When two people, one carrying a haversack, walked into the German Bakery, a popular restaurant frequented by the young in the heart of Pune, there should have been at least a guard who could have frisked them or a metal detector at the doorway to sound the alert. Inside, the Bakery's CCTV was apparently focused only on the cash counter and -didn't monitor the rest of the eatery. If such precautions were in place they may have saved 11 lives on February 13 and not reignited the wave of fear caused by the first big terror strike after Mumbai 26/11 in 2008.

Clearly, the answer is no. If each of us has invested in better locks for our doors, hired guards and set up a neighbourhood watch system to protect our homes, then private establishments like restaurants, hotels, offices and malls should invest in more stringent security measures. Private policing agencies now employ over five million guards, much more than all the police forces. Yet the bulk of them offer rudimentary protection and are hamstrung by outdated laws and procedures that prevent them from having better coordination with the regular police forces. They could prove to be a major second line of defence for the embattled police forces, providing the necessary manpower and intelligence network that could thwart Pune-type attacks. Yet many states are still to implement the 2005 Private Security Act. Also the Act has some stifling ambiguities that have to be removed. The Centre and states need to urgently work out how best private security agencies can be a force multiplier against terror.

Private policing may not stop terror strikes but it will help in thwarting many of them.