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TERRORISM bared its fangs in India once more, this time when a bomb went off at the famous Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad on April 18 during Friday prayers. Twelve persons were killed and about 50 injured in the explosion and the police firing that followed. Investigators do not seem to have much of a clue as to who the perpetrators were.
How do we contain this madness? How do we console the families of victims? I know that the solicitous (and often unsolicited) advice "Grin and bear" is hardly appropriate here. The family doctor's prescription, "You'll have to learn to live with it", when confronted by a patient who screams for some relief from his `frozen shoulder' or any such ailment is not useful either. It is not as if there is no sympathy for those who have suffered at the hands of the mindless terrorist. Unfortunately, the harsh truth is that there is nothing beyond this from society by way of assistance to law enforcement in the formidable task of tracking down an anti-social element before he strikes.
Just look at the role played by each of the accused in the 1993 Mumbai blast case on whom Special Judge P.D. Kode is now slapping terms of imprisonment in instalments. Boatmen, customs officials, policemen and greedy citizens constituted a wide spectrum of facilitators of that crime, which was committed about 15 years ago when we were just learning to understand what modern terrorism was all about. If you have the time to study seriously the sociology of how easily you can invoke public resources - through appeal to fanaticism and sheer greed - for taking hundreds of lives, only then will you understand the magnitude of what we are faced with. Incidentally, I am impressed by Justice Kode's methodical approach - although he has been dreadfully slow in the process - in bringing to book the offenders. The severity of the punishment he has doled out is commendable.
A brief analysis of the Hyderabad blast should help in understanding the current scene. The objective of the colossal crime was obviously to disturb the equilibrium in the city. No doubt there had been incidents in the past that did not exactly point to absolute harmony between Hindus and Muslims here. Nevertheless there was a kind of empathy which showed that the two were mutually tolerant of their respective religious practices and other ways of life. This explained Hyderabad's increasingly cosmopolitan image as a highly liveable city.
This is why those behind the recent crime should be hugely disappointed that they could not stir religious feelings and provoke a clash. Things did come to a boil in the minutes following the blast. But the ruffled feelings settled down soon, revealing an agreeable and incredible maturity among leaders of the two communities. This is what the media should highlight if we are to keep at bay the terrorist, who is constantly looking for an opportunity to inflame passions.
The explosion, believed to have been set off with the help of crude devices, is generally regarded as the handiwork of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Kerosene-dealer Shoaib Jagirdar, who was arrested in Jalna (Maharashtra) a few days ago, is said to be a close associate of Sameer of the LeT who had been earlier held by the West Bengal Police while crossing into Bangladesh. Both Jagirdar and Sameer are known to have been together in Hyderabad earlier this year. The aggressors in Hyderabad were Muslims. The victims were no different. This is the hallmark of international terrorism in the past two years. In many recent attacks the provocation was not a Shia-Sunni divide that one sees in many spots in the world, and especially in Iraq.
How do we then explain the madness? The clear aim in Hyderabad was to put down those in the religion who are moderates and who are opposed to Wahhabism of the acute variety seen now in parts of West Asia. If the average Muslim in India wants to break bread with a Hindu neighbour, it is unacceptable to the terrorist because he believes that such bonhomie is against the tenets of Islam. This is how a warped mind works, and those who died in the Mecca Masjid were the victims of such a mental aberration.
We are dangerously close to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which are currently tinder boxes capable of consuming all of us, and we will have to be extremely wary of what is happening in those countries. This grave situation is unfortunately compounded by the violence of a slightly different kind seen in Assam and Chhattisgarh. The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and naxalites remain a deadly force in both States, and they are able to indulge in wanton destruction at will, in spite of all that the two State governments and the Centre have done to check them.
We have to view Hyderabad necessarily against an international setting. The May 18 explosions fit into a global design to sharpen the existing polarisation between Islam and other faiths. The current status of Al Qaeda should naturally figure in our calculations. There are conflicting reports about the Al Qaeda itself. A minority view is that it is a spent force bereft of its earlier capacity for central coordination. This school is credited with the view that the current leadership, whatever is left of it in the post-9/11 world, is resigned to a diminished central apparatus. This permits tremendous local innovation to promote fear and destruction.
We cannot readily endorse this seemingly plausible theory until we are convinced that Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is dead and gone. In the absence of unquestionable evidence to that effect, we have to go by the other school which advances the argument that, irrespective of whether Bin Laden is around or not,the Al Qaeda is known for its patience and is only biding its time.
Interestingly, in a video posted on the Internet recently, Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam, who is facing treason charges in the United States for open support to the Al Qaeda, threatened a deadlier attack than 9/11 if certain demands were not met early. These included a US pullout from all `Muslim land' , release of Muslim prisoners and end of any kind of support to Israel. It is not known on what authority Gadahn was speaking. Equally unclear is the kind of access he has to Al-Qaeda leadership. What hits the eye, however, is the venom that is on display over a powerful medium such as the Internet.
We should not, therefore, be surprised if there are spectacular actions in the near future. It will be facile for us to believe that India will not experience any aftershock of such adventure, however far we are from the centre of action. This assessment is especially significant to us in view of the growing hold of pro-Al Qaeda elements, both in Pakistan and Bangladesh. .
Every patriotic Indian should be told of a tie-up between homegrown terrorists and the imported Al Qaeda variety and of the need therefore for eternal vigilance.This warning has to be reckoned along with reports of an exodus of militants from Iraq to other parts of the world.
Writing for The New York Times (May 28, 2007), Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet describe this happening in great detail. According to them, Darsi, a militant released from a Libya prison last year, was picked up by a recruiter and sent to Jordan to blow himself up in a crowd of tourists at the Amman airport. This operation was very likely the brainchild of Bin Laden followers. It was another thing that the plot got exposed before its execution. Darsi was arrested and interrogated thoroughly, when he revealed details of his background and his mission in Amman. He has since been sentenced to life by a Jordanian Security Court. Also learnt is that a number of Iraqi fighters have found their way into Lebanon to take part in the action there.
Such cross-pollination is dangerous because those migrating from Iraq are known for a wide array of destructive skills. The point that I make here is that there is a constant flux in the world of terrorism from which India can hardly remain immune.
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