01-03-2007, 01:39 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Changing face of terrorism </b>
Pioneer.com
Wilson John
In 2006, Pakistan-sponsored jihadi terrorism in India underwent several significant changes that is bound to define the terror strategies of different groups inimical to India and its national interests.
The most significant indication is the growing alliance between jihadi groups operating from Pakistan and Bangladesh - Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Harkat-ul Jihadi-al-Islami (HuJI) - with ideologically extreme groups in India like the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). This development signals a new phase of terrorism within India where groups like LeT are tying up with smaller and diffused groups of extremists with the primary objective of hitting at the foundation of our open, democratic society's plural character and tradition.
Another visible change has been the conscious attempt on part of the jihadis to expand the theatre of operation beyond Jammu & Kashmir. Different parts of the country, particularly in the west and the south, are increasingly coming under their focus. The northern and North-Eastern States are already afflicted by different shades of terrorism. In all likelihood, the North-East, especially Assam, will increasingly come under threat from Islamist terrorists operating out of Bangladesh. New terror bases have been discovered in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
The third point of concern is the changing profile of terrorists. They are no longer necessarily bearded, madarsa-educated jihadis. A sizeable number of them are well educated - doctors and engineers - and adept in exploiting latest communication technologies like Internet, e-mail and satellite phones. These men are also trained in explosives by experts in Pakistan; their ability and ingenuity is reflected in the use of locally available material like pressure cookers to cause mayhem.
They use computer-aided tools like e-mail (processing data through draft folders in e-mail accounts) with equal felicity to plot and execute terrorist acts. Their skill sets in IT enable them to tap into the World Wide Web of terror which has not only become a virtual university of jihad but also an overarching umbrella of faith, bringing all the faithful together on a single cyber platform.
<b>Which brings us to the fourth point: A large number of local recruits are influenced not by any ideology as such but by, what they perceive as, communal hatred and injustice inflicted by certain sections of society. A clear indication of this development is the large number of CDs, books, magazines and pamphlets highlighting the Gujarat riots and other incidents that portray "victimisation of Muslims at the hands of the Indian state".</b>
Although India has witnessed communal riots since Independence, it was the demolition of the disputed mosque in Ayodhya which drove a deep division between the two communities, bringing to the fore, perhaps for the first time since Partition, the clash between the majority community and the minority community on a pan-India scale. For the Muslim community as a whole, this incident raised the spectre of being totally subjugated in a nation of their choice.
Riding on this communal frenzy and hatred, groups like SIMI stoked the fire, supported in no less measure by the ISI and different groups in West Asia, creating the first group of home grown jihadis who wanted to avenge the demolition of the mosque by inflicting death and pain on the majority community and on what they perceived to be a "Hindu state". The ISI has been playing on the fears of the common Indian Muslim (which is no different for members of other religion in an impoverished country struggling to make progress) to create dissensions within society. For instance, recently the ISI-backed LeT has begun aggressively floating the idea of a separate Muslim State carved out of Uttar Pradesh.
Another added dimension to the growing threat is the increasing ability of Muslims to voice, and often broadcast widely, dissent and thus breakdown the walls of perception and communication among different groups within the community. <b>Terrorist groups like LeT (and in the near future, Al Qaeda) are beginning to exploit this to destabilise India and carve out an exclusive Muslim conclave within, which will then become the critical bridge between Islam in the West and its proponents in the East. Several Indian Muslim organisations are now using cyber space to articulate views on issues that had hitherto remained confined to mosques and drawing rooms.</b>
Of the multiple objectives a terrorist attack has, the least articulated and understood is the cycle of terror and hate. This is the sixth point. When groups like LeT carry out attacks, they expect and know that there will be a harvest of hate that inevitably follows in the wake of mass (and mindless) arrests of people from the Muslim community, harassment and torture of perfectly ordinary citizens and demonising the community by parading bearded accused before mediapersons even before investigations have been completed (most often even before they have begun in right ernest).
<b>Last but not the least is the oft-repeated argument that Muslims, whether in India or elsewhere, are radicalised by reading Quranic verses on jihad or listening to speeches on the theme. This is fallacious. The radicalisation of the community, at least some sections of it, needs to be studied in the context of political events and processes, changes at the social, economic and religious levels, especially in a country like India which has a sizeable share of the world's Muslim population. Analysing religious beliefs in isolation is not enough to understand why and how some sections of a particular community, in this case Muslims, are prone to get radicalised and take up arms against the state in the name of religion.</b>
It will be fairly prudent to estimate that given Pakistan's own internal security and political situation, Gen Pervez Musharraf's failure to extract a "solution" on Jammu & Kashmir out of India and the growing clamour from the jihadis to "liberate" Jammu & Kashmir, we are likely to witness a renewed cycle of violence and communal disharmony in the coming months.
