The world Bin Laden (The world without Laden)

Osama Bin Laden is dead. And it's been written about and spoken about, complete with an unwitting tweet account giving a bit-by-bit update to fake pictures up on the internet. The whole operation, looked like the 'capture-and-kill' operation in the movie 'Face/Off', with the high security house being ambushed and the main bad guy being asked to leave the world by a bullet in his head. And with this event, on May 1, 2011, Osama Bin Laden, the man who lent a face to terror, for all Americans and the world population to see and hate, left, hoping to get to the place he has been promising every gullible, impressionable, poor mind, that agreed or was coerced into becoming his foot soldier. Now whether he got there or not, is something only he can tell, and God willing, he doesn't come back to tell us of his escapades!

The bigger point though, is that this means the end of nothing actually. The man was supposedly frail, reportedly needing dialysis to keep him alive, albeit with a razor sharp brain, nonetheless. Agreed, this heir to billions founded Al-Qaeda as a retaliation to US setting up defense bases in Saudi Arabia to assist Kuwait against Iraq, and ever since he has been the one man who took it upon himself to cleanse the world of all things not Islam, a diktat that perhaps would make Prophet Muhammad's blood boil! The issue is that this man has managed to build ranks and ranks of lunatic foot soldiers, capable of inflicting horror on millions on their own, without the need of a larger lunatic! The funding might still continue, since over at least 10 years, OBL has managed to incite thousands of millions into the 'Jihadi cause'. Rumor has it that he was a very strong orator with a strong tongue to guile many an impressionable mind. What happens to that network? Those fund routes? All those millions leading Al-Qaeda offshoots, with a framed picture of OBL hanging on their cave walls?

Secondly, will anything be done about Pakistan being a terror haven? That nation is in a state of utter chaos, such that their President could have done nothing, had OBL been plotting his next move, right in his own backyard! Although in reality, that did happen, since OBL was captured barely a 100 kms from Islamabad and more glaringly a mere 800 meters from a large Army training camp! Army - ISI - Taliban - Al Qaeda, anyone? The relationship is too blatant to dismiss as mere coincidence.

This may be a moral victory. Placards of '9/11 victims may RIP' flashed through TV screens all of yesterday. A small voice in me asked, "what about the victims of 26/11 in India?" OBL was elusive, living in caves in South Waziristan, maybe, Pakistan, Afghanistan for a while and so on. The capture operation went on for a long time, and the forces were diligent in their quest. Qasab, the man who inhumanly killed scores of people at CST station is alive on Indian tax payer's money in a prison in Mumbai. Wouldn't the blood of victims' families boil each time they cross the prison road that houses that monster? What about the souls of these victims? What about the souls of the victims of the 1993 blasts in Mumbai? We have had a face to terror long before OBL even broke into the terror fraternity! So, why do we lack the will and wherewithal that the US possesses? Is our PM's mandate any different from the mandate of the US President in issues of terror, given that both are democratically elected?

It is indeed high time our own people were taken less lightly and their lives and souls given their due. Even the body of someone like Osama Bin Laden is given a burial, albeit at sea, in adherence to Muslim convention of disposing of mortal remains within 24 hours. If only our elected leaders felt for those who elected them and were serious about bringing them justice!

Judgement day a year and a half later - the frivolity of it all.

This morning's paper was full of gyaan on Ajmal Amir Kasab. Again. It reminded me of the week in November 2008, where we had only news of the terror attack in the news, in the papers, on the streets, everywhere! Yesterday was judgement day. Almost all of India knew he was guilty, since all of us were treated to terror television through November 2008! And now finally after a year and a half was the time to put a stamp on what was already known. And this stamp was important, since I guess the world wanted to see whether our judges are trained enough to pass a judgement based on evidence alone, without being swayed by emotion. I guess we have paid a very heavy price to prove this to the world!

First, this lone surviving terrorist has been in custody for a year and a half. At humongous costs to the taxpayer. With a special cell, special food, additional security personnel, everything needed to protect the terrorist from himself and his own people, the costs have been high and they have been mounting. Secondly, the terrorist has been going in a flipflop, confessing, denying, mocking, laughing and annoying courts, and his security personnel. The drain on the police has been enormous as well. They are being forced to be civil to one who has killed several of their own. They also have to protect him, feed him, and see his mocking face everyday, and these tasks are painful reminders of the past. Thirdly, what about the families of the victims? Imagine seeing the face of one who has robbed your loved ones from you being flashed across papers and the TV for a year and a half. Think about the trauma associated with realizing that a guy responsible for murdering hundreds of innocent civilians, some of whom were related to you still has the gift of life, despite having stolen that gift from your friends and family.

And finally, what is the way out? People say 'Hang him to death.' But wasn't this a suicide mission in the first place? If he is indeed given the death penalty, he will end up achieving what he set out to achieve anyway, albeit a year and a half late. Does it make sense to punish a pawn with death, while the real perpetrators still roam free? So should he be kept alive? Well, all of the above realities will then persist till eternity. What is the way out? I don't know, for sure. All I do know is that either way, at least in this case, terrorism has indeed won! We are filled with a helpless form of disgust, where the choices make no sense. A terrible outcome for one of the worst instances of heartless terrorism this world has seen. A pity that it had to be Mumbai at the receiving end again.