Mumbai Massacre
S. Majhi
If you search Google with just two words, “India” and “Terrorism” and ask for a timeline search with 100 results per page, as we have done on Mon, 18 Jul 2011 (19:58:01 +0530), you'll find a page looking like this (only top part shown):–
If you look at the bar diagram a bit closely you will see:–
Strange! Isn't it? After a ‘lull' of records published in the internet regarding the years of the 1950s and 1960s we find a sudden upswing in literatures showing years in the mid-1980s. Then there were some rises and falls, till 1997, with an increased spate indicating 1992-93-94 (but still which are less than 1983-84 and far less than 1947), 1997 being a new ‘low', then again a rise. Statisticians may tell whether the rise is exponential or parabolic or etc, but that there has been an alarmingly rising tendency is not at all a hyperbole. We again tell the readers that the bar diagram depict neither the number of terrorist related incidents nor the causalities happened in those years; they simply point to the, what may be called intellectual-responses to terrorism-related-incidents that the famous and most robust search engine google has found. (google searched the world wide web of documents only for the words — ‘India', ‘Terrorism' and the year concerned, say ‘1940' at first, then ‘1941', then ‘1942' ... and so on till ‘2011'.) But then, that is also a reflection of the reality, the reality of terrorism in India in a sense. (We shall look into data of incidents and causalities a bit later.) So, the questions arise: What happened in India in the 1990s? And/or, was there any ‘external' germ that had been germinating and that affected India!
This last question is all the more important because just after the recent-most Mumbai Blasts we heard the name of Indian Mujahideen, a name that reminds us of the earliest Mujahideen – though it is an Arabic word in etymological sense, it as an organisation which actually took shape in Afghanistan – and then we heard of many organisations with Mujahideen as suffix in their names, for example regarding Kashmir.
As people, generally, are more keen to see the ‘external' first (like finding the ‘fault' in others first, rather than in self, if you do not mind the analogy) we shall see the external cause before looking into the internal one.
But before starting our investigation, both external and internal with respect to India, it will perhaps be fruitful if we see what the situation as regards terrorism was before the rise of terrorism in the period of 1997-2011 or before mid-1990s or, say, even before the First Mumbai Blast took place in 1993. To do that, we would like to invite readers for a time-travel with us to some previous date. Just arbitrarily we chose to go back by 20 years, i.e., say, to 1st Nov 1991.
A Time Travel to 1st November 1991
New Delhi, 1.11.91: Just yesterday ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's death anniversary was observed in various places throughout India. Seven years ago she was killed on this day, but it seems how quickly the years have passed. Congressmen observed this day with a heavy heart this year as not even 6 months have passed since her son, ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Prime Minister Narsimma Rao, Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sitaram Keshari were among others who along with Mrs Sonia Gandhi paid floral tribute ...... The govt has already decided to observe Rajiv Gandhi's martyrdom day as National Anti-Terrorism Day on every 21st May. ...
The above can be taken as a model or typical sample newspaper report on 1st Nov 1991. And indeed India is, in some sane sense, a cursed country! 3 of its most eminent national-political personalities were assassinated within a span of 43 years only — Mahatma Gandhi at 1948, Indira Gandhi at 1984 and lastly, Rajiv Gandhi at 1991 — and yet another, ex-Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri, met a sudden death just after signing a treaty with Pakistan hosted at Taskent in erstwhile USSR. Were the Islamic Terrorists hyper-active from 1948 till today, 1991? Let us behold the assassinators of Mahatma, Indiraji and Rajivji. But, oh God! None of those assassinators were Muslims! By birth, i.e., by religious-affiliation just according to birth (may not be by religious belief in real sense) all those three killers of our assassinated leaders were non-Muslims – 2 were Hindu Terrorists and another was a Sikh, of course if religion-by-birth identity of the assassins can at all be tagged with the word ‘terrorist'!
India, as we see now (1991), has suffered a lot from terrorism, as any mainstream media house will assert. But ‘Terrorism' is not actually a singular thing; there have been Kashmiri, Assamese, Naga, Manipuri etc ‘nationalist' ‘terrorists' or, in words that have more currency now (1991), ‘secessionist' or ‘separatist' terrorists; there have been ‘naxalite' or ‘ultra-left-wing' ‘terrorists' and so on, having different ideologies, different aims etc.
