BARCELONA HORROR
A vehicular(सवारी संबंधी/ढोने का) attack to maximise casualties(हताहत/दुर्घटनाग्रस्तव्यक्ति) and spread panic is now a well-tested terrorist strategy in European cities. Barcelona became the latest urban centre to be so hit when a van ploughed(जोतना) into pedestrians on a busy street, leaving at least 14 dead and more than 100 injured. This is Spain’s worst terrorist incident(घटना) since the Madrid train bombings of 2004. The Islamic State has, expectedly, claimed(दावाकरना) responsibility. The plot appeared to be multi-site and involved numerous actors, not just a “lone wolf”. This hints at meticulous(अतिसावधान/सूक्ष्म) planning. The police have linked the van attack in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas area to an explosion the previous evening that ripped(काट डालना/फाड़ना) through a home and killed one person in a town 200 km south of Barcelona. Authorities also saw connections to a second vehicle attack that occurred in the resort town of Cambrils, south of Barcelona. With at least one attacker, the driver of the van, said to be at large, the Spanish government is likely to be grappling(पकडना/भिडजाना) with the same question as its counterparts(प्रतिरूप/समकक्षों) elsewhere in Europe: what options are available to lawenforcement(प्रवर्तन) to thwart(रोकना/बिगाड़ना) attacks using easy-to-obtain vehicles to grab(पकडना) the headlines? Over the past year, the weaponisation of vehicles has increasingly become the tactic(युक्ति) of choice for extremists(उग्रवादी): it was used in London (March and June 2017, at least 12 killed), Stockholm (April 2017, five killed), Berlin (December 2016, 12 killed), and Nice (July 2016, 86 killed).If indeed(अवश्य ही/वास्तव में) it is established that the IS was behind the Barcelona attack, even if only as an “inspiration(प्रेरणा)” and not in terms of planning or execution(कार्यान्वयन/अमल), this would call for a renewed focus on containing the jihadist group’s recruitment agenda in Europe. There is a real risk that with the steady(अनवरत/नियमित) erosion of the IS’sterritorial(राष्ट्रीय/देशीय) control in Iraq and Syria, recently highlighted by its defeat in Mosul, foreign fighters may return from those battlefields(रण-भूमि) to their home countries and focus on carrying out attacks there. European intelligence and security services that were beefed up after a multitude(बहुसंख्या/भीड़ ) of al-Qaeda-linked attacks through the decade of the 2000s are still fumbling(अनिश्चित) to gain control of this newparadigm(उदाहरण/नमूना/मिसाल) of individualised, low-tech terror. Until now it was believed that Spanish intelligence had performed better on this score than France, and perhaps even the U.K. Strained(तनावपूर्ण/अस्वाभाविक) by a lack of resources and suboptimal intra-Europe coordination, France’s intelligence seemed no match for the 2015 IS terror campaign on its soil, which culminated(समापन होना/ चोटी पर पहुंचना) in the death of 130 people in the Paris attacks in November. Spanish authorities, on the other hand, are said to have foiled several major plots in 2008, and “at least 10 separate conspiracies” in 2016, not to mention additional networks reportedly uncovered this year. Notwithstanding(तथापि) these variations, law enforcement agencies across the continent, and elsewhere, now face the unenviable(अवाछनीय) challenge of adapting to the evolving terror tactics of a dispersed, determined enemy.
1.Meticulous(अतिसावधान/सूक्ष्म)
Synonyms:- careful, diligent, scrupulous, punctilious, accurate
2.Grappling(पकडना/भिडजाना)
Synonyms:- wrestle, struggle, tussle, scuffle, battle
3.Counterparts(प्रतिरूप/समकक्षों)
Synonyms:- equivalent, equal, coequal, parallel, complement
4.Thwart(रोकना/बिगाड़ना)
Synonyms:- baffle, frustrate, queer, scotch, spoil
5.Multitude(बहुसंख्या/भीड़)
Synonyms:- masses, people, concourse, throng, plurality
6.Paradigm(उदाहरण/नमूना/मिसाल)
Synonyms:- pattern, example, template, standard, prototype
7.Strained(तनावपूर्ण/अस्वाभाविक)
Synonyms:- agonistic, constrained, forced, labored, laboured
