Islamist monster is a US Creation

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Paper no. 52603. 10. 2002ISLAMIC TERRORISM IN INDIA: The Hydra-Headed Monsterby

B. Raman Islamic terrorism in India is  a bye-product of the US-inspired and

orchestrated jehad of  the 1980s against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. To

make the Soviet troops bleed, the USA's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

encouraged Islamic fanaticism and incited unemployed Muslim youth all over the

world to go to Afghanistan to carry on a jehad against Communism. Pakistan's

Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was entrusted by the CIA with the task of

religiously-motivating, training and arming the jehadi mercenaries from

different countries and sending them into Afghanistan for fighting against the

Soviet troops. 2. It is estimated that between 6,000 and 10,000 mercenaries

thus participated in the anti-Soviet jehad. The majority of them were Arabs,

but a small number came from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia,

the southern Philippines, Chechenya (Russia) and Xinjiang (China). Some

unemployed Muslim youth from the South Asian Muslim diaspora in West Europe and

the USA and Afro-American youth from North America and the Caribbean also

joined. 3. The majority of the Muslims from India (about a hundred) who went to

Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet troops came from Jammu &; Kashmir

(J&K;). A smaller number (hardly a dozen) came from other parts of India. They

became the hard-core of the now banned Students' Islamic Movement of India

(SIMI). The ISI motivated them against India, gave them jehadi inolculation in

Afghanistan and sent them back to India for starting a jehad. 4. The CIA was

aware that the ISI was diverting  part of the funds and arms and ammunition

received by it from the US, Saudi Arabia and other countries for use against

the Soviet troops to India to instigate a jehad there. It did not stop it; nor

did it alert the Government of India to it. 5. However, the Government of

President Najibullah of Afghanistan, which was then in power in Kabul, alerted

the Rajiv Gandhi Government to the ISI's machinations and to the dangers faced

by India from these elements. The Rajiv Gandhi Government, then engrossed in

Sri Lanka, did not pay serious attention to the warning signals from Kabul.

India has had to pay a heavy price for it in the form of Islamic terrorism

sprouting not only in J&K;, but also in other parts of the country. 6. In the

early 1990s, warning signals also came from Israel. The Israeli agencies picked

up a Palestinian student studying in South India who had been sent to the

occupied territories to organise acts of terrorism. His interrogation revealed

the possible presence in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, of Islamic

extremist cells enjoying the support of the locals. The Israeli warnings were

rejected as uncorroborated by the local Police and intelligence set-up. 7.

Taking advantage of  India's  lack of seriousness in dealing with the emergence

of extremism in sections of the Muslim youth, the ISI and the various Islamic

fundamentalist parties of Pakistan, which are used by the ISI for its

operations against India, systematically went about the task of creating a

jehadi network in J&K; and other  parts of India. The ISI's primary objective

was the annexation of J&K; with their help; the secondary, to keep the Indian

security forces bleeding and preoccupied with internal security duties in

different parts of India. 8. Lt.Gen. (retd) Hamid Gul, who was the-General of the ISI in the late 1980s, used to claim that keeping the

Indian security forces bleeding with the help of the jehadis was equivalent to

the Pakistan Army having an extra division at no cost to the Pakistani

exchequer. Gen.Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's present military dictator, and

other officers of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment share this

belief. 9. The Islamic fundamentalist parties of Pakistan, which had created a

number of pan-Islamic jehadi organisations with the ISI's help and the CIA's

encouragement in the 1980s for use against the Soviet troops, had their own

agenda against India. They wanted to use these jehadi groups  for "liberating"

not only J&K;, but also the Muslims in other parts of India. The ISI encouraged

them in their jehadi adventure against India. Starting from 1992-93, motivated

and trained cadres of these organisations infiltrated in increasing numbers

into J&K; and other parts of India and ultimately took over the leadership of

the terrorist movement in J&K.;

10. After the US started its war against international terrorism in Afghanistan

on October 7,2001, , the surviving cadres of these organisations fled to

Pakistan where the ISI re-located them in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and

the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) in order to use them to replenish the

strength of the jehadi mercenaries in J&K; and other parts of India.

