Terrorism is not a new expression for us. Ever since independence we have been confronting with this menace. It is another thing that many public opinion makers try to trace its origin in 1980s, that is, during the Khalistan movement, or even later in Kashmir. But even terrorists have certain goals and objectives to achieve – how much weird it may be.
The first big act of terror took place on January 30, 1948, when Nathuram Godse, a Sangh Parivar activist, shot dead the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. He and his organisation were unhappy with Gandhiji over what they felt his soft attitude towards Pakistan. Gandhiji, it must be noted, undertook a fast for the payment of Rs 55 crore to Pakistan, which was due to that new country.
The other two Gandhis – Indira and Rajiv – also fell to the terrorists’ evil design. Indira was gunned down by her own Sikh security guard – Satwant Singh – on October 31, 1984. Rajiv was blown up by a woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Elam on May 21, 1991. By faith the LTTE people are mostly Hindus so are the followers of the United Liberation Front of Assam.
In late 1940s the Communists went on warpath forcing the government to ban the organisation. In 1960s the North-East went up in flames with Nagas under Phizo first to raise the banner of revolt. Almost all the seven sisters of North-East passed through this phase at one point of time or the other. Most North-East extremists, barring those in Assam, were Christians.
In late 1960s started the great Naxalite resurgence in West Bengal, which was also crushed with an iron hand. The Maoists are still on warpath – now of course outside West Begnal – killing more Indian policemen than any other outfits in the country every year. Yet for reasons better known to the Indian Press their threat is not blown out so much. Perhaps this is because they are more active in the small towns, villages and jungles of Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh, etc. and never targeted Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and other urban centres.
According to a recent survey about 170 out of 612 districts of the country are virtually in their grip. Though they have killed thousands of policemen in the last one decade or so, the shoot-out, which led to the death of Mohan Chand Sharma in Delhi got much bigger media coverage than any other incident. In March 2007 as high as 55 policemen were killed in a Maoists’ attack in Chhattisgarh, but the irony is that after the first day reporting the media in general did not even bother to follow-up the story – as if they were not the martyrs and deserved to be killed.
Unlike the Maoists, who want to overthrow the existing social and political order, Sikh terrorists in 1980s under Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale openly waged a war on the Indian State demanding a separate state, Khalistan. The Indian Army had to launch an operation in the Golden Temple in 1984 to crush them. Similarly, the Kashmiris took to gun in a big way in 1990s and the killings in the Valley continued for one decade and a half.
All the above-mentioned terrorist groups have one goal or the other. They either wanted to have their own independent state in the North-East or the North-West (Punjab or Kashmir) or opposed the Indian involvement in Sri Lanka. The Naxalites or their later version, Maoists, as mentioned above, want to establish a classic Communist state.
However, in the 21st century a new type of terrorism rocked India outside Kashmir. Though the first blast took place on March 12, 1993, that is, after the post-Babri Masjid communal riots in Mumbai, it was about a decade later that this new phenomenon of bombing Indian metropolis gained momentum.
Blasts in Ghatpokhar and trains in Mumbai, explosions in Makkah Mosque Hyderabad, Malegaon, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Samjhauta Express, Bangalore, Delhi – last time in Mehrauli on September 27 – and several other places are a new type of terror. Unlike in the hit and run attack or suicidal ambush by Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba men or Kashmiris in the Valley the men who plant bombs are invisible. These attacks are a significant departure from the past – hijacking of Indian Airline plane, attack on Indian Parliament or Lal Qila – as they are not targeted on a particular important site. The victims are totally innocent people of the roads against whom there are no complaints whatsoever.
Who are the people behind these blasts? If the Police are to be believed, they are not Kashmiris but the home-grown Muslim youths of Azamgarh, who have got inspiration from international terrorism. But the police failed to tell the people as to why have these Muslim youths suddenly started exploding bombs at one place or the other? What are their complaints? Never till March 12, 1993 Mumbai blasts any Muslim – outside Kashmir – were involved in any act of terror though lakhs of them died in communal riots since Partition. Why is it that some of the youths retaliating after so many years of communal riots when outside Gujarat there is relative peace in the country?
Since we do not get any version from the terrorist groups nor have we any of their literature – as in the case of Maoists or other groups – it is up to the Indian State, which has captured many of them, to explain to the people their real aims and objectives. Act of terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan and even Kashmir – though totally wrong – is, one way or the other, (at least for argument sake) somewhat understandable. The Iraqis and Afghans want to see the Americans out, the Palestinians are against the Israeli act of aggression and illegal occupation of Jerusalem, Kashmiri militants, rightly or wrongly, want a separate homeland for themselves and the terrorists in Pakistan are basically against the country’s policy of aligning with the United States in the War on Terror.
But what do the Indian Mujahideen want? Do they want to create an Islamic state, which is not at all possible from them, or about which the citizens have not heard from them. Or do they want to kill just the Hindus for so many communal riots which rocked the country since independence. But the figures show that apart from Benaras and Akshardam Temple (in fact it was not a bomb blast there) these explosions ended up in killing disproportionately high number of Muslims too. The Jaipur blast of May 13 last is one of them. In fact some of the attacks were purely on the Muslim targets: Samjhauta Express, the Makkah Masjid, the Malegaon explosions etc. Even in the September 13 and September 27 explosions in Delhi Muslims too became the victims of the act of terror.
The onus lies on the Indian government to convincingly explain to the people as to why the terrorists are killing the innocent citizens and not the police or army personnel as the Maoists, the Kashmiris, or the North-East groups are doing. Bloodshed is wrong, even if the victims are policemen or army personnel, but they can have some justification. But what about the innocent citizens?
No extremist group whatsoever in the world has ever indulged in such indiscriminate and senseless bombing of innocent citizens without making public their aims, objectives and ideology. To borrow from Shakespeare even madness has its own reason.