Bangalore may be the first city that stopped a terrorist attack using just bad traffic

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Let’s face it – Bengaluru’s traffic is legendary! From inspiring thousands of people to live minimalist lives with whatever stuff they manage to fit into their car, to creating the first humans who live for hours every day on pure exhaust fumes, Bengaluru’s traffic has some unique firsts to claim in India. (In Asia, and the world though, China’s got us beat. When will the Tiger overtake the Dragon?!)

But before you write off the city as an irretrievable traffic mess, you should also see the silver lining to the sooty, pollution covered picture. According to a report by Nikhil Gangadhar in the Deccan Herald, Bengaluru may be the first city in the world that stopped at least one terrorist attack using just bad traffic.

That’s right, you heard correctly... Bengaluru may have stopped a terrorist attack with just a traffic jam. Nikhil reports that a man named Habib Mia, arrested in Tripura and brought to Bengaluru last week, told police that terrorists who attacked IISc on December 28, 2005, also planned to attack other seminar events in parallel to tarnish India’s reputation.

However, an attacker who was travelling to the Indian Institute of Management on Bannerghatta Road apparently got caught in a traffic jam, and the seminar he was supposed to attack ended before he could get there.

What’s more, the terrorists also reportedly dropped a plan to attack an event at PES Institute of Technology because there was no easy escape route available. We have no further information on why this was the case.

But anyone who’s new to the city, and even many long-time residents, will attest to how difficult it is to navigate the endless arrays of one-ways and prohibited turnings Bengaluru now boasts of. Confronted with a stream of successive lefts, rights and u-turns required to navigate even the simplest of routes, most unfamiliar commuters now find it easier to simply curl up in a corner and accept defeat.

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