Terrorist picture getting dimmer
While the presence of Al-Qaeda elements has been reported in Denmark, Algeria, Turkey, Beirut, Germany and Maldives, US experts have assessed that Al-Qaeda are making efforts to broaden its reach by executing corporate style takeovers of regional Islamic extremist groups. The CIA Chief has also warned with confidence that Al-Qaeda was planning high impact plots against the United States. A grim picture for UK has also been predicted. Lashkar-e-Toiba has given a call for intensification of zehad in Kashmir and Afghanistan to contain the “growing influence of India. There was a report of Osama bin Laden declaring “war” on the Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Interestingly, Osama bin Laden is no longer considered Qaeda Number one. A good news was tracking and seizing terrorist finances were seriously considered at the International Peace Academy on the occasion of launching of the book “Countering the Financing of Terrorism”.
The Naxalite violence in India continued unabated. There were reports of Maoists concentrating on enlisting more women into their roll. According to figures released in the Rajya Sabha, as many as 129 people’s representatives and 411 government officials were killed in Naxalite violence between 2004 and 2006. The Planning Commission of the Government of India has prepared a blue print for “arterial road” to help hot pursuit of left-wing rebels. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has also been reported to be planning for an employment and skilled development plan for left-extremists affected areas. On the other side, Maoists in Nepal have since left the government. In Sri Lanka, the government have offered peace talks to LTTE who had earlier broken away form the path of peace. The LLTTE is also believed to be getting ready to use chemical weapons.
A global cybercrime conference was held in New Delhi. It came to the conclusion that global cooperation was must for fighting this global menace. China has been reported for having hacked into not only the Pentagon secrets but also into the internet of the Governments of UK, Germany and New Zealand.
May like to know more? While the United States have plans to put a man on Mars by 2037, and Russia is planning a permanent man-base on the Moon by 2027-2032. Experts at the 58th International Astronautic Conference expressed fears of terror attacks on space assets. Demographers from Manchester University have alerted that the number of white people in Birmingham (UK) could be overtaken by Asians by 2027. A 22 year old Dutch-Iranian has been fighting against “apostasy in Islam” as also for the rights of Muslims to renounce their faith“. Read all this in the General Information File.
D. C. Nath, IPS (Retd.)
Former Special Director, IB (MHA), Govt. of India,
Executive President & CEO,
International Institute of Security and Safety Management,
New Delhi, India.
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May also like to read the assessment below:
Life after our 9/11s
Six years ago, when you were reading the September 11, 2001, edition of your newspaper, all of us, India included, inhabited a world that was mostly in denial about the menace of globalised terrorism. Terrorist attacks with their accompanying death tolls and subsequent chaos were what happened in the world’s designated trouble spots like West Asia and Kashmir. In other words, terrorism happened in ‘far-off places’ involving ‘other people’ unfortunate to be caught in asymmetrical, ideological battles. By the time you were holding the next day’s paper, the pre-9/11 state of blissful ignorance had vanished. True, countries like India have been facing the bane of terrorism much before al-Qaeda wreaked physical and psychological havoc in mainland America. But with the crumbling of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, all of us realised that we were indeed living in the ‘far-off’ danger zones.
The United States may have been a novice in terms of experiencing ideological acts of terror, but it did not realise that providing maximum security to the nation and its people had to be done on war footing. There have been terrorist attacks all over India since the December 13, 2001, attack on the Indian Parliament – if one is to take a relative starting point close to 9/11. Unfortunately, there are still too many chinks in our armour, as subsequent blasts – whether in Mumbai or in Hyderabad – amply remind us. Surely, our security clergy can’t be in denial about threats of terror. Then, the shortcomings lie elsewhere. Experts have commented in this newspaper over the last few days about the lack of coordination between various security and intelligence organisations in this country. Terrorists thrive on the lack of communication and coordination between security organisations in different states and in different countries. And it is here that India, despite its long exposure to terrorism, seems to blunder.
Global terror is essentially globalised terror, where ideological dots are joined as effortlessly as operational ones. Even to think that one is safe simply by staying ‘indoor’ stopped being an option six years ago. It’s time that India like the vigilant world it’s part of, puts the security machinery on a round-the-clock duty. It won’t be cheap. But it will still be way cheaper than our lives.
Hindustan Times –September 11, 2007.
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