Going to the roots of terrorism in South Asia
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Syed Fattahul Alim
The three days' horrible nightmare that the residents of the largest city of India had to go through has brought the whole of South Asia face to face with a stark reality. The reality is its total lack of preparedness against terrorism, though one cannot say that the region was ever stranger to the phenomenon that is now going to destroy whatever progress it has of late been making to improve the condition of life of its population.
Undeniably, the desperadoes who unleashed a terror in the financial heartland of India from the night of November 26 till the early hours of November 29 committed the worst crime against the people of Mumbai including the foreign guests who were residing in the luxurious hotels like Oberoi/Trident or Tajmahal. The terrorists, in fact, committed the worst crime against humanity in recent memory. While condemning this kind of tragedy with the strongest word, one has also to admit what a poor show Mumbai, one of the largest cities in the world, made so far as the security of the lives and properties of its residents was concerned. If the devil has also to be paid his due, it has t be agreed that the terrorists exposed the glaring weakness of this great glittering city of pelf and pomp to protect its population. If this is the picture of Mumbai, which is a city of dream and possibility of all the fortune hunters of the region, then how would other lesser cities of South Asia fare in the face of similar attack by remorseless terrorists, criminals and gangsters, whose mission, as the Mumbai ordeal has amply demonstrated, is only to kill and destroy?
The words development and economic growth the governments of the region are so fond of telling, reminding and promising the people and their commitment to it at the slightest opportunity sound hollow when we recall the still fresh memory of the Mumbai tragedy. What is the meaning of all the hard work of the people to build a better future for themselves and their children, if that can be blown to smithereens by a handful of outlaws in the blink of an eye? If the very condition of human life remains so vulnerable to the agents of such gratuitous butchery and mayhem, whether home-grown or coming from beyond the border, if the people at work in the fields, factories and every workplaces have to forever have an ear cocked to the door for unknown fears, how can one expect that growth and prosperity will flow automatically and in an uninterrupted fashion?
The tragedy that unfolded in Mumbai in the fag end of November 2008 was another wake-up call for South Asia or for the world at large to increase its preparedness against terrorism which is the greatest threat to its progress and prosperity.
The latest victim of mindless terrorism was Mumbai. Which is the next victim? The people of the entire region will remain in great fear and suspense about it. As no one knows when a storm, an earthquake or a tsunami is going to strike them, so are they ignorant of any possible terrorist attack on their life and property. But unlike earthquake or tsunami which has its origin in the whims of the forces of Nature, terrorism is manmade. Every act of terrorism has its executors and planners. So, why should the common people have to be so helpless before this manmade menace in such an uncertain manner?
In the case of the terror attack in Mumbai, the Indian government has claimed to have traced the root of the monstrosity through a GPS device the terrorists had left in the raft they used to land on the coast of the great city. It has been claimed that a Pakistan-based terrorist outfit has been behind the dastardly killing. If that is the case, then it should not be a problem to uproot the breeding ground of this particular brand of terrorism through a collaborative effort between the two neighbours who had recently been warming to each other after a long period of bad blood between them.
The suggestion is not as naïve as it may sound. There is certainly many a snag in the process than meets the eye. As the Indian foreign minister or even the Prime Minister has hinted, there might be complicity somewhere that emboldened the operatives of the particular group of terrorists or their masterminds to engage in the massacre of Mumbai. But this piece of information, if true, should not be hindrance to any collaborative effort between the two governments to hit at the root of the problem.
On the contrary, it should be a powerful bargaining piece to make the other government see reason for coming to the table of dialogue for ridding both the nations of their worst scourge. But to make that happen, the nations of the South Asian region will need a kind of leadership that has the wider picture of the well-being of about one and a half billion people of the whole region before its eyes.
It is very easy and lazy to blame some quarter, group or a country for an evil done and then go into resignation or engage in a slanging match or even go to war. But such options hardly ever solved any issue that has an important bearing on the lives of the people concerned. The situation the whole region is embroiled demands a kind of leadership that is bolder and has a larger picture of the problem before them.
