| by B.Raman
( April 16, 2013, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Three killed, over 100 injured in two explosions about two hours after the lead runners in the Boston Marathon had crossed the winning line on April 15,2013.
At least two other unexploded improvised explosive devices were reportedly defused by the police..An act of terrorism involving well-timed serial blasts.There was reportedly an interval of only a few minutes between the two explosions.
It was meant to be an act of mass casualty terrorism.If the IEDs had been planted along the route of the Marathon while it was on there might have been mass panic among the runners resulting in possible stampede. Fortunately, this did not happen.
Indications till now are that the perpetrators had used low or medium lethality explosives. There are reports of the limbs of some of the injured being blown away. If the explosive was not of high lethality, how did this happen?
Details of security checks during the Marathon are not known, but the perpetrators had successfully managed to evade whatever physical security was there while planting the IEDs.
No cliams of responsibility so far. No reports of any prior warnings.No indication that Homeland Security had any prior warning of a possible blast in the form of electronic chatter of the perpetratos or suspect interception and interrogation.The perpetrators had well maintained operational secrecy while planning and executing the blasts.
No indictation so far whether it was an act of rogue individuals or an organisation. The motive too is not clear.
( The writer is Additional Secretary (etd),Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi. Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )
 Three killed, over 100 injured in two explosions about two hours after t...){kind=link}