'There Would Be A Cost...'

The dastardly terror attacks that took place in Mumbai last night and todayleading to the loss of many precious lives and injuries to many others havedeeply shocked the nation. I strongly condemn these acts of senseless violenceagainst innocent people, including guests from foreign countries. I offer mydeepest condolences to the bereaved families and sympathies to those injured.The Government will take all necessary measures to look after the wellbeing ofthe affected families, including medical treatment of injured.

The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with externallinkages, were intended to create a sense of panic, by choosing high profiletargets and indiscriminately killing foreigners.

I salute the courage and patriotism of the police officers, including theChief of the Anti-Terror Squad, Shri Hemant Karkare and men who have laid downtheir lives in fighting these terrorists. I assure the country that we willattend in an urgent and serious manner to police reform so that the law andorder authorities can work unitedly, effectively and in a determined manner totackle such threats to national integrity.

We are not prepared to countenance a situation in which the safety andsecurity of our citizens can be violated with impunity by terrorists. It isevident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside thecountry, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in thecommercial capital of the country.

We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is norepetition of such terrorist acts. We are determined to take whatever measuresare necessary to ensure the safety and security of our citizens.

Instruments like the National Security Act will be employed to deal withsituations of this kind. Existing laws will be tightened to ensure that thereare no loopholes available to terrorists to escape the clutches of the law. Mostimportantly, it is essential to immediately set up a Federal InvestigationAgency to go into terrorist crimes of this kind and ensure that the guilty arebrought to book.

We will take up strongly with our neighbours that the use of their territoryfor launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be acost if suitable measures are not taken by them. We will take a number ofmeasures to strengthen the hands of our police and intelligence authorities. Wewill curb the flow of funds to suspect organizations. We will restrict the entryof suspects into the country. We will go after these individuals andorganizations and make sure that every perpetrator, organizer and supporter ofterror, whatever his affiliation or religion may be, pays a heavy price forthese cowardly and horrific acts against our people.

In this hour of tragedy, I appeal to the people to maintain peace and harmonyso that the enemies of our country do not succeed in their nefarious designs.All concerned authorities are on alert and will deal sternly with any attemptsto disturb public order.

I am confident that the people of India will rise unitedly to face this gravechallenge to the nation’s security and integrity.

Jai Hind !