What has been the condition of India of 1991 after suffering decades of terrorism will in future be described like:–
List of Terrorist attacks on INDIA || 29 Jul 2011 ||http://kumarmohit.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/list-of-terrorist-attacks-on-india/
1966, April 20: A Tinsukia-Jalpaiguri passenger train blast in Lumding railroad station, Assam, India, kills 55 and injures 127. Which responsible for Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland tribesmen group.[citation needed]
1966, April 23: A bomb explode in Diphu railroad station, Mikir, Assam, India, which blame on NSCN tribesmen group. Kills 30 and injures 65.
1984, October 31: New Delhi: Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The killing was in retaliation for the Indian army's entry into the Golden Temple at Amritsar to flush out Sikh extremists who were using the temple as a base for their operations.
1985, June 22: Air India Flight 182 is blown up by a bomb put onboard the flight from Canada to India by unknown terrorists. All 329 people on board, most of them Canadian citizens, are killed. At the time, the deadliest terrorist attack ever, and still the deadliest act of terrorism in Canadian history. A second Air India flight from Canada was targeted on the same day, but the bomb exploded at Narita Airport, in the luggage outside the aircraft, killing two baggage handlers, bringing the total death toll of the act to 331.
1986, May 22: An automatic weapon bomb into Krishna Nagar shopping district area, Amritsar, Punjab of India. Kills eleven, which blame on Sikh extremist group.
1987, March 16: A bomb blast in Chennai-Tirchchirappalli of Rockfort Express, following plunged into a bridge, Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu, India, which kills 25 and injures 150. Tamil Nadu Liberation Army member of Pichai Pillai arrested by suspiction of bomb blast on March 21, 1987
1989, February 11: A bomb explode on a regular route bus in Bongaigaon, Assam, India, which responsible for Bodo tribe extremists, kills 20 and injures at least 20.
1991, May 21: Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi assassinated in a bomb blast believed to be the work of Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists belonging to the LTTE.[5] This is also the first time that the suicide vest is used by any terrorist group
1991, October 18: Two time bomb blast, when people watching a Hindu pagent of Ramila, Rudrapur, Uttar Pradesh, India, which blame on Sikh separatist militant. Killing at least 41 and injuring 140 people.
And no more was there in the history-fact-list (the till 1991 part) prepared by one friend Kumar Mohit. Surely he didn't focus on Kashmir, at least till 1991, and so his list, till 1991, does not include any Islamic Terrorist incident.
A more elaborate picture till date (1991) will perhaps be prepared later by some US based global think tank and will look like:–
Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1991
Asia Overview || (http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_91/asia.html)
India: The level of indigenous terrorism was high throughout 1991, as Punjabi, Kashmiri, and Assamese separatists conducted attacks in a bid to win independence for their states. Violence related to separatist movements claimed at least 5,500 lives in Punjab and over 1,500 lives in Kashmir.
The separatists regularly assassinated civil servants, political candidates, and presumed government informers. Last spring in the Punjab, Sikh terrorists killed 23 candidates running for state and national office. Sikh terrorists also carried out random attacks and bombings, which included massacres of people aboard trains and buses. In Assam, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) was responsible for a spate of terrorist operations, particularly kidnappings. One such kidnapping targeted a Soviet technician, who was killed, as were several Indian kidnap victims. Kashmiri militants routinely planted bombs in and around bridges and communications targets and extorted money from local businessmen. They also kidnapped relatives of prominent officials and several foreigners.
Separatists also have stepped up attacks against journalists. In January, Sikh extremists declared war on the press in Punjab and forced reporters to stop calling them terrorists. Newsmen critical of Sikh terrorist tactics received death threats. Kashmiri groups also assassinated journalists, including the editor of the Urdu daily Al-Safa in April.
Although Assamese and Kashmiri terrorists limited their operations to their respective states, Sikh terrorists expanded their operations outside Punjab. In late January, Sikh terrorists bombed a movie theater in New Delhi, injuring six people. Sikh extremists probably also were responsible for a bombing in New Delhi in late April that killed three people and wounded eight. In mid-October, a Sikh bomb killed at least 55 people and wounded 125 others at a Hindu festival in Uttar Pradesh, near the Nepalese border. In late August, four members of the Khalistan Liberation Front unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate the Indian Ambassador to Romania in Bucharest; Romanian antiterrorist experts killed one person and captured the other three. This was the first Sikh terrorist operation outside India since 1987. Separatists also conducted a spate of kidnappings of foreigners in a bid to attract international attention to their cause:
-- On 31 March in western Kashmir, the Muslim Janbaz Force (MJF) kidnapped two Swedish engineers working at a hydroelectric project. The MJF had pledged to hold the pair until the United Nations or Amnesty International investigated alleged human rights abuses in Kashmir. On 5 July, however, the engineers escaped when they were left unguarded.
