One of the two suspects in Boston Marathon blasts has been caught alive and is being treated for injuries he sustained in a police shootout at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We assume, once fully recovered, he will be able to help solving the riddle — why did they do it, how did they do it and who helped them to prepare the bomb and select the marathon as a potential target? Most important is to know who influenced the duo to the extent that they resorted to senseless violence.

Obviously fingers are being pointed out toward those spreading radical ideologies either in the religious gatherings or on the Internet to a wide circle of followers.

We have to see whether we are losing war on terror due to opening up of unlimited communication channels that world had never heard of just two decades back. Internet is flooded with extremist websites wherein all sort of propaganda is done to radicalize the surfers especially the young ones. Social interactive sites provide immense opportunities for ideas exchange among the radicals without any fear of being caught or tracked. As has been reported in media, the procedure to make a pressure cooker bomb, as the one used in Boston, has been on the Al-Qaeda’s website since 2010.

We need to look into ways to block/break the communication among radicals. They may resort to old-fashioned ways such as meetings, letters and telecommunication with more chances of being tracked.

If no action is taken today, then we shall be ready to suffer thanks to homegrown terrorism wherein strings are being pulled by invisible hands, hiding thousands of kilometers away. — Masood Khan, Jubail