Author: Vikram Sood
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: August 2, 2008
URL: http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/opinion/terror-won't-stop-till-we-fight-it-like-a-war.aspx
It has been a bad and bloody month for all
of us. Four Indians, including a brigadier, a senior diplomat and two paramilitary
jawans, were killed in a suicide attack on our embassy in Kabul. Around the
same time, terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir struck against the Indian Army
twice, and there were several border violations. And then the blasts in Bengaluru
and Ahmedabad. Did anyone lose sleep over all this? Probably not. And this
is cause for outrage because after the usual hand-wringing, denunciations,
compensations and pontification, we return to life as usual because terrorism
doesn't affect us. It affects "others".
We forget that terrorism has been with us
for decades. We have become numb to casualties - they have been reduced to
mere statistics. The blasts we have seen recently are carefully planned acts
of terror against soft targets. They are meant to spread fear, to provoke
a reaction. They are meant to undermine the economy and to send a signal to
India's majority that their lives are not safe.
As yet, there is no evidence about who was
responsible for these acts, though as usual various names are afloat. But
the fact is that we have brought this upon ourselves. Yes, we are the victims
of terrorism from Pakistan. But instead of dealing with it single-mindedly,
we sought to appease; Instead of strengthening our investigation and intelligence
network, we issued caveats to investigators. Pakistan may or may not be responsible
for the current terrorist attacks, but we must take responsibility for allowing
a certain mindset to grow and spread unhindered.
People like Osama bin Laden claim that the
West, led by the United States and Britain, are the "crusaders"
of the modern world who have occupied the "holy land." They and
their allies - Israelis, Indians and Russians - must be thrown out. The worst
offenders, they claim, are the "apostate" Muslim kingdoms and governments
in West Asia. These lands have to be freed through jihad. We hear echoes of
these instructions in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions of Fata and
Swat.
In his 1996 declaration of jihad against the
US, Osama 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, Osama and his kind justify alliance with the ungodly
and the sinners - drug traffickers, arms smugglers. They also justify killing
innocent people and children so long as it was not intended.
Bin Laden has often cited Nagasaki and Hiroshima
in his speeches and said that possession of weapons of mass destruction to
counter those of the "infidels" is a religious duty. And to carry
on with the jihad, it is best to recruit the young and the unattached in the
age group of 15 to 25. In February 1998, Osama exhorted Muslims "to kill
all Americans and their allies, civilians and military
it is the individual
duty of every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible..."
This is not to suggest that all Muslims everywhere
believe in this. But there are many in Pakistan today who believe in Osama.
And that is why terrorists' training camps in the hinterland and fulminations
from the pulpit continue. In his Friday sermon on July 11, Hafiz Saeed, the
Amir of Jama't ud da'wa, Pakistan, known for his extreme views, urged Muslims
to prepare themselves for sacrifices in order to defend Muslim lands, and
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 ISI,
the Army and politicians, have long targeted India and not just Kashmir. This
is very similar to what Osama preaches to his jihadis.
Jaipur, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and now Surat.
These are warnings about a growing capability and ideology extending beyond
Kashmir. They are dropping their visiting cards, with the message that more
such attacks will take place. India now needs to make the call.
When terror struck America and Britain, they
introduced draconian laws. The Bush administration even introduced controversial
surveillance laws. In India, we did away with the Prevention of Terrorism
Act (POTA), but did not consider it important to have an adequate substitute.
Battling terror is a long and arduous task:
the capability to prevent attacks has to be upgraded constantly, with the
knowledge and acceptance that not all attacks can be prevented. Even with
our present system there are many attacks that get aborted.
But when intelligence is inadequate and follow-ups
incomplete, indiscriminate arrests follow which lead to further alienation.
Heightened intelligence capability, sustained
and built over a period of time, which is able to keep pace with the growing
threat, skillful investigation and forensics, particularly at the state level,
sharing intelligence, national identity cards, CCTVs at important places,
speedy justice which is also seen to be fair, a system of governance that
delivers what it is supposed to and a media that does not compete for TRP
ratings over such issues: All this and more will have to be put in place for
us to succeed.
India must get ready to detect, deter and
destroy this menace before it destroys us.
- Vikram Sood is a former head of the Research
and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency