Sounds ludicrous, doesn't it?
After the shoot-out at the JN TATA auditorium at the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore yesterday, anything's possible.
I remember attending an Institute-wide meeting to discuss changes in Security, organised by our Director (at TIFR) Professor Sabyasachi Bhattacharya around two months ago. Most of us couldn't comprehend why that meeting was necessary, and wondered if the Director was being overcautious. Apparently not.
The deceased was a retired professor at IIT Delhi, who was attending a conference at Bangalore. Oook informs me that Prof. Puri had actually heard the first round of firing and pushed a girl down to protect her, but got caught in the next round. The firing was indiscriminate, and four others were injured.
Why would anybody pick on Scientists? They're such a harmless lot. I don't see why anybody (apart from their graduate students) would want to murder a Research scientist.
Then again, considering this was a terrorist attack, the intention was just to scare the shit out of ordinary people instead of a directed killing. As usual, they seem to have succeeded.
Most of the news channels have been harping on about how Bangalore was targeted because it is India's IT hub. I dont' really get what a scientific research institution would have to do with the IT industry. Agreed, the international conference Prof Puri was attending was on IT, but I think that's stretching the connection a bit.
All the drama that's been taking up everyone's energy in TIFR regarding the restructuring of the institute will probably be overshadowed for a bit by panic over this incident.
After all, TIFR is a National Centre for Research in Nuclear Physics and Mathematics. And our institute security leaves a lot to be desired.
Should we be worried?
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9 comments:
Operations Research is not necessarily limited to IT, so it wasn't really an IT conference nor were all the people attending it related to IT.
Prof Puri was a mathematician and Dr. Vijay Chandru, one of the injured is the guy who started Strand Genomics.
Most of these people are quite low profile except in their fields. I don't think any terrorist group (even well organised ones) would have heard of them.
This seems, to me, to be a random whacko incident. Bangalore is a "soft target" as people keep harping on about it on TV, but its "soft" because there's no real reason to attack it!
I think the most that terrorists hope to achieve by acts like this is to scare industries away, but then the govt. is doing a damn good job of that anyway...
AFAIK this is the first incident of it's kind in India. I for one, am really scared.
And unless someone badly wanted those poor prof.s dead, which I find somewhat unlikely, I don't think an attack with assault rifles can be rated as a random whacko incident!
Oook's comment makes a lot of sense. I absolutely disagree that scientists are a harmless lot. Society changes with its technology, and scientific innovation drives that. Fundies generally think this is at cross-purposes with their idea of progress. Look at the quarrel between scientists and the supporters of bogus intelligent design theories in the States. It's probably unlikely that the shooters had some sort of ideological reason for picking IISc, but it's very possible to have such a reason imho.
@kray: With a little bit of money, any whacko can get an assault rifle in India. I think we knew this as far back as 1992.
But anyway what I meant by "random whacko" is that this might just be an incident without any real "design" and I doubt any terrorist org will come foward to claim responsibility.
@roswitha: Don't even get me started on the IDers!! Although their issue is mostly because they feel evolutionary theory replaces religion. But the funny thing about fundies is that they have no qualms about using Sci&Tech when it suits them. Look at all the Talibanis that happily used assault rifles, rocket launchers, etc.
>>With a little bit of money, any whacko can get an assault rifle in India.<<
Haan kya?!!! Wow! I thought free availability of sophisticated firearms was somewhat restricted... Outside the domain of organised crime/terrorism that is.
Act of terrorism or not, I hope this doesn't give other groups ideas! Imagine living in a college hostel in fear of a terrorist attack!!
Its really sad. Leave educational institutions out at least!!!
ID is just a really convenient way to get angry with everything about culture that defies logic. Still, there must be something said for IDers imaginative powers: I fail to see on which plane creationism and evolution can coincide at all.
That's awful!
A complete disegard for human life; indiscriminate killing of a great mind!
Did you catch the stint the news men did , where they entered TIFR and IIT and walked all over the place in isolated rooms and such with a black (unchecked) bag? I got the video. This was just after the IISc incident and bad publicity is greater motivation than security risks for Directors to hold meetings. :)
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