We will continue groping in the dark until we find the real masterminds behind acts of terrorism
In “The basics are fatally flawed” (gfiles, November 2008), Col R Hariharan has rightly made a distinction between acts of terrorism and insurgency as one is open while the other is screened. However, he then goes on to show he had evolved an intelligence network to deal with the situation he was confronted with as head of the network in Sri Lanka during the Indian Peace Keeping Operation in Sri Lanka.
He was dealing with a situation where the objective of insurgency was clear and stated. The Tamil Tigers were demanding autonomy which was nothing sort of secession of the territory they had identified as under their domination from Sri Lanka. The man who was the motivating force was known. The idea that was used to motivate thousands of young Tamilians was also well known. The targets were mostly rulers, be it politician, bureaucrat or a part of civilian or military law enforcement agency. If innocents were killed, it was incidental.
But what is happening in India is quite different. Blasts have occurred in many major cities during the last five months. The intensity has increased only now though the process began in 2001. The targets have been clearly chosen to terrorize the masses and thereby get at the political system. After each bomb attack, the organization by the name of Indian Mujaheedin has taken responsibility for the act but without delivering any specific message. It is generally presumed that it was an act of reprisal.
Earlier, no local boys were involved. In the attacks since July this year, the police claims to have caught over two dozen local boys, most of them highly educated, who are suspected of involvement in the blasts in Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and then again in Delhi.
From the details given out by the police of different states, it is apparent that only those young men have been nabbed who acted as delivery boys in planting bombs. Some of them had even assembled these highly technical devices with timers. According to the police, the man who planned the attacks and orchestrated the operation is on the run. But the police version clearly indicates that he too had merely acted as the steward of the team of delivery boys, a figure that they knew and dealt with.
In the cases that the police of different states investigated in the past eight years, the only arrests made were of delivery boys. They have no clue as to the person who was the motivating force or what idea and arguments he employed to motivate these young men to be prepared to sacrifice their lives if the need arose for a cause they were being assigned. Money alone cannot be a motivating force as even the parents had no inkling.
Clearly, the person or persons who motivated these young men had persuasive charms and powerful arguments. The general perception is that it was Islamic terrorism. However, the religion does not sanction killing of innocents. It would not be an Islamic cause but certainly the Islamic religion that was used to exploit a sense of injustice. It does not matter if the sense of injustice was felt, perceived or imagined. It is the idea of injustice that seems to have motivated even the well educated for they showed no sense of modern rationality when they willingly became involved in the conspiracy without their families’ knowledge. None was in desperate need of money for self or family that could have been a plausible motivator. Their strong sense of injustice made them easy to motivate.
Pervert is a strong word but it is apt to describe those who think nothing of targeting people who are in no way the cause of that injustice. They were ready to sacrifice the entire team of delivery boys. If the police caught some or all of them, it did not matter to the actual masterminds because there was a ready supply. One team would go out of action, another team would be chosen.
It is essential to reach the kingpin and not concentrate only on minions, as the police seems to have done. Even more surprising was the eagerness of senior police officials to share information with the media rather than keep it under wraps so that the investigation could be carried to the utmost. There seems to be unhealthy competition among the police of different states. They have also exposed their mindset. They have dealt with the act of terrorism as they would with a routine double or triple murder case. They appear satisfied with prosecution of delivery boys. After 15 years’ investigation of the 1993 Bombay blasts, no one has a clue as to the real motivator. Fingers have been pointed at Dawood Ibrahim without a valid explanation as to why a known criminal activist would indulge in acts of reprisal for injustice to the community.
There seems to be unhealthy competition among the police of different states. They have also exposed their mindset. They have dealt with the act of terrorism as they would with a routine double or triple murder case
