The official announcement of every terrorist attack invariably
concludes with a stock phrase, “Ghatna sthal ke nikat suraksha
ke prabandh our kare kar diye gaye hain (security arrangements
around the place of incident have been further strengthened).”
However each incident is succeeded by another attack, to be
followed by a similar announcement. Terror strikes at the place
and time of its choosing. Yet there is a pattern and that
pattern essentially lies in the behaviour of the terrorist and
modus operandi of the parent organization. Future attacks cannot
be predicted, but past ones can be catalogued, stored and
retrieved in near real-time. “Data archiving” and “data mining”
are scientific tools and methologies, the former for gathering,
sifting, hoarding and storehousing data, and the latter for
displaying duly processed critical information to the decision-
maker, whenever the need arises. Its hallmarks are virtuality
and event-retrieval potential, and its purpose is to match,
locate and track saboteurs, hij