India Gate is located in the heart of New Delhi, an elegant and imposing monument erected in memory of the thousands of Indian soldiers who had died in the First World War. Since then, it had become a symbol of reverence for those who had given their lives in India’s defence, and a lamp burnt continuously under the Gate’s arch, as a testimony to the unknown soldier. The lush gardens and lakes around India Gate are also popular weekend picnic spots for families. This day was no exception, as children played cricket, lovers serenaded each other behind the bushes, and the elderly walked in the neatly trimmed grass, reminiscing about how much had changed in India’s capital over the years.

What had not changed however was the proximity of India Gate to the nerve center of India’s government, the North and South Block, housing the External Affairs Ministry and Home Ministry respectively. The two imposing red-bricked compounds were located on either side of the same road, a straight drive from India Gate.

Among the families at India Gate were gathered two young men. They had a large bag with them, and dressed in whites, people assumed they were young cricket players carrying their kit with them. Hiding behind a large bush, one of them looked through a small pair of binoculars, and smiled as he saw what he was waiting for.

Less than a kilometer away, a convoy of five white Ambassador cars left North Block and turned towards India Gate. The Ambassador was a fifty-year old design, and obsolete by any standards, but still made up the bulk of the Government of India’s official fleet. In the third car of the convoy was seated Mani Tripathi, the head of India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), who together with the Intelligence Bureau head, reported into Joshi. In other cars were commandos and more officials of the R&AW, headed for an urgent meeting called by Joshi after news of the attack on Khosla had broken, just a few hours ago. Word was still slowly filtering out of details of the attack, but in the prevailing chaos, nobody paid much attention to two young men out to play cricket.

As the convoy came within two hundred meters, the two men opened the bag to reveal two narrow tubes. The tubes contained RPG anti-tank rockets. Both men took aim and fired within seconds of each other.

Tripathi was looking at a summary on his laptop computer when the lead car in the convoy exploded into a huge fireball, destroying it and the car behind it. Tripathi’s driver tried to back up, but the car behind them was almost immediately hit by another rocket. Shrapnel sliced through Tripathi’s car, decapitating his personal guard and killing his secretary sitting next to him. Bleeding from a dozen wounds, Tripathi staggered out of the car and fell unconscious.

The surviving commandos rushed to Tripathi and tried to carry him to safety while two men stood guard. They soon saw two seemingly unarmed men in white running at them. One commando stood up and shouted at them to go away, but realized his mistake too late. The two men triggered off high explosives strapped to their waists when they were within a few meters of the shattered convoy. The resultant explosions killed both of them, as well as everyone in the convoy who had survived the rocket attacks.

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Throughout that afternoon, similar terrorist attacks were reported across the country- in schools, temples, offices and railway stations. Over 300 people were killed, with the police claiming only a dozen terrorists killed. If the army had been called out immediately, further chaos may have been prevented. But once again, India's famed bureaucracy worked against it. The order to call the army out was given only late that night after much intellectualization over whether the initial attacks were one-off attacks or part of a larger pattern. By then it was too late.