The issue of terrorism is not just about flushing out a bunch of terrorists from their hideout or bombarding or destroying the bastion where they launch their operations from. The Americans had dislodged the Talibans from the government in Afghanistan and from most of their strongholds in Kabul and other places in the wake of their war on terror. But with the passage of time, the Talibans have only been made stronger and more resilient in the face of attack by the NATO forces. Even the most dreaded terrorist group al-Qaeda could not be wiped out in spite of all the bombings by the US B-52 or B-111 bombers.
In point of fact, terrorism is a blanket term that covers a host of violent activities and each kind of terrorism having its specific socio-political root. So, fighting terrorism will remain a mere rhetoric until and unless it is addressed at its proper root. Though the need for military means cannot overruled in every case, the experience of Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and many other flashpoints of terrorism in different parts of the world has proved that one has also to address the socio-political roots of terrorism, if it is to be fought on its own turf.
The need for cooperation among the countries infested with terrorism lies exactly here. While fighting the terror operatives wreaking havoc on one country or city after another should be continued by the governments, the socio-political root of a particular brand of terrorism has also to be traced to eradicate it once and for all.
In other words, one has to go the hard way to face terrorism in South Asia. For terrorism, in most of the cases, thrive on genuine grievances of the people. Forces of reaction that are out to exploit the people through keeping them divided sometimes thrive on people's genuine grievances.
It will therefore be a tall order before the leadership of the region. If they are really willing to take the bull of terrorism by the horn, they will also have to look deeper into its causes and sources. The sources are the sections of the population that are susceptible to the blandishments of the operatives or their masterminds of terror network in different countries of the region. So, in addition to the military means to fight the operatives of terror, efforts should also be on to lend a sympathetic ear to the genuine complaints of the deprived and the aggrieved section of the population so far overlooked by the march of growth and development in the countries concerned.
So, under no circumstances, unleashing of greater violence or even war can be the answer to the ongoing acts of terrorism in different countries of South Asia.
The three days' horrible nightmare that the residents of the largest city of India had to go through has brought the whole of South Asia face to face with a stark reality. The reality is its total lack of preparedness against terrorism, though one cannot say that the region was ever stranger to the phenomenon that is now going to destroy whatever progress it has of late been making to improve the condition of life of its population.
Undeniably, the desperadoes who unleashed a terror in the financial heartland of India from the night of November 26 till the early hours of November 29 committed the worst crime against the people of Mumbai including the foreign guests who were residing in the luxurious hotels like Oberoi/Trident or Tajmahal. The terrorists, in fact, committed the worst crime against humanity in recent memory. While condemning this kind of tragedy with the strongest word, one has also to admit what a poor show Mumbai, one of the largest cities in the world, made so far as the security of the lives and properties of its residents was concerned. If the devil has also to be paid his due, it has t be agreed that the terrorists exposed the glaring weakness of this great glittering city of pelf and pomp to protect its population. If this is the picture of Mumbai, which is a city of dream and possibility of all the fortune hunters of the region, then how would other lesser cities of South Asia fare in the face of similar attack by remorseless terrorists, criminals and gangsters, whose mission, as the Mumbai ordeal has amply demonstrated, is only to kill and destroy?
The words development and economic growth the governments of the region are so fond of telling, reminding and promising the people and their commitment to it at the slightest opportunity sound hollow when we recall the still fresh memory of the Mumbai tragedy. What is the meaning of all the hard work of the people to build a better future for themselves and their children, if that can be blown to smithereens by a handful of outlaws in the blink of an eye? If the very condition of human life remains so vulnerable to the agents of such gratuitous butchery and mayhem, whether home-grown or coming from beyond the border, if the people at work in the fields, factories and every workplaces have to forever have an ear cocked to the door for unknown fears, how can one expect that growth and prosperity will flow automatically and in an uninterrupted fashion?