11.Since 1992-93, the ISI has also been using  the Kashmiri as well as Pakistani

organisations in J&K; to train the cadres of the Students' Islamic Movement of

India and disgruntled Muslim youth from South India in their camps in J&K; so

that they did not have to go to Pakistan for training. Imam Ali, of Al Ummah of

Tamil Nadu, who was killed in an encounter in Bangalore on Sept.28, 2002, was

thus among the non-Kashmiri Indian Muslims trained in J&K.; The ISI, which has

close linkages with the Bangladesh military-intelligence establishment, also

used the latter for training the non-Kashmiri Muslims. 12. The Mumbai blasts of

March,1993, marked  the beginning of the use of trans-national crime groups,

such as the one led by Dawood Ibrahim, by the ISI for adding strength to the

activities of the Islamic terrorists  in India and for weakening the Indian

economy. 13. As the result of a lack of a coherent and determined response from

different Governments which had ruled in New Delhi since the late 1980s, Islamic

terrorism has grown into a hydra-headed monster, with innumerable tentacles

which include: * The indigenous Kashmiri organisations, whose objective is

limited to J&K;--either merger with Pakistan or independence. They have no

linkages with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda.* The pan-Islamic Pakistani

organisations. These are essentially four in number--the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen

(HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HUJI), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the

Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET). All of them are members of Osama bin Laden's

International Islamic Front For Jehad Against the US and Israel. Their agenda

extends to the "liberation" of Muslims all over India and to working ultimately

for the creation of an Islamic Caliphate in South Asia. * The SIMI, which has a

following in North India and Kerala. Some of its initial office-bearers came

from Kerala. It has linkages with the Kashmiri and pan-Islamic Pakistani

organisations, but not directly with bin Laden's set-up. * Al Ummah of Tamil

Nadu, which too has linkages with Kashmiri and possibly Pakistani jehadi

organisations. It is also suspected to have linkages with Islamic extremist

elements in Malaysia and Singapore. There is no evidence of its having any

direct nexus with bin Laden's set-up. * New groups, which have been sprouting

up in the North East by taking advantage of the presence of  a large number of

illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. * Dawood Ibrahim's gang and other

trans-national crime groups working for the ISI, which provide logistic support

to various Islamic terrorist elements. 14. Of these, the SIMI and Al Ummah do

not seem to have any strategic objective such as the "liberation" of the

Muslims of India. Their objective till now has been more tactical, namely, to

protect the Muslims of India from excesses by the Government and the Hindu

community and to carry out acts of punishment terrorism in retaliation for the

atrocities against the Muslims. They accept assistance from the ISI, but do not

act as the surrogates of Pakistan. At least not yet.

15. None of the Governments of the past nor the present Government in New Delhi

have had a clear understanding of the dangers to our national security and

unity from these elements. Secularism is mistaken for softness towards

terrorist elements, if they happen to be from the Muslim community. The vast

majority of the Indian Muslims are nationalist, patriotic and do not associate

themselves with the anti-national elements in their community, whatever be

their anger against the Government for failing to protect the lives, property

and human rights of the Muslims--whether in J&K;, Gujarat or elsewhere. 16. The

number of Muslims---mostly youth--- outside J&K;, who have taken to

anti-national activities and terrorism is still small, but their number is

steadily increasing. Our concern for the welfare of the Muslim community as a

whole and our anxiety to preserve the secular image of India should not inhibit

our taking strong action against the Islamic terrorists, while at the same time

taking care not to drive the law-abiding Muslims into the hands of extremists

through over-reaction. . 17. The task is rendered difficult by the presence in

our midst of an increasing number of pan-Islamic Pakistani terrorists and by

the assistance received by this hydra-headed monster from the ISI---either

directly or through Nepal, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates or other third

countries. The blood vessels of this monster originate from Pakistan. Unless

those roots are destroyed, we will never be able to crush Islamic terrorism in

India. 18. For destroying those roots in Pakistani territory, India has to

exercise its right of active defence, that is, taking counter-terrorism

operations into the territory of Pakistan since all diplomatic and other means

of pressurising Pakistan to destroy those roots have failed. The right of

active defence could be exercised either overtly through the Armed Forces as

Israel has been doing now or covertly through our intelligence agencies as

Israel used to do in the past. 19. Overt and direct military response, while

spectacular and satisfying public clamour for action, could be messy and may

end up by making the problem more complicated. Deniable covert action, while

unpublicised and slow to make impact, can produce better results. The objective

of the covert action should be not only to destroy the roots of these

organisations in Pakistan, but also to make the State and the

military-intelligence establishment of Pakistan  pay a prohibitive price for

using terrorism as a weapon against India. This writer has been stressing this

point again and again and again since 1999, but his has been a voice in the

wilderness. He continues to be in a minority of one. 20. Unfortunately, the

Government of India seems disinclined to try the covert action option and

continues to count on the diplomatic option through the US, despite its having

failed to produce satisfactory results so far.  (The writer is Additional

Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently,, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai ,E-Mail: corde (AT) vsnl (DOT) com)

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