-- On 26 June an obscure Kashmiri group, Pasdaran-i-Inquilab-e-Islam, kidnapped seven Israelis and a Dutch woman who were visiting Kashmir. The Dutch national was freed shortly after being captured. One of the Israelis was killed and two others injured when the Israeli prisoners jumped the kidnappers. One Israeli who did not escape was freed in early July.
-- On 1 July, the ULFA seized a Russian mining engineer and 14 Indian nationals; the Russian later was killed as were several of the Indians.
-- On 9 October Sikh terrorists kidnapped the Romanian Charge in New Delhi shortly after he left his home for work. The Khalistan Liberation Front claimed responsibility and demanded the release of three imprisoned Sikh terrorists. The diplomat was released on 26 November without the conditions being met.
-- On 14 October the Kashmiri separatist group Al-Fateh kidnapped a French engineer in Kashmir. He was freed in early 1992.
The Sri Lankan separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is believed responsible for the 21 May assassination of Congress-I party president Rajiv Gandhi in southern India. Seventeen others also died in the bombing, which occurred while Gandhi was campaigning. The terrorist detonated explosives strapped to her waist as she approached and greeted Gandhi. The attack may have been conducted to avenge Gandhi's decision in 1987, when he was Prime Minister, to dispatch more than 50,000 troops to Sri Lanka to quell the Tamil separatist campaign. Numerous LTTE members suspected of involvement in the operation have committed suicide to avoid capture by Indian authorities.
Iraqi terrorists or their surrogates probably were responsible for the bombing of the American Airlines Travel Agency, an Indian-owned agent of American Airlines, in New Delhi on 16 January. The blast caused extensive damage but no casualties. New Delhi plans to either extradite or prosecute two Burmese students who hijacked a Thai airliner to Calcutta in 1990; however, the Communist-led state government in West Bengal says the pair are “freedom fighters” and is resisting New Delhi's efforts. India also has cracked down on LTTE elements in southern India following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. [italics ours]
So, certainly, sitting in India 1991 nobody can tell that Islamic terrorism is the main concern; ‘Islamic Terrorist' is not also a term in vogue, rather militants in Kashmir are denoted by ‘Kashmiri terrorists'; and it is also clear that though Kashmiri militants were ‘Islamic' by religious background, their activities were focused in Kashmir only. They had done daredevil acts like the first hijack in the history of India, but that was not ‘foreign-aided' or foreign-conspired act; though there are allegations of foreign-hands helping them it had been the physical and moral help they got from across the border. Of course, lately, there are some signs of some sort of international Islamic terror network developing.
If in a later period a picture emerges where the so called Islamic militants will be the main or a major concern and that too all over India, then certainly some ‘new' elements and/or conditions will have to arise.
In Passing: – it is a common misperception that aircraft-hijacking is an invention of the Islamic (or rather middle-eastern) terrorists. But the first ever aeroplane hijacking took place in Latin America in the 1930s. In west-Asia (middle-east to the British) the first hijacking was carried out by the govt of Israel, by Israeli Air Force commandoes, who hijacked quite dangerously a Syrian aeroplane in December 1954! If any reader wants to crosscheck the fact then s/he is at liberty to ask altavista or google for supplying the fact-sheets.
Now that we have spent enough time in 1991, let us fly forward to 2011 again.
The Rise of the Mujahideens and International-Terror Networks in Afghanistan – and the “Foreign Hand” behind
This story is rather a long narrative and most of it is well known. So it will have to be trimmed down and presented in a nutshell. Let us borrow from brief presentations of the wikipedia (and only slightly edit) in next five paragraphs.
1. Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, was overthrown by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan in 1973. The nation transformed from a monarchy to a republic, with Daoud Khan becoming the first president of Afghanistan until his assassination in a 1978 military coup d'é tat, which was organized by the pro-soviet-communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). The first communist leader in Afghanistan, Nur Muhammad Taraki, was assassinated by fellow communist Hafizullah Amin. Amin was known for his independent and nationalist inclinations, and was also seen by many as a ruthless leader. He has been accused of killing tens of thousands of Afghan civilians at national prisons. 27,000 politically motivated executions reportedly took place at Pul-e-Charkhi prison alone. The Soviet Union looked at him as a threat for communism in Afghanistan and Soviet Central Asia. In December 1979, Amin and 200 of his guards were massacred by teams of Soviet loyal forces. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979. The government of the Soviet Union forced Babrak Karmal to return to Kabul as the new president of his nation. Karmal's leadership was seen as a failure by the Soviet Union because of the rise of violence and crime during his administration. He was replaced with Mohammad Najibullah, who was able to cling to power until 1992, three years after the withdrawal of the Soviet army. In the meantime indigenous rebellions grew against imposed ‘foreign' ideology of the rulers and then foreign aggression. According to some source, “The Soviet invasion and occupation killed up to 2 million Afghans”. The Soviet government realized that a military solution to the conflict would require far more troops. Because of this they had discussions about troop withdrawal and the search for a political peaceful solution as early as 1980, but they never took any serious steps in that direction until 1988.
2. The best-known mujahideen were the various loosely aligned Afghan opposition groups, which initially rebelled against the incumbent pro-Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) government during the late 1970s. At the DRA's request, the Soviet Union intervened. The mujahideen then fought against Soviet and DRA troops. After the Soviet Union pulled out of the conflict in the late 1980s the mujahideen fought each other in the subsequent Afghan Civil War. Afghanistan's resistance movement was born in chaos and, at first virtually all of its war was waged locally by regional warlords. As warfare became more sophisticated, outside support and regional coordination grew. Eventually, the seven main mujahideen parties allied themselves into the political bloc called Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen. Many Muslims from other countries assisted the various mujahideen groups in Afghanistan. Some groups of these veterans have been significant factors in more recent conflicts in and around the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden, originally from a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia, was a prominent organizer and financier of an all-Arab Islamist group of foreign volunteers; his Maktab al-Khadamat funnelled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the Muslim world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the Saudi and Pakistani governments.
3. “To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom.” — U.S. President Ronald Reagan said it March 21, 1983. Reagan praised mujahideen as “freedom fighters”. The Mujahideen were significantly financed, armed and trained by the United States [Central Intelligence Agency] (CIA) during the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and also by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan ... and several Western European countries. Pakistan's secret service, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was used as an intermediary for most of these activities to disguise the sources of support for the resistance. One of the CIA's longest and most expensive covert operations was the supplying of billions of dollars in arms to the Afghan mujahideen militants. The arms included Stinger missiles, shoulder-fired, antiaircraft weapons that they used against Soviet helicopters and that later were in circulation among terrorists who have fired such weapons at commercial airliners. Between $3 and $20 billion in US funds were funnelled into the country to train and equip troops with weapons, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Some media reports claim up to $40 billion. [Mujahideen visitors even went to the USA and held talks, some u-tube uploads are there regarding this.]
4. After the fall of Najibullah's regime in 1992, the Afghan political parties agreed on a power-sharing agreement. The Peshawar Accords created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period to be followed by general democratic elections. With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, all of the parties were ostensibly unified under this government in April 1992. [Some sources say that Hekmatyar was one of the largest beneficiaries of US aid, running to some billions of $.]
5. Southern Afghanistan was under the control of neither foreign-backed militias nor the government in Kabul, but was ruled by local leaders and their militias. In 1994, the Taliban developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force, reportedly in opposition to the tyranny of the local governor. Mullah Omar started his movement with fewer than 50 armed madrassah students in his hometown of Kandahar. The Taliban took control of the city in 1994. In 1994, the Taliban took power in several provinces in southern and central Afghanistan. In late 1994, most of the militia factions which had been fighting in the battle for control of Kabul were defeated militarily by forces of the Islamic State's Secretary of Defence Ahmad Shah Massoud. Bombardment of the capital came to a halt. Massoud tried to initiate a nationwide political process with the goal of national consolidation and democratic elections, also inviting the Taliban to join the process. Taliban declined to join this political process. [By the way, Massoud's govt has also a smeared ‘human rights' record according to sources.] The Taliban started shelling Kabul in early 1995 but were defeated by forces of the Islamic State government. On September 26, 1996, as the Taliban with military support by Pakistan and financial support by Saudi Arabia prepared for another major offensive, Massoud ordered a full retreat from Kabul. The Taliban seized Kabul on September 27, 1996, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The US maintained its close ties with forces of Massoud (which helped the US to ‘put' in power Hamid Karzai after Taliban was defeated, because, by then, Massoud had been assassinated by ‘foreign' Taliban commandoes) but started an indirect honeymooning with the Taliban too. Some examples are given below.
