The Hindu Business Line : Terrorism and the challenge within

While the external challenge can be addressed, it is the internal challenge posed by extremist elements with support from across the border that requires careful handling.

G. Parthasarathy

Following the 9/11 terrorist strikes, American scholar Richard Hass, who quit the Bush Administration primarily because of his opposition to any invasion of Iraq, warned against stereotyping Muslims worldwide, as being sympathetic to terrorism.

He noted that India could be proud that none of its Muslim citizens had responded to Osama bin Laden’s call for an international Jihad against Jews and Crusaders. He asserted that the Indian experience showed that the successful functioning of a pluralistic democracy was the best antidote for terrorism in the name of Jihad. I, like many others, told my foreign, particularly Western, interlocutors that as an Indian I was proud that my fellow Muslim citizens shunned violence as a means to redress grievances.

Like many others, I overlooked a series of events in India that should have rung alarm bells in the minds of all thinking Indians. These pertained to a chain of terrorist attacks in urban centres such as Delhi, Ayodhya, Mumbai, Malegaon, Bangalore and Hyderabad in which the motivators may have been sitting across our borders, but the perpetrators were Indian nationals. I chose to ignore this fact primarily out of considerations of “political correctness”.

But the involvement of highly qualified Indian nationals hailing from a city of international repute like Bangalore, in acts of terrorism and suicide bombing in London and Glasgow and the arrest of Indian nationals in the UK and Australia can no longer be brushed under the carpet by considerations of “political correctness”.

India Image Damaged

What is it that possessed these well-to-do and well-qualified Indians to participate in actions that have brought disgrace to India and created circumstances that are going to be damaging for Indians seeking employment and residence abroad? Are our citizens now not going to be subject to the same humiliations and suspicions that visitors from Pakistan face at immigration counters and local communities abroad?

While the Mumbai bomb blasts of 1993 can be attributed to the rage of sections of the Muslim community following the destruction of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 and some recent acts of terrorism within India can be attributed to the trauma following the communal carnage in Gujarat, what is that motivated Kafeel Ahmed to blow himself up in Glasgow, when the British had not done him or his countrymen any harm and Indo-British ties are now better than ever before?

Is it justifiable for an Indian national to disgrace his country merely because he feels strongly about American and British actions in Iraq and elsewhere? What now motivates such terrorism in the name of Jihad in India and elsewhere?

The origin of present day terrorism lies in the Reagan Administration’s decision in 1981 to treat the opposition to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a Jihad. The organisations opposing the Soviet occupation were ideologically motivated and funded by Saudi Arabia. Wahhabi Islam, thereafter, gained a toehold in the sub-continent.

The Saudis sought to use an obliging General Zia ul Haq to nurture and strengthen the influence of Wahhabi organisations in Pakistan. Saudi Arabia was one of the only three countries that recognised the Taliban. But Saudi Arabia soon became a target of its own erstwhile protégés — Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, who objected to the presence of American forces in the desert kingdom. Further, by 1993, Wahhabi-oriented groups were used by the ISI for its Jihad in Jammu and Kashmir.

Target India

The Pakistani interest in undermining communal harmony in India came through starkly to me when a former Director-General of the ISI responded to my assertion that Indian Muslims strongly opposed Pakistan’s Jihad in Kashmir by stating: “You will see. We will soon make the Kashmir issue and issue of faith amongst your Muslims.” There is no dearth of evidence that in recent years, assiduous efforts have been made by Pakistan to radicalise Indian Muslims in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, by attempting to poison their minds about alleged injustices that Muslims face, from people practicing other faiths, across the world.

The Lashkar e Taiba, which has played a prominent role in this effort, openly proclaims that “Hindus, Jews and Christians are enemies of Islam”. It is well established that Wahhabi-oriented groups are now spreading their wings in India. Organisations such as the SIMI, the Jamat e Islami, the Tableeghi Jamat and the Jamat Ahle Hadise draw their ideological inspiration from Wahhabi groups in Saudi Arabia.

It would be wrong to assume that there is a unified, worldwide, or monolithic Islamist ideology. The Shia-Sunni cleavage is evident not only from developments in Iraq but also from the Iranian-Arab divide.

The rise of Shia assertiveness is causing apprehensions in the Sunni dominated Arab Gulf States. Interestingly, the Al Qaeda works against the Shia Hezbollah by strengthening its Sunni rivals in Lebanon and has been noticeably silent on American pressures to force Iran to end its nuclear enrichment programme.

While the Al Qaeda and the Taliban have dealt ruthlessly with Shias in Afghanistan, most terrorist groups in Pakistan do not want to be perceived as being anti-Shia. It is important for New Delhi to strengthen its intelligence surveillance in Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

We also need to keep a closer watch on infiltration from Bangladesh and Nepal by members of groups determined to build local “assets” to carry forward their agenda of disturbing communal harmony in India.

Internal Challenge

While the external challenge can be suitably addressed, it is the internal challenge posed by the London and Glasgow incidents that requires careful and sensitive handling. Sadly, the approach to promoting communal harmony has become an issue of political football and vote bank politics in India.

It is imperative that political parties across the country unite in getting together with leaders of the Muslim community, to agree on measures that community leaders should take to ensure that pernicious Wahhabi indoctrination does not lead to misguided youth turning to violence. This should be the sole subject for serious discussion in a special meeting of the National Integration Council.

Second, the intelligence surveillance of organisations such as the Jamat e Islami and the Tableeghi Jamat should be enhanced. Should credible evidence emerge, such organisations should be banned and investigations into terrorist attacks should not be hampered by political interference. New Delhi should also consider enacting legislation, which would make acts of terrorism and incitement to terrorism, offences to be investigated primarily by the CBI, together with the establishment of Special Courts to expeditiously try those accused of terrorism, irrespective of whether the intended targets are to be in India or abroad.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, spent a sleepless night agonising over the plight of the parents of an alleged terrorist and acted as a spokesman for the plight of Pakistanis, even before full facts of what had transpired emerged.

It would have been appropriate if he had manifested similar anguish at the pain suffered by the victims of terrorist violence and the families of armed forces personnel killed in the line of duty, fighting terrorists. India can no longer afford the luxury of ignoring the possibility that its citizens will be influenced by pernicious propaganda, which leads to them becoming suicide bombers and indulging in acts of terrorism abroad.

(The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan.)