It has been a bad and bloody month for all of us. Four Indians including a Brigadier and a senior diplomat and two soldiers were among those killed in suicide attack in Kabul. At about the same time terrorists in Kashmir struck against the Indian army twice and there were border violations. After the Jaipur serial blasts we now have bombings in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. Interspersed with this was the mauling of the nation’s soul in Parliament by people we had sent to represent us. Did anyone lose sleep this time? Probably not. And, that is the outrage, because after the usual handwringing, denunciations, compensations and pontifications, we will revert to what we are – callous and uncaring because terrorism is considered to be a disease that afflicts ‘the other’.
We forget though that terrorism has been with us for decades and casualties have become statistics. The killings we have seen recently are not an expression of anger for no anger justifies killing innocents who are not the cause of this anger. The bombings are carefully selected acts against soft targets meant to spread fear, to provoke a reaction; they are meant to undermine the economy and to send a signal to India’s majority --- the poor and helpless – that their lives are not safe. If the anger is about poverty, denial of opportunities, discrimination and miscarriage of justice then why kill the blameless? Obviously they go beyond bread and butter issues.
There is as yet no evidence about who was responsible for these acts and as usual various names are afloat. The essential truth is that we have brought this upon ourselves over the years. We are victims of terrorism that is spreading outwards from Pakistan. Instead of dealing this with single mindedness, we have sought appeasement and instead of sharpening the state instruments of investigation and intelligence we issued caveats to investigators. Pakistan may or may not be responsible for the current spate of terrorism but a certain mindset has been let loose and these clones are now roaming around free to act. We have been seemingly unable to catch the signals.
People like Osama say that the West led by the US and Britain are the champion Crusaders of the modern world who have occupied the Holy Lands and have to be thrown out. They are aided in this by the Israelis, Indians and even Russians while the worst offenders are the ‘apostate’ Muslim kingdoms and governments in West Asia. These lands can be freed through defensive jehad -- the duty of every Muslim when an enemy enters a country and occupies it. These are also the sounds that one hears in FATA and Swat these days. In his 1996 Declaration of Jehad against the US, Osama had mentioned Kashmir and Assam as some of the places where there was injustice, repression and aggression by Christians, Jews and their agents. To achieve their goal, all methods are considered fair. Alliances with the ungodly, the atheist, or the sinful – the drug traffickers and the weapons smugglers may be necessary and Osama and his kind justify this for the greater cause. He also justifies killing of innocents and children so long as this was not intended, or necessary, if the circumstances so demanded. Bin Laden has cited Nagasaki and Hiroshima often in his speeches and has said that possession of weapons of mass destruction to counter those of the infidels was a religious duty. And to carry on with the jehad, it was best to recruit the young and the unattached in the age group of 15 to 25. In February 1998, Osama had exhorted Muslims “to kill all Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it...”
This is not to suggest that every Muslim everywhere believes in this. But there are many in Pakistan today who believe in Osama. They are afflicted by the Lal Masjid syndrome. There are also those in the armed forces and in the intelligence who have trained young men and women for jehad who are now suffering from advanced signs of reverse indoctrination. The battles that rage in Waziristan and in the NWFP today have left large tracts of territory around Peshawar in the hands of the jehadis. Training camps in the hinterland and fulminations from the pulpit continue. In his Friday sermon on July 11, the Amir of Jama’t ud da’wa, Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed who is known for his extreme views urged Muslims to prepare themselves for sacrifices in order to defend Muslim lands, to protect their honour and dignity. Two days later, Saeed declared that it was obligatory upon every Pakistani to wrest Kashmir from Indian occupation adding that India should not dream of peace in the region as long as the Kashmir issue remained unresolved. Extremists in Pakistan, encouraged by the intelligence, the army and even politicians, have long targeted India and not just Kashmir.
This is very similar to what Osama preaches to his jehadis. If jehad in northwest Pakistan is curbed, it will spread to the eastern border because the jehadi foot soldiers have to be kept employed elsewhere. Jaipur, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and now Surat are warnings about a growing capability and ideology extending beyond Kashmir. They were dropping visiting cards. More such attacks will take place in the months ahead.
Unfortunately, terrorism cannot be countered by noble intentions, compensations to the victims’ families and platitudes. Battling terror is a long and arduous task; it can be highly frustrating especially when the investigator sees the terrorist escape punishment on technical grounds. The most important capability that has to be constantly upgraded is the ability to prevent an attack with the knowledge and acceptance that not all attacks can be prevented. Even with the present system there are many attacks that do get aborted but when intelligence is inadequate or weak, there is incomplete follow up. Indiscriminate arrests follow, which lead to further alienation.
When terror struck in America and Britain they introduced draconian laws and the Bush Administration has introduced the controversial surveillance act which would allow warrantless eavesdropping. We did away with POTA without an adequate substitute. Heightened intelligence capabilities, sustained and built over a long period which is able to keep pace with evolving threats, smarter investigations and forensics, especially in the states, rapid sharing of intelligence, national identity cards, CCTVs at important places, speedy justice seen to be fair, a system of governance that delivers what it is supposed to deliver and a media that does not compete for TRP ratings over such issues, will all need to be put together for us to succeed. We must have all it takes to detect, deter and destroy this menace before it destroys us.
Source : The Asian Age , August 1, 2008
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