Thursday, December 29 2005 16:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: The mood at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here, where more than 2000 active researchers work in almost all frontier areas of science and technology, is sombre, a day after a terror attack on the campus shook the science and research community.

"We never thought such a thing would ever happen here", say the campus dwellers who termed yesterday (Dec 28,2005), evening's daring attack as some kind of a 'nightmare'.

Director of IISc, an institute of higher learning, Prof. P Balaram said security would be scaled up.

"It (the attack) is very unfortunate. We will step up security", he said.

The terrorist attack just outside the J N Tata Auditorium left a retired professor of IIT Delhi, Prof. M C Puri dead and four others wounded. The reaction of the IISc community ranged from "shocking" to 'disturbing' to 'shaken'.

Some of the senior IISc Professors, including the Director, visited the Ramaiah Hospital, where Prof. Puri's body was kept in the mortuary, and paid their last respects before it was to be flown to Delhi for cremation.

The sprawling campus attracts some of the best brains, and is one of India's top science institutes. It's manned by private security guards, who clearly appear to be ill-equipped to tackle any large-scale assault. Things may change.

Today, the campus of IISc, started in 1909 through the pioneering vision of J N Tata and one of the finest centres of its kind in India, was virtually sealed off and none of the visitors, including media personnel, were allowed in.

Though there is undercurrent of anguish with the way scientists were targetted yesterday, things are returning to normal on the working front, and it appeared to be 'business as usual' on the surface.