Only difference this time; it wasn't serial one. It is yet not clear who are the miscreants involved in this, but Delhi Police have already zeroed down the search to IM group again. Ok, that's fine, but do you really know who the people by profession in IM group are? I read many of them are students and one of the main suspect was an Wipro Engineer.

It's shocking. They are well qualified people just like most of us. Many of them are graduated from Good Colleges. It is revealed recently that, the main suspects in Delhi Serial Blasts Taqueer, who had completed a computer course from Mumbai and implemented intranet for Bharat Petro Limited for Wipro and later joined Wipro.

One of the chiefs of outlawed SIMI group recently confessed that due to differences in opinion in group he decided to recruit more educated people into group. Techies were always preferred. But why?

Now for time being let's go global. The recent study by political scientists in U.K through records of 404 people among 30 countries, who are involved in political violence from 2005 to 2007, shows that most of them were Engineer.

Out of 178 people whose academic records could be checked, 44% i.e. 78 people were engineers and remaining of them were belonging to students of Islamic studies, medicine, science etc. Though the data published doesn’t represent India in particular or South Asia as such, but I feel if someone does the survey in India or South Asia, it will result same findings that, large number of techies involved into terror groups. Gone are the days when people involved were students of Islamic Studies only or something else.

Does it mean that engineers have terrorist's mindset? Sorry..No way...We don’t have...I am an engineer myself and many of us don't have destructive mindset, really speaking. Then does statistics show something wrong? Nope either. Then why are so many engineers involved into terror activities not only in India but across the globe.

The answer is elusive and not definite. Though leaders of jihadist groups are actively involved in recruiting techies, one distinct fact make them favorite is excellent planning ability of action. One of the SIMI chief who was arrested recently confessed the fact that engineers are excellent planners with minuscule details of actions.

If anyone of you read the reports in newspaper about Atif, the brain behind the Delhi serial blasts, you would have come to know the detail planning he made before Jaipur and Delhi blasts. But is it the only ability? Nope..engineers keep low profile of themselves says arrested leader of SIMI, and it really helps in finding them. Yes, it is true in some sense but it is not enough. Some of the people who are involved seem to be hackers. Yes they needed hackers to send anonymous emails and who else can hack system? A computer expert like Taqueer who was working at Wipro and trained himself into computers.

But why do they tend to kill people and misuse their skills? Not easy to answer. The report of U.K scientists say that engineers have wider political views along with social conditions in which they live really make them soft target to get picked by jihadist groups. What else! They have an engineering attitude or rather engineer’s mindset of doing things which not only helps jihadist in making detail plans but also almost error free implementation of it.

Engineers do have wider social view. I don't know about all of them, but in general it is true. But most important reason citied in the report was social conditions in which they live. In India, for last couple of years attacks on minority groups have soared to an extent that, it is not surprising that youths belonging to these minority groups would end up in taking revenge of it. So don’t be surprised to see more & more terror attacks by these youths belonging to minority groups. Also lack of education and opportunities helps jihadist to brainwash them easily, train them and use them for attacks. It would be better than selling vegetables after engineering or doing less paid jobs. Unless and until we do something to help improving social condition of these minorities in terms of Education and opportunities, we are helpless in preventing completely.

As I was writing my last two articles about IEDs, which are used as bombs in recent attacks I made it clear at the start, it may or may not be possible to tackle IEDs by technology only. So don’t be surprised if someday some U.S university professor will come up with a technological solution to IEDs. It could be possible, as U.S Defense has launched a huge defense research program for it, but real question lies beneath is the Social condition which are giving rise to such attacks, how are we going to tackle with social injustice in minds of those youths who take pride in taking revenge for social injustice towards their minority community and nothing else? Do we really know how to tackle this? Social problems are deeply rooted and can’t be eradicated so easily. So don’t be surprise if someone from Karnataka who has undergone recent brunt of attacks on minority groups, comes and take revenge in some or other way.

It’s an open challenge to our Indian society, the society in which we live. We, the common people are going to endure the brunt of this. And as I said, there is no short and sweet solution for it; we are going to live under terror in coming years.

Coming to end of this article, the report says many of engineers who are involved belong to electrical, civil, chemical and computer engineering. And it makes evident from recent blasts that why these special people are involved in terror outfits. As technology of making bombs is getting more and more sophisticated, you need more educated and qualified people to make it, plan it and implement it. And who else other than Engineers are better in dealing with technology? 

 Good Night!!!