The tragedy that unfolded in Mumbai in the fag end of November 2008 was another wake-up call for South Asia or for the world at large to increase its preparedness against terrorism which is the greatest threat to its progress and prosperity.
The latest victim of mindless terrorism was Mumbai. Which is the next victim? The people of the entire region will remain in great fear and suspense about it. As no one knows when a storm, an earthquake or a tsunami is going to strike them, so are they ignorant of any possible terrorist attack on their life and property. But unlike earthquake or tsunami which has its origin in the whims of the forces of Nature, terrorism is manmade. Every act of terrorism has its executors and planners. So, why should the common people have to be so helpless before this manmade menace in such an uncertain manner?
In the case of the terror attack in Mumbai, the Indian government has claimed to have traced the root of the monstrosity through a GPS device the terrorists had left in the raft they used to land on the coast of the great city. It has been claimed that a Pakistan-based terrorist outfit has been behind the dastardly killing. If that is the case, then it should not be a problem to uproot the breeding ground of this particular brand of terrorism through a collaborative effort between the two neighbours who had recently been warming to each other after a long period of bad blood between them.
The suggestion is not as naïve as it may sound. There is certainly many a snag in the process than meets the eye. As the Indian foreign minister or even the Prime Minister has hinted, there might be complicity somewhere that emboldened the operatives of the particular group of terrorists or their masterminds to engage in the massacre of Mumbai. But this piece of information, if true, should not be hindrance to any collaborative effort between the two governments to hit at the root of the problem.
On the contrary, it should be a powerful bargaining piece to make the other government see reason for coming to the table of dialogue for ridding both the nations of their worst scourge. But to make that happen, the nations of the South Asian region will need a kind of leadership that has the wider picture of the well-being of about one and a half billion people of the whole region before its eyes.
It is very easy and lazy to blame some quarter, group or a country for an evil done and then go into resignation or engage in a slanging match or even go to war. But such options hardly ever solved any issue that has an important bearing on the lives of the people concerned. The situation the whole region is embroiled demands a kind of leadership that is bolder and has a larger picture of the problem before them.
The issue of terrorism is not just about flushing out a bunch of terrorists from their hideout or bombarding or destroying the bastion where they launch their operations from. The Americans had dislodged the Talibans from the government in Afghanistan and from most of their strongholds in Kabul and other places in the wake of their war on terror. But with the passage of time, the Talibans have only been made stronger and more resilient in the face of attack by the NATO forces. Even the most dreaded terrorist group al-Qaeda could not be wiped out in spite of all the bombings by the US B-52 or B-111 bombers.
In point of fact, terrorism is a blanket term that covers a host of violent activities and each kind of terrorism having its specific socio-political root. So, fighting terrorism will remain a mere rhetoric until and unless it is addressed at its proper root. Though the need for military means cannot overruled in every case, the experience of Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and many other flashpoints of terrorism in different parts of the world has proved that one has also to address the socio-political roots of terrorism, if it is to be fought on its own turf.
The need for cooperation among the countries infested with terrorism lies exactly here. While fighting the terror operatives wreaking havoc on one country or city after another should be continued by the governments, the socio-political root of a particular brand of terrorism has also to be traced to eradicate it once and for all.
In other words, one has to go the hard way to face terrorism in South Asia. For terrorism, in most of the cases, thrive on genuine grievances of the people. Forces of reaction that are out to exploit the people through keeping them divided sometimes thrive on people's genuine grievances.
It will therefore be a tall order before the leadership of the region. If they are really willing to take the bull of terrorism by the horn, they will also have to look deeper into its causes and sources. The sources are the sections of the population that are susceptible to the blandishments of the operatives or their masterminds of terror network in different countries of the region. So, in addition to the military means to fight the operatives of terror, efforts should also be on to lend a sympathetic ear to the genuine complaints of the deprived and the aggrieved section of the population so far overlooked by the march of growth and development in the countries concerned.
So, under no circumstances, unleashing of greater violence or even war can be the answer to the ongoing acts of terrorism in different countries of South Asia.