Terrorist Activities

Terrorist activities were traditionally not considered as disasters. However, during the last few years, terrorist activities have become more sophisticated in terms of the amount of detonating power on one side, and, the degree of coordination through which these are done, e.g. Several explosions are done almost simultaneously – thereby leaving the law-enforcement agencies and rescue operations in total confusion and disarray. Further, terrorist activities are now using explosive powers of their victims themselves to create more powerful blasts. e.g. Detonation of bombs kept in vehicles. These vehicles along with their fuels then act as still more powerful bombs. Similarly, in one incident, airplanes were made to collide against buildings. These airplanes with a very high velocity and large amounts of highly combustible fuels acted as a very dangerous combination.

Generally, large scale terrorist activities can be prevented only through timely collection and analysis of “intelligence” data. The only precaution that general population can take is to remain observant of their surroundings, and, report any suspicious activity to the law-enforcement agency.

Generally, the following should be considered as signs of suspicion. For example

• Some body not dressed appropriately for the occasion, e.g. somebody coming to be on a long-drive – but wearing heavy clothing, e.g. jackets etc. Oklahama Bomb Blast (1995) culprit was caught due to this

• an outsider, but, trying to mix in etc.