ï “From ENRON Entanglements to UNOCAL Bringing the Taliban to Texas and Controlling Afghanistan || By Tom Turnipseed || January 10, 2002 || The Counterpunch: ...Meanwhile, even more trouble for our former-Texas-oil-man-turned-President is brewing with reports that unveil UNOCAL, another big energy company, for being in bed with the Taliban, along with the U.S. government in a major, continuing effort to construct pipelines through Afghanistan from the petroleum-rich Caspian Basin in Central Asia. Beneath their burkas, UNOCAL is being exposed for giving the five star treatments to Taliban Mullahs in the Lone Star State in 1997. The “evil-ones” were also invited to meet with U.S. government officials in Washington, D.C.
According to a December 17, 1997 article in the British paper, The Telegraph, headlined, "Oil barons court Taliban in Texas," the Taliban was about to sign a “£2 billion contract with an American oil company to build a pipeline across the war-torn country. ... The Islamic warriors appear to have been persuaded to close the deal, not through delicate negotiation but by old-fashioned Texan hospitality. ... Dressed in traditional salwar khameez, Afghan waistcoats and loose, black turbans, the high-ranking delegation was given VIP treatment during the four-day stay.” // At the same time, U.S. government documents reveal that the Taliban were harbouring Osama bin Laden as their “guest” since June 1996. By then, bin Laden had: been expelled by Sudan in early 1996 in response to US insistence and the threat of UN sanctions; publicly declared war against the U.S. on or about August 23, 1996; ...//... Back in Houston, the Taliban was learning how the “other half lives,” and according to The Telegraph, “stayed in a five-star hotel and were chauffeured in a company minibus.” The Taliban representatives “...were amazed by the luxurious homes of Texan oil barons. Invited to dinner at the palatial home of Martin Miller, a vice-president of Unocal, they marvelled at his swimming pool, views of the golf course and six bathrooms.” Mr. Miller said he hoped that UNOCAL had clinched the deal. // About two months after the Houston parties, UNOCAL executive John Maresca addressed the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and urged support for establishment of an investor-friendly climate in Afghanistan, “... we have made it clear that construction of our proposed pipeline cannot begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders and our company.” Meaning that UNOCAL's ability to construct the Afghan pipeline was a cause worthy of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Maresca's prayers have been answered with the Taliban's replacement. As reported in Le Monde, the new Afghan government's head, Hamid Karzai, formerly served as a UNOCAL consultant. Only nine days after Karzai's ascension, President Bush nominated another UNOCAL consultant and former Taliban defender, Zalmay Khalilzad, as his special envoy to Afghanistan. [http://www.counterpunch.org/tomenron.html]
ï [fromhttp://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_11_02_lucy.html] ] July 4-14, 2001 – Osama bin Laden receives treatment for kidney disease at the American hospital in Dubai and meets with a CIA official, who returns to CIA headquarters on July 15. [Source: Le Figaro, Oct. 31, 2001]
ï On 21 July 2000, for example, the US department of state issued a “fact sheet” that reported that the US was “the largest single donor of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people”.//The US also provided substantial economic assistance directly to the Taliban government. In May 2001, for example, the American government under President George W Bush announced a grant of $43m to the Taliban government for opium eradication. Secretary of State Colin Powell personally announced the grant himself in a press release and pledged: “We will continue to look for ways to provide more assistance to the Afghans.” The New York Times called this “a first, cautious step toward reducing the isolation of the Taliban” by the new Bush administration. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/10/john-walker-lindh-american-taliban-father?CMP=twt_gu]
Therefore, behind the rise of the recent-most international ‘terror' network that spread its wings in all countries in Asia to say the least, there was the mighty hand of the US (also the west European imperialist powers) and the hand of US-friendly Saudi and Pak regimes. But to root in the soil of any country whatsoever that ‘terror' network needs some internal ‘condition' of that particular country: you cannot hatch or incubate an egg-shaped stone to a chick. This we say because after the first section of our discussion we saw from the discussions of bourgeois experts that ‘...certainly, sitting in India 1991 nobody can tell that Islamic terrorism is the main concern ...'.
