The Hindu : The rising wave of extremism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 25, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

The rising wave of extremism

By V.Jayanth

CHENNAI Dec. 24. Apart from dealing with extremism and terrorism, the State police are now trying to figure out why there has been a sudden upsurge in militant activities and an expanding network of extremist organisations.

On one track, the police are dealing with a major problem posed by fundamentalists with foreign connections. The killing of the escapee militant, Imam Ali, in a Bangalore suburb has not exactly put an end to this menace and there have been new variants, perhaps less lethal than the original outfits.

There has been the lingering fear about the banned Al-Umma, whose main players were detained after the serial blasts in Coimbatore in 1998. ``We have come to know of some elements from that organisation regrouping and floating different groups to avoid notice'', says a senior police officer.

On another plane, the State is again faced with new threats from `fringe groups', which have emerged from the banned Tamil National Liberation Army and the Tamil National Retrieval Force. These have got enmeshed with the `Tamil nationalist' or chauvinistic groups which tried to cash in on the Cauvery dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Unfortunately, some of these groups have cemented ties with the forest brigand, Veerappan, and there is intelligence information that at least some youths from a couple of the outfits may still be with the poacher-turned smuggler, say police sources.

What causes concern to the police here is the entry into the scene of two more ``dangerous groups'' - a batch of naxalites which was rounded up in Dharmapuri district recently and the Muslim Defence Force (MDF). If the `foreign link' and funding was the focal point in some of the older outfits, an inter-State network of these two groups has come under close investigation - highlighting the need again for much greater coordination and cooperation between the neighbouring States.

According to police sources, both the naxalites and the MDF have been traced to Andhra Pradesh. While the People's War might have been involved in the training given to the nabbed naxalites, the MDF elements were tracked down in Chennai, on a tip-off from Hyderabad, as one of the leaders of the force was suspected to be behind the blast at a Saibaba temple there. ``We are working in conjunction with the Andhra Pradesh police to get to the bottom of this episode'', said an Inspector-General, when contacted.

The main concern of the police now seems to be preventing a possible link-up among the `fringe groups' of Tamil nationalists, the naxalites and the forest brigand. Even if the police do not immediately succeed in hunting down Veerappan, they will have their task cut out — sealing off jungles and preventing ``further infiltration'' of militants or extremists into the forest.

Asked about the upsurge in militant or extremist activity in Tamil Nadu, the police officer said: ``We have become a convenient gateway by road, rail and air. Chennai provides frequent and convenient connections and many of these groups seem to have identified local helpers or hosts''.

The Director-General, B.P. Nailwal, in an informal chat with the media this morning, said: ``We are determined to deal with this problem firmly and we are confident of putting down terrorism in all its forms''.

The problem seems to be in choosing the right approach to handling terrorism and extremists. Banning outfits may not provide the desired results because organisations change their `name plates' frequently. Apart from cracking down on these elements, the causes of the problems have to be tackled.

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