The year 1995 was a portent of worse times to come. A series of terrorist incidents spread across the world from the United States and France in the West to the Philppines and Saudi Arabia in the east has revealed the extent of the danger posed by terrorism. India is one of the few countries in the world that has been warning against this for many years now. For, terrorist violence in other parts of the world pales into insignificance when comapred with the level of terrroist violence inflicted on India. For a long time, outsiders viewed India`s warnings as a crude attempt to divert attention from internal problems. Today, however, it is the foreign press and foreign governments who are re-iterating what India has always maintained.
The Threat
That terrorism has emerged as a major threat to modern civilisation was most evident in 1995 when a series of terrorist acts sent shock waves throughout the civilised world. For the first time it was clear that the new breed of terrorist see all of the civilised world, including moderate Muslim regimes, as a threat to their global aims. It is not just countries like India that are a target. Earlier it was presumed that terrorist violence would be restricted to areas like Kashmir which is alleged to be a "disputed territory" by expansionist forces and their terrorist allies. This presumption has proved to be false and it is now clear that terrorism views all civilised countries with a liberal tradition as fair game for the spread of subversion and terror.
Of particular concern is the terrorists and their supporters who justify their actions by seeking recourse in the teachings of Islam. The theme "Islam in Danger" has become the rallying cry of the Islamists, who propound the view that the entire non-Muslim world is conspiring to oppress Muslims and destroy their way of life. This dangerous message has seeped into the psyche of millions of Muslims worldwide. Even Muslims educated in a liberal environment are not immune from this kind if insidious propaganda as was evident in the case of Ahmed Shiekh , a young student of the London School of Economics, who, inspired by the Islamist message, travelled to India to participate in the abduction of a group of Western tourists in 1994. He was arrested but has refused to repent.
Cause
A major reason for the recent upsurge in the level of terrorist violence and terrorist related incidents is the availability of a huge post-Afghan War "surplus". This "surplus" includes combatants and materiel. The majority of the combatants, termed Mujahideen or freedom fighters, have turned mercenary or know other way of life than to live by the Kalashnikov. With the communists driven out of Afghanistan and a civil war there that is threatening Islamic unity in the region, the unemployed guerrillas seek new battlefields and new enemies to fight.These mercenaries are aided by governments that have either used them in the past and cannot entirely discard them or by regimes that seek to use them in furthering their foreign policy and other larger aims. Many governments despite decrying the spread of terrorism have tacitly helped or tolerated the continued existence of these mercenaries and the use of their soil for subversive activities. This is specially the case with Pakistan, Sudan, Iran and a few other countries. A series of incidents beginning in 1994 and continuing through 1996 have proved beyond doubt that amongst all the nations, the breeding grounds of Pakistan, Afghanistan and to a lesser extent Sudan are spawning a monster that is going to haunt the world for a long time to come.