India is often, sadly, a barometer of terrorist tactics. Train bombings are almost a regular occurrence and there have been numerous bombs at religious sites, shopping areas and business districts. The recent terrorist bombing of a cinema in India is a stark reminder of the types of targets that other countries, inclusing the West, can expect to be bombed in the future.In examining the range of targets susceptible to a possible terrorist attack, the ARC Security Management Stage 3 course identifies the following:
• Mass assembly or mass occupancy (shopping malls, large office blocks, hotels and night clubs, sports arena, entertainment events etc)
• Essentials in emergencies (hospitals, police, emergency response services)
• Symbolic and famous structures (monuments, iconic properties, religious institutions, cultural centres, museums)
• Sites with dangerous contents ( hazmat production, storage and transfer, nuclear power plants, dams, water utilities etc)
• Occupant vulnerability sites (hospitals, schools, emergency shelters, prisons etc)
• Special vulnerability structures (buildings with limited structural flexibility or those with nearby exacerbating factors)
• Economically crucial sites (manufacturing, financial districts, refineries, banks etc)
• Government crucial sites (judiciary, legislative, political, military, investigative, intelligence, communications, police)
• Infrastructure nodes (bridges, airports, stations, ports, power plants, major intersections)
• Distinctive in network (a building or structure on which a collection of buildings hinges)
Also:
• Being located in a prominent city, eg a capital
• Visibility – overtly large and imposing
• Accessibility – a site to which many people have unrestricted access
• Having been discussed in open literature as a possible target
• Having previously been the target of attack
• Identified by intelligence sources as in a threatened sector
• Having been identified by intelligence sources as a specific target