The Internal Conditions that Matured in India and Helped Germination of Domestic Pan-Indian ‘Islamic' Terror
We shall start discussion on this point referring some observations of a highly placed Indian military officials, one highly placed bureaucrat and a Justice of Mumbai High Court. All these observations were made after the first Mumbai Blast on March12, 1993.
?ï http://www.indiandefence.com/forums/f31/islamic-terrorism-india-5462/
[Retrieved at about 8:30PM 08.08.11]: [the names of persons are just their user-names]
04-01-2011 05:52 PM, SID, Senior-Member, Colonel: With the emergence of new and hybrid terror organizations and conglomerates, there has been a sea change in the nature of terror tactics, technology and the way terror tentacles and networks have spread in the hinterlands of India and beyond.//India battles terror violence in three major geographical zones: Jammu and Kashmir (jihadi separatist, cross-border terrorism), Northeastern States (separatists, ethno-Islamist, cross-border terrorism) and Central-Eastern States (Left-wing Extremism/Naxalism). However, since the 13 December 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi that marked the beginning of this century, the country has been experiencing serious menaces from Islamic terrorist groupings that have infiltrated into India mostly from neighbouring countries with the sole objective of perpetrating the so-called Islamic jihad. With the expansion of terror bases and sleeper cells across the country, these terror groups are increasing their activities in the urban centres of India, targeting strategic infrastructures and financial lifelines of the country in order to cripple it.
04-01-2011, 05:54 PM: SID, Senior-Member, Colonel: At least two sets of players are involved in terrorism in India. The first set comprises Pakistani and Bangladesh-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaishe-Mohammad (JeM) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HuJI). The second set is composed of a network of disgruntled Muslim youth, students and criminal elements which largely work as a support system, e.g. the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Past research has shown that a small section of India's Muslims – now called home-grown jihadists – has taken to terrorism and has acquired international links in recent times. Terrorism among Indian Muslims appears to have originated following the Babri Mosque demolition in 1992. Since then, the potential for home-grown terrorism has grown extensively throughout the country and was further aggravated by the 2002 Gujarat communal riots.
04-02-2011, 01:10 AM: HASHU, Senior-Member, Lt Colonel: just a note! there is no terrorism in india! it comes from Pakistan and i think we know that!
04-02-2011, 01:37 AM: COLTSFAN, Senior-Member, Brigadier: Not correct, Saffron terrorism comes from within India. [All Italics Ours]
?ï [The following parts are taken from:http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers7%5Cpaper649.html]
Paper no. 649 01. 04. 2003//COUNTER-TERRORISM: The Indian Experience, by B. Raman
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, Convenor, Advisory Committee, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter, and author of over 300 articles on national security, terrorism, foreign policy and related subjects and of two books...)
(Text of a presentation made by the writer at a regional seminar on March 25, 2003)
2. India has also faced terrorism of an ephemeral nature, which sprang suddenly due to a fit of religious anger either against the Government or the majority Hindu community or both and petered out subsequently. Examples of this would be the simultaneous explosions in Mumbai (Bombay) on March 12, 1993, which killed about 250 civilians, and the simultaneous explosions in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu in February, 1998. The State of Tamil Nadu in the south had also faced in the past a fall-out of the terrorism of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka in the form of attacks by LTTE elements on its political rivals living in the State and the assassination of former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, at Chennai (Madras) in May, 1991. ...
3. Amongst the causes of the various insurgent/terrorist movements were the following:
* Political: Essentially in Assam and Tripura. The political factors, which led to insurgency-cum-terrorism, were such as the failure of the Government to control the large-scale illegal immigration of Muslims from Bangladesh, demand for economic benefits for the sons and daughters of the soil etc.
* Economic: Mainly in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar. The economic factors were such as the absence of land reforms, rural unemployment, exploitation of the landless labourers by the land-owners etc. These economic grievances and perceptions of gross social injustice have given rise to ideological terrorist groups such as the various Marxist/Maoist groups operating under different names.
