Recently India witnessed a ghastly act of terrorism. A suicide bomber made use of a SUV laden with 350kg of explosives and rammed it into one of the buses of convoy of CRPF killing 40 jawans. Although not
new, this act of terrorism is highly condemnable. Countries from all around the world came forward to condemn this barbaric attack. US, UK, Russia, China, France, Canada and many other countries expressed their grief on the loss of soldiers.
This heinous act is not the only act of terrorism that India has seen in the past few years. Historically, India has been one of the biggest victims of terrorism which can be seen in the recent Pulwama attack, Uri attack, Pathankot attack, Mumbai 26/11, Parliament attack and many more. India has been declared as the 6th most affected nation by terrorism in the global terrorism index. India although having credible evidence has been asking the perpetrators behind the attack to take required action against those responsible but very little has been done to bring those people to justice.
Even though India has been a very strong target from the point of view of those terrorists, many other countries have also been affected by terrorism. United States of America went through one of the most dreaded attacks in the history of mankind when 9/11 was planned and executed by al-Qaeda leaving over 2900 people dead. Pakistan, which has been a breeding ground for terrorists, has been a victim of terrorism in its country in case of Peshawar School attacks when over 150 people were killed and 120 were grievously injured. Iran has also been a victim of terrorism along with Afghanistan. There have been repeated efforts from terror organisation to resurface after being brought down by the US forces in Iraq and Syria. There are far more instances of terrorism in the world including countries in North and South America, Europe and African continent.
The problem of terrorism has become far more significant in the near past with the development of new weapons and accessibility of funds to these groups which indulge in heinous activities have only supported their malicious designs of spreading terror. The perpetrators are supported by funds, trained in spreading violence and killing people based upon certain aspects of their demands. Several countries as also the United Nations have named several groups in terror list like Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIL and many more for sponsoring and training terrorists. Many countries including US, North Korea, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Russia have come forward to share intelligence about terror groups and finding out ways to put an end to the terrible losses that the people from different countries face. Geo-political ties between different countries have been a key issue in countering terrorism. For instance, Pakistan because of the help from China has been successful in saving itself from being named as a terror sponsor state. This has been against the interests of major superpowers in the world.
Terrorists being used in the present scenario all around the world are often confused as being freedom fighters or separatists. This has been going on since a very long time in Jammu and Kashmir in India and Khalistan movement in Canada along with the Palestine movement in West Asia. This is precisely the reason why terrorism has got different definitions in different countries. Since terrorism does not have a definite meaning there have been different ways to counter terrorism based upon different views of the nations. Alas there happens to be one fact that we can’t overlook: that we have been failing in countering terrorism in all aspects whatsoever on many fronts. Terrorism is emanating almost everyday and we have been doing very little to see the incidents of terrorism going down.
Now that most of the countries have realised the problems that terrorism has created in the entire world, the UN has taken several steps that were aimed at curbing terrorism in the entire world. Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was set up to ensure the money being spent by various countries was not reaching those indulge in any act of terror. There have been several actions taken by the FATF including blacklisting several countries like North Korea and grey-listing Pakistan to ensure they no longer get funds from UN designated financial institutions to sponsor terror. Furthermore, institutions like IMF and World Bank have taken up the decision of not providing any loan to the countries unwilling to take strict action against terror sponsoring groups emanating from their land.
Several countries including India, United States, Russia have chosen to act against terror groups. After 17 years of being in war with the Taliban, the US has finally called for dialogue between these two countries. Dialogue certainly is one of the most effective ways to ensure there happens to be no more terror financing. But what to do when countries are no longer willing to participate in dialogue and are not willing to take strict action against terror? This is a more serious problem that must be addressed to and put in effect. These countries must be isolated diplomatically to yield to the demands of the United Nations. Something similar is being done by India by isolating Pakistan to force it into taking proper action against the UN designated terror groups breeding on its soil. This method often requires some strict measures that yield good result. North Korea under pressure from the US decided to yield to the demands of denuclearisation. India has been taking that approach in isolating Pakistan, the fountain head of harbouring terrorism.
There happens to be another way in which several countries try to eliminate terror outfits in their region. This requires the use of military in the area. The US has been making use of its military in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria. While this method deploys huge number of military personnel and needs a very high amount of finances, has got less success rate. Something quite similar is being done by the Israeli forces in their territory against the State of Palestine. The outcomes were not very productive.
Intelligence sharing between different countries is another way of putting a control on the terror activities. The intelligence between different countries is probably the safest way of reducing the damages caused by the terror financing. Several intelligence agencies in the world have been working together to combat terror activities. Many terror financing people have been nabbed in India too who were reportedly hiring and planning to carry out terror activities in the national capital.
Several other ways of dealing with terrorism include various countries coming forward and organising and participating in counter-insurgency planning and drilling exercises. Time and again India has collaborated with the US, Russia, China, Israel, Nepal, Bangladesh and many other countries to enhance its counter-terrorism capabilities.
However, it is not just the sole responsibility of the security forces of the country to combat terrorists. Our own countrymen can make a huge contribution to stop terrorist activities. Reporting suspicious characters, giving an account of unclaimed baggage to the security forces and putting forward required intel to the police can help curb terrorism. Even the most minute information can do wonders in the right hand and so we must not consider any kind of intel as small in quantity. Make your contribution towards keeping the country safe and sound.