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Pioneer.com
Wilson John
In 2006, Pakistan-sponsored jihadi terrorism in India underwent several significant changes that is bound to define the terror strategies of different groups inimical to India and its national interests.
The most significant indication is the growing alliance between jihadi groups operating from Pakistan and Bangladesh - Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Harkat-ul Jihadi-al-Islami (HuJI) - with ideologically extreme groups in India like the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). This development signals a new phase of terrorism within India where groups like LeT are tying up with smaller and diffused groups of extremists with the primary objective of hitting at the foundation of our open, democratic society's plural character and tradition.
Another visible change has been the conscious attempt on part of the jihadis to expand the theatre of operation beyond Jammu & Kashmir. Different parts of the country, particularly in the west and the south, are increasingly coming under their focus. The northern and North-Eastern States are already afflicted by different shades of terrorism. In all likelihood, the North-East, especially Assam, will increasingly come under threat from Islamist terrorists operating out of Bangladesh. New terror bases have been discovered in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
The third point of concern is the changing profile of terrorists. They are no longer necessarily bearded, madarsa-educated jihadis. A sizeable number of them are well educated - doctors and engineers - and adept in exploiting latest communication technologies like Internet, e-mail and satellite phones. These men are also trained in explosives by experts in Pakistan; their ability and ingenuity is reflected in the use of locally available material like pressure cookers to cause mayhem.
They use computer-aided tools like e-mail (processing data through draft folders in e-mail accounts) with equal felicity to plot and execute terrorist acts. Their skill sets in IT enable them to tap into the World Wide Web of terror which has not only become a virtual university of jihad but also an overarching umbrella of faith, bringing all the faithful together on a single cyber platform.
<b>Which brings us to the fourth point: A large number of local recruits are influenced not by any ideology as such but by, what they perceive as, communal hatred and injustice inflicted by certain sections of society. A clear indication of this development is the large number of CDs, books, magazines and pamphlets highlighting the Gujarat riots and other incidents that portray "victimisation of Muslims at the hands of the Indian state".</b>
Although India has witnessed communal riots since Independence, it was the demolition of the disputed mosque in Ayodhya which drove a deep division between the two communities, bringing to the fore, perhaps for the first time since Partition, the clash between the majority community and the minority community on a pan-India scale. For the Muslim community as a whole, this incident raised the spectre of being totally subjugated in a nation of their choice.
Riding on this communal frenzy and hatred, groups like SIMI stoked the fire, supported in no less measure by the ISI and different groups in West Asia, creating the first group of home grown jihadis who wanted to avenge the demolition of the mosque by inflicting death and pain on the majority community and on what they perceived to be a "Hindu state". The ISI has been playing on the fears of the common Indian Muslim (which is no different for members of other religion in an impoverished country struggling to make progress) to create dissensions within society. For instance, recently the ISI-backed LeT has begun aggressively floating the idea of a separate Muslim State carved out of Uttar Pradesh.
Another added dimension to the growing threat is the increasing ability of Muslims to voice, and often broadcast widely, dissent and thus breakdown the walls of perception and communication among different groups within the community. <b>Terrorist groups like LeT (and in the near future, Al Qaeda) are beginning to exploit this to destabilise India and carve out an exclusive Muslim conclave within, which will then become the critical bridge between Islam in the West and its proponents in the East. Several Indian Muslim organisations are now using cyber space to articulate views on issues that had hitherto remained confined to mosques and drawing rooms.</b>
Of the multiple objectives a terrorist attack has, the least articulated and understood is the cycle of terror and hate. This is the sixth point. When groups like LeT carry out attacks, they expect and know that there will be a harvest of hate that inevitably follows in the wake of mass (and mindless) arrests of people from the Muslim community, harassment and torture of perfectly ordinary citizens and demonising the community by parading bearded accused before mediapersons even before investigations have been completed (most often even before they have begun in right ernest).
<b>Last but not the least is the oft-repeated argument that Muslims, whether in India or elsewhere, are radicalised by reading Quranic verses on jihad or listening to speeches on the theme. This is fallacious. The radicalisation of the community, at least some sections of it, needs to be studied in the context of political events and processes, changes at the social, economic and religious levels, especially in a country like India which has a sizeable share of the world's Muslim population. Analysing religious beliefs in isolation is not enough to understand why and how some sections of a particular community, in this case Muslims, are prone to get radicalised and take up arms against the state in the name of religion.</b>
It will be fairly prudent to estimate that given Pakistan's own internal security and political situation, Gen Pervez Musharraf's failure to extract a "solution" on Jammu & Kashmir out of India and the growing clamour from the jihadis to "liberate" Jammu & Kashmir, we are likely to witness a renewed cycle of violence and communal disharmony in the coming months.
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