According to an analysis of the terror risk to about 1,300 commercial hubs and cities across the globe, scores and enterprises in around 113 Indian cities have been identified to be under some sort of risk – high, medium or low risk of facing terror attacks.
According to sources, Imphal (placed 42) and Srinagar (placed 49) top the list. The next major Indian city after these two is on the verge of facing threats is Chennai, even though the risk quotient has been marked as medium risk.
Bangalore comes next as the fourth most likely city, even though it is placed at 204th in the global threat list followed by Pune and Hyderabad at 206th and 207th respectively
Hubs like Nagpur (ranked 2010) and Kolkata (2012) have been found to face a higher risk of a mass attack by terrorists that the usually expected targets like Delhi (447) and Mumbai (298). About 65 cities the world are at “extreme” risk, with most in the Middle East and Asia – and three in Europe.
London ranked as low as at 400 due to the lack of a terror incident since the 7/7 bombings while the beautiful city of Paris soared high, making it to the top 100 cities, following the Charlie Hebdo shooting, according to Verisk Maplecroft’s new Global Alerts Dashboard (GAD).
Experts state that ‘the Mumbai attack in 2008 was the turning point for India. But lack of intelligence sharing among states is a big worry. Law and order is still a state subject in India and political rivalries across states leads to state intelligence agencies not sharing actionable data. Virtually all police forces in India lack modern equipment and adequate manpower to counter a terrorist threat. This brings down the overall morale of the force. India does not face threats from cross border terror organisations but also from home grown ones like the Indian Mujahideen.’
Meanwhile, Belfast has been named as the most dangerous cities in the European continent, while Baghdad topped the list globally. Out of Iraq, other capital cities rated at ‘extreme risk’ include Kabul (13th most at risk), Mogadishu in Somalia (14th), Sana’a in Yemen (19th) and Tripoli in Libya (48th). Paris (97th and ‘high risk’) has experienced ‘one of the steepest rises’ in the ranking, reflecting the severity of the terrorist attack in January 2015 that left about 17 people dead.
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