnessed a series of 13 bomb explosions killing over 300 people. This could be viewed as the first case of serial bomb blast in the world. During the last two to three decades, India has witnessed terrorist attacks in many of its major cities like Coimbatore, Jaipur, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune and so on.

The Paris attacks appear to be the result of a major intelligence failure. Also, it is obvious that there have been security lapses at many places. It is particularly difficult to understand how terrorists succeeded in launching a major attack in the vicinity of a famous football ground when it is known universally that such crowded places are the most obvious targets of terrorists. Today, with the rapid spread of the ISIS (Islamic State) and few other terror groups, there is an increasing danger to many cities of the world. The ISIS is against any external intervention in Syria. It has also threatened Russians in this connection. The obvious targets for the IS would be cities in Western countries and Russia. However, countries like India also need to remain vigilant owing its own security challenges. The events in Paris demonstrate the urgent need for major urban centres to learn their lessons and take corrective measures.