Is Osama on your friend's list?

What is going on?

Alleged Indian Mujahideen operative Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer’s friend is none other than al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, if one goes by his profile on a social networking website…Interestingly, Osama wrote all the entries in Hindi.

Osama is doing social networking now? Let us not take such jokes too far. Would Osama write, “Tauqir bhai, Sukhpal ko ishara kar dena ki RDX pahunch gya hai. Kal Amritsar se train mein rakhwa denge’’?

Here is more from TOI:

Tauqeer’s profile says his ideal match is “Osama ka attack”, while his idea of a perfect first date is “India ka Laden’’. The column, five things he cannot live without, include “poora India khatam’’; the profile goes on to say that in my bedroom, you will find “sirf serial bombs.’’

In his profile Tauqeer writes, “India ki tabahi sirf ek mahine mein.’’ The Englishspeaking Tauqeer also says he is on the networking site for activity partners. About his passion, the profile says, “next blast Bangalore main’’; in the sports column, the profile says, “lakhon logon ki jaan mere haath mein’’.

Another scrap entry is on Safdar Nagori, former national general secretary of SIMI, which says, “Nagori bhai jaan he sehmet hai is faisle se.” The third, written on September 20, says, “Thoda intezaar kar le, poori Delhi police hamari talash mein hai’’, while the next scrap states, “agla blast Bangalore main karenge’’.

Is this a report? Terrorists are openly revealing their plans? They are looking for partners in crime? This does not qualify as a newspaper report. Let us not take these jokes too far.

Osama is mentioned often in people’s writings or even as banter. People are called Islamists and jihadis, without anyone knowing what these terms mean.

It has become a farce.

What is not is actual tragedy striking.

It was Black Saturday all over again. Exactly two weeks after serial blasts ripped through the capital, it was hit by a low-intensity crude bomb, which went off on Saturday afternoon in the crowded Sarai Market near Aulia Masjid in south Delhi’s Mehrauli area. A nine-year-old boy, who innocently picked up a black polythene bag containing a tiffin box bomb, was killed on the spot as it exploded in his face. Twenty-five people were injured.

I do not want to be in a situation and say, oh no, one more bomb blast…yawn.

Obviously these guys are sending messages prior to hitting. They are challenging the police force, the political parties, the government. And now the cops are saying that this is not the work of the Indian Mujahideen or SIMI. Why? Because they did not get one of those typical emails? Are they waiting to look in their inbox before they realise what will happen next?

There is a limit to electoral one-upmanship.