* Ethnic: Mainly in Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur due to feelings of ethnic separateness
* Religious: Mainly in Punjab before 1995 and in J&K since 1989. In Punjab, some Sikh elements belonging to different organisations took to terrorism to demand the creation of an independent State for the Sikhs called Khalistan. In J&K, Muslims belonging to different organisations took to terrorism for conflicting objectives. Some such as the J&K Liberation Front (JKLF) want independence for the entire J&K, including all the territory presently part of India, Pakistan and China. Others such as the Hizbul Mujahideen want the J&K State of India to be merged with Pakistan. While those who want independence project their struggle as separatist and not religious, those wanting merger with Pakistan project it as a religious struggle. There have also been acts of religious terrorism of a sporadic nature in other parts of India. These are due to either feelings of anger amongst sections of the Muslim youth over the perceived failure of the Government to safeguard their lives and interests or due to the instigation of Pakistan in order to cause a religious polarisation.
12. India has a little over 140 million Muslims---the second largest Muslim community in the world after Indonesia. Only a very small section of the community has taken to terrorism due to various grievances and instigation by the ISI and the religious fundamentalist and jihadi organisations of Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of the Indian Muslims are loyal law-abiding citizens of India. They have not allowed their anger against the Indian Government or the Hindus for any reason to drive them into the arms of terrorist organisations. India has the most modern, peaceful and forward-looking Muslim community in the world.
RESULTS ACHIEVED BY INDIA
21. What are the results already achieved by India through its counter-terrorism policies and techniques?:
* The Indian Muslim community, despite its feeling of hurt due to the large-scale anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat last year, has remained fiercely loyal and law-abiding and forward-looking and kept its distance from Al Qaeda and the IIF and repulsed the approaches of the Pakistani jihadi organisations aligned with Al Qaeda. [All Italics Ours]
?ï The following excerpts are from Sri Krishna Commission report placed by Justice Sri Krishna of the Mumbai High Court: [[http://www.sabrang.com/srikrish/vol1.htm]
1.24 The final tally of casualty figures for December 1992 and January 1993 are as under:
Dead — 900 (575 Muslims, 275 Hindus, 45 unknown and 5 others)
The causes for the deaths are police firing (356), stabbing (347), arson (91), mob action (80), private firing (22) and other causes (4)
Injured — 2,036 (1105 Muslims, 893 Hindus, and 38 others)
1.26 December 1992
i) The immediate causes of the communal riots on 6th December 1992 were: (a) the demolition of Babri Masjid, (b) the aggravation of Muslim sentiments by the Hindus with their celebration rallies and (c) the insensitive and harsh approach of the police while handling the protesting mobs which initially were not violent.
...
Term No. (VII)
Whether the incidents referred to
in term (I), have any common link
with the incidents referred to
in term (VI) above
i) One common link between the riots of December 1992 and January 1993 and bomb blasts of 12th March 1993 appear to be that the former appear to have been a causative factor for the latter. There does appear to be a cause and effect relationship between the two riots and the serial bomb blasts.
ii) Another common link is that some of the accused who were involved in substantive riot– related offences were also accused in the serial bomb blasts case, though their number is only three or four.
iii) Tiger Memon, the key figure in the serial bomb blasts case and his family had suffered extensively during the riots and therefore can be said to have had deep rooted motive for revenge. It would appear that one of his trusted accomplices, Javed Dawood Tailor alias Javed Chikna, had also suffered a bullet injury during the riots and therefore he also had a motive for revenge. Apart from these two specific cases, there was a large amorphous body of angry frustrated and desperate Muslims keen to seek revenge for the perceived injustice done to and atrocities perpetrated on them or to others of their community and it is this sense of revenge which spawned the conspiracy of the serial blasts. [All Italics Ours]
now compare:
About 100 were convicted for the Mumbai Blast March 1993 that killed 257 people and injured some 750; about 10-12 persons got Death Sentences, many more were awarded Life Imprisonment.
How many were convicted and sentenced for the Mumbai Riots Dec 1992 – Jan 1993 that killed 900 and injured 2036 persons? What sentence?
How many were convicted for the 1992 December Babri Mosque Demolition and Jubilation that led to countrywide riots that killed thousands?
What may happen if these give rise to ‘perceptions' of ‘feelings of anger amongst sections of the Muslim youth over the perceived failure of the Government to safeguard their lives and interests'? Is the govt itself not preparing the soil for the terror-outfits to take root?
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