Terrorists And High Tech, The Next Front?

The New York Times has a report this morning of the arrest of an Islamic militant for the murder of a scholar during an attack last week at the Indian Institute of Science, the country's premier science and technology institution. Key quote:

The police were put on high alert in a number of cities, installing checkpoints and searching people and cars in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Madras, all flourishing cities where hundreds of outsourcing companies offer services to Western clients.

The measures taken in Hyderabad coincided with a visit to the city by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to open the Indian Science Congress, the country's biggest meeting of scientists and scholars.

Wire reports quoted Mr. Singh as saying that terrorists were singling out India's research institutes because of the country's growing technical and scientific prowess. "The symbols and temples of our knowledge society are today being targeted by terrorists," Mr. Singh told scientists at the conference.

For those who think all would be well if only George Bush could be made to go away, here is more evidence that these fundamentalist fanatics will oppose, in the most violent way, any one who stands for progress, enlightenment and modernity. They want nothing less than to restore much of the world to the conditions of the 12th century.