INDIA: "Islamic Terrorism"

By Animesh Roul

I just published one article titled “Islamic terrorism in India: organizations, tentacles and networks” in Klaus Lange (ed.), Security in South Asia: Conventional and Unconventional Studies & Comments, No. 9, December 2009, Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, Munich.

This paper focuses on Islamic terrorism in India (overview), with particular attention to the major groups operating and perpetrating violence in the country and their operational and logistical linkages.

Here is an excerpt:

For decades now, India has been facing various forms and waves of terrorist violence ranging from separatist and ethnic terrorism to ideological and religion-driven terrorism. 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.

Before the December 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid, a mosque in Ayodhya in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, terrorism in India was to some extent synonymous with the Khalistan movement in Punjab which was separatist in nature. Subsequently, Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism emerged as a proxy war strategy which later developed into a systematic terrorist movement against India.

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).

The volume has other important papers too: Among them,

Michael Chandler: "Terrorism: difficulties faced by national governments and the international community in countering the threat"

Vinod Anand: "Naxalite ideology, strategy and tactics"

Hein G. Kiessling: "Der pakistanisch-afghanische Problemverbund" (in German)