Preventing
Terror Attacks
By Ram Puniyani
09 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The
Hyderabad blasts, August 2007 at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat, both
places which are frequented by people in large number, on the heels
of blasts in Mecca Masjid in April 2007, are too tragic for words. So
many of innocents got killed and added one more tally to the acts of
insanity which are going up during last few years in the country. From
1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, over 12 major terror attacks have taken
place. In Indian scenario, the acts of terrorism are scattered all over.
In Kashmir the militancy which began around the slogan of Kashmiriayt
went through the roof, in 1980s, with Al Qaeda elements entering Kashmir
after their mission of defeat Russian communist army got over. Incidentally,
Al Qaeda was a US-CIA creation, propped up for its proxy war against
USSR, whose armies had occupied Afghanistan. . The number of innocents
killed in North East has been an equal if not bigger than in Kashmir.
It has been a hot bed of these terrorism The NE problem has been revolving
around the issues of ethnicity the worst of which was seen in Nagaland
in yesteryears and the current worst is witnessed in Assam and Manipur,
where ULFA is the major player in the field.
The serial blasts which rocked
Mumbai in 1993 were in the aftermath of the Mumbai pogrom, in the aftermath
of Babri demolition. These seem to be the only one which was investigated.
Mumbai probably has been the most unfortunate city as far as the blasts
are concerned. After the Mumbai blasts of 1993, it was to witness blasts
again in 2003, which could be related the massive carnage of Gujarat
in 2002. there were traces of a group called Gujarat Muslim Revenge
Group, which was the main culprit, but not much ahs been heard on this
front. Again in 2006 Mumbai saw the blasts in trains, in the Western
Railway, in the first class compartment, and one can faintly correlate
it again to the Gujarat anti Muslim pogrom.
Than again one sees series of blasts in front of Mosques at crowded
times of the afternoon Namaz when the congregations are heavy. In April
2006, in one of the less publicized cases one blast took place in Nanded,
in the house of Bajrang Dal activist, killing two of them.
As such there are multiple
types of terror acts which have shaken the peace and killed so many
of innocent people. Despite the rise in the acts of terror, where does
the state stand in preventing the same? So far, the response has been
to tighten the security, to pursue the investigations in a particular
direction and to postulate the involvement of the terrorist groups from
Bangla Desh and Pakistan, which may have more than a grain of truth
in that. But how come the matters stand where they were and the control
of these acts is no where in sight. One of the theories doing
rounds is that, since the laws like POTA or TADA have been abolished
these acts are taking place, so they should be brought in again. One
recalls here that these laws were in existence during the NDA regime
and one has seen enough of acts of terror during that time also, including
the attack on Parliament. The terrorists are willing to get killed in
the act, so can such laws deter them? One recalls the case of Dhanu
who came as a live bomb strapping the plastic bomb around her body and
killed Rajiv Gandhi, surely knowing that she her self will be killed
while doing so? Terrorism is an act of extreme frustration. These laws
at the worst will give further authority to the police machinery in
torturing some labeled characters.
So far what are the examples where either some reduction or partial
success has been achieved in controlling this insanity? Two of these
stand out. One, the political understanding between central Govt and
Nagaland, did result in the control of the situation there to a great
extent. Mark the role of political process in this case. Same way one
is seeing the reduction in the acts of terror in Kashmir during last
three years, of the current ruling coalition. This Govt. has been the
outcome of a fair election process. The democratic representation of
people coupled with the political process of dialogue with different
groups has been a major factor. As large acts of terrorism are due to
the underlying political discontent, one has to begin with the political
process to tackle the terror attacks.
The process of winning over
the confidence of communities cutting across religious lines is a must.
It is the political alienation, which is the root cause of the formation
of the psyche of the terrorists. The mere rhetoric of War against Terror,
which only operates by the biases against particular communities, the
biases which by now have assumed institutional characters, can in no
way weed out the problem. United States claimed to have launched a war
on terror after 9/11. Can there be such a thing as 'war on terror'?
Terror is an abstract concept coming in to being because of innumerable
reasons, so we have seen that more the use of intimidation and oppression;
more is the increase in this phenomenon. Today one can say that terrorism
has roots in three major problems. One, the foremost is the politics
for control of oil resources, which gave rise to outfits like Al Qaeda,
which are now spreading far and wide and spreading the poisonous weeds.
The second is the ethnicity related issues, like Kashmir, North East
and the ones' in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka the major terrorist organization
in the World, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam is operating, the latest
of its dastardly act was the attack near the hotel where our cricket
stars were staying in July 2006. The third one is the rising communalization,
the consequent polarization of communities. The increasing sense of
despair in the minority community. Here the correlation of Babri demolition,
Mumbai riots followed by blasts should be noted and matched with the
ones' in Gujarat. In Gujarat Godhra train burning, followed by Gujarat
carnage and later, by the Mumbai blasts is unmistakable. The parallels
cannot be missed.
The sincere efforts to control
terrorism will involve, looking at the root causes and trying to solve
them. The terrorist acts can be prevented by an unbiased investigation,
getting over the biases, and coming to identify the criminals, than
their designs can be thwarted well in time. The biased intelligence
and mere superficial approach cannot make any headway in preventing
terror attacks.
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