ON THE FACE of it, India, with its stable democratic institutions, vast middle class, and clutch of world-beating companies, appears an unlikely candidate for the company of such blighted lands as Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet, as recorded by the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, between January 2004 and March 2007 the death toll from terrorist attacks in India was 3,674, second only to that in Iraq. Since then, bombs have gone off in Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Guwahati. In that sense, the Nov. 26-28 terrorist assault on Mumbai, though exceptional in its audacity and scope, is also part of a larger pattern. With Iraq experiencing a spell of relative calm, the world's largest democracy now likely holds the dubious distinction of also being the one least able to safeguard its citizens' lives.
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