Countering Terrorism

Time to Think Serious

Dr. Khalid Alvi

Seventh of July, 2006. Seven blasts in a row, all in the Mumbai suburban trains. The tragedy not only affected the Mumbaikars, but shook the entire nation. It was indeed a “national tragedy”. The event shattered the conscience and soul of the Indians. What can be more humiliating for a known peace-loving country, than seeing its innocent citizens being butchered off and on? The question in my mind is: when will all this madness stop? Or, rather, how long will it continue? Are we living in a civilized world, or is brutality still an inherent part of our conscience?

The above questions and indeed hundreds of related ones lead us to think about our intelligence system is actually intelligent enough to cope with the everyday deteriorating law-and-order situation.

Politicians just deliver speeches and blame the bureaucrats and police whenever fingers are pointed towards the government for not doing enough to counter terrorism. The menace of terrorism seems to have taken deep roots in the country, courtesy our friendly neighbours.

While blaming Pakistan and Bangladesh is a routine affair, the blame game is also played within. The Centre and states start blaming each other. Surprisingly, when fundamentalist organizations are accused, people like Mulayam Singh Yadav come to their defense, a clear vote-politics.

A tragic event takes place, conferences are summoned, statements are made and the determination of fighting and wiping out terrorism from the country is renewed. It does not take too long to forget all the tragedy, and life soon becomes normal.

It seems that the forces, especially the security forced have got pathetically demoralized in the face of frequent terrorist attacks. There is no denying the fact that our security system has failed miserably. It is high time some retrospection is done. Things have deteriorated drastically in the past one decade. India has been at the receiving end. All the more, Bangladesh has now emerged as a new hub of terrorism against India. It is also very clear now, that whenever Pakistan fails to convince India or to gain international favour on the question of Kashmir, it resorts to terror attacks on India.

No doubt, India was able to garner international condemnation of the Srinagar and Mumbai attacks during the G-8 meet, but one wonders as to how that would be of help. The whole exercise appears to be a mere eyewash.

The fact is that countering terrorism needs serious thinking on the part of India now. The inflow of trained terrorists from across the border had never stopped. Border vigilance has always been slack and the very honesty of the members of the forces has come under suspicion. One wonders whether the Prime Minister’s visit to the area, along with the Defense Minister has at all made any difference in the situation! Vigilance needs to be tightened, and the suspicious elements ought to be put under the scanner.

The functioning of the intelligence agencies needs to be reviewed. The inefficient elements should be done away with. There is no scope for leniency so far as the security of the country is concerned. Every day there are stories about the moles in every department. They ought to be identified and booked. National Security Agency too has been a failure so far. Intelligence related lapses are rampant. The reason is that truly reliable people are not made to head these agencies. It is high time that serious steps are taken to overcome these flaws.

Without naming anyone, I would also like to suggest that every section of the Indian society should be made to understand that this is our country, and it is our prime duty to prevent it from the menace of terrorism. The society as a whole is responsible for safeguarding it. Fundamentalism or extremism should have no place in our society.