THE bomb scare at the Willes Little Flower School on Tuesday, which thankfully turned out to be a hoax, underlined the sense of insecurity that people are suffering from these days. There is no way to take the news or threat of a bomb blast lightly after all that we have been through over the last few weeks. The nerves of students and their guardians took a terrible hammering, following the news of the discovery of a bomb on the school premises. It must be noted here that five people were injured in two bomb blasts in the city on the same day.

Bomb blasts are taking place almost regularly. But it seems the law enforcers have not acquired the desired level of efficiency or expertise to deal with them. What happened at the school was nothing short of total chaos, as the students were kept inside the school while their anxious parents waited for hours to know what was going on. There was absolutely no communication and neither the law enforcers nor the school authorities felt the need for informing the parents that their wards were safe. Then, the way the suspected bomb was carried by a policeman was also indicative of their acute methodological ineptness in handling a situation like this. The students should have been evacuated before removing the suspected object from where it was lying. It is not clear why the police took the grave risk of carrying it through a crowded place.

The school incident ended on a happy note since the bomb was not a real one. Regrettably, in most cases people have been exposed to genuine threats. The bomb attackers, whose identity is yet to be discovered, have succeeded in killing innocent people and disrupting life. They have also attained the capability to create panic among people. Obviously, the subversive potential of these elements is enormous.

Bomb scare has unsettled matters in some other institutions as well over the last two weeks. Now, the law enforcers' prime duty is to identify the groups and individuals who are behind these anti-people activities and bring them to justice. Public security is too precious a thing to be left at the mercy of wanton killers and scare mongers.