By Lauren Azrin
On Monday, December 11th , 27-year- old Akayed Ullah set off a homemade pipe bomb on
the walkway below Port Authority Bus Terminal. Luckily, the pipe bomb failed to do as much
damage as he planned, only igniting the pipe instead of exploding it, but 5 people were still left
with minor injuries. It also set off immediate chaos and panic on this typical Monday commute
for many people, as they screamed and ran in sheer terror[CNN].
This attack has now been labelled a terrorist attack, as Ullah has pledged allegiance to
ISIS and he claimed that his actions were a response to Israeli behaviors in Gaza.
"From what I saw it sounded like it came from the subway, but I'm just guessing,” CNN
quoted from Francisco Ramirez who was there at the time of the explosion, “It was two distinct
explosions seconds from each other. As I was making my way toward the outside, I kept getting
shoved by cops and there were cops at every entrance blocking and there was police and SWAT
everywhere.”
So, what dos this mean for us? Well, living so close to the city, commuting into it is
something that many of us and our families and friends do regularly. An incident like this will
make the daily commute so much more stressful and also very worrisome. To add to that, the
police and security will significantly increase in subway and bus stations. This will be an
inconvenience, but will ultimately work to prevent something like this from happening again.
Many of us may have possibly traveled down the same passageway where this happened
which is truly frightening, because any of us could have been there. It is hard to comprehend that
attacks like this and the one several weeks ago on the West Side Highway are this close to home
and could directly impact one of us us or someone that we know.
In order to stay safe when traveling into and around the city, make sure to be aware of
everything around you and to stay alert to protect yourself and others. You never know who or
what is out there, so reporting something suspicious can also help to prevent these kinds of
incidents.