The heinous suicidal bomb and gun attacks in Paris that
claimed over 129 people hailing from 12 different nations has shook the World.
The tailored dastardly attacks spanning over 6 hours in the wee hours of the
weekend has exposed the vulnerability of the nation to the grouse of terrorism.
Terrorism seems to have transcended boundaries and clearly defying the
invincibility of western nations, the extremism brewing for the past several
decades had hit Paris. World leaders expressed their solidarity to France and
severely condemned the punitive action of the extremists. Following the
aftermath of the incidents, seasoned investigative agencies began drawing
parallels to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that lasted for over four days killing
166 people. While the scale of violence is deplorable in both cases the
savagery and continued persistence of the terrorists to spread terror in Mumbai
was stemmed by timely intervention of Police and Armed forces in Mumbai. The
13/11 Paris attacks carried out a group of eight man with alleged affiliations
to IS wearing explosive vests and stuck the targets at six different locations.
As the condolence messages began imploring France, strategic
analysts in Paris have plunged into soul-searching with people attributing the
gory incident to a spectrum of events.
Primarily the attacks were attributed to the inherent fault lines in its
foreign policy and to the influx of the migrants though the porous borders. But
apparently the real crux lies in a series of developments that indeed paved the
way for the gruesome attacks. The US after its avowed destruction of the
Al-Qaeda that unleashed a reign of terror on its land has slackened its
surveillance on the spurt of the terrorist outfits blooming the Middle East. Meanwhile
European countries consciously chose to ignore the ceaseless trails of rampage
escalating in Syria following the onset of the Civil war 2011. The unrest
coupled by the apathy of coterie of nations to bring about grinding halt to the
fomenting Syrian crisis witnessed slow and steady rise of the Islamic outfits.
Further the inept Iraqi administration installed by the US marking the
actualization of democratic process in the war-hit land inadvertently began to
increase animosities between the Sunni’s and Shias. In adept leadership in the
region, coupled by the escalation of frustrations among the masses and
burgeoning acrimonies instigates by the traditional rivals in the region led to
the emergence of the severely radicalized Islamist outfit IS (Islamic State)
with a pernicious objective of establishing an Islamic caliphate. It growth in part was augured by availability
of bountiful finances, its stratagem of publicizing and idolizing the Jihadi
culture on social media was an instant hit. Thus it effortlessly attracted
thousands of radicalized Muslim youth and increased in strength significantly.
IS sent panic waves across the World by tactfully gaining control over
important Iraqi cities in early 2014. With the superfluous oil refineries under
its control, IS slowly unleashed a wave of terror across the borders of Iraq,
extending its sphere of influence to the hinterlands of Syria.
Meanwhile, scores of youth awestruck by the resurgence of an
extremist force passionately began to associate with it. Notwithstanding the
continuous surveillance imposed by countries, young people hailing from Middle
Asia, Europe and other parts of the World started traveling to Syria. Most of
youth who returned homes were intractably drawn into the brutalized jihadi
culture expounded by IS. This hypothesis was affirmed by interrogations carried
out by investigative agencies that foiled previous unsuccessful attempts of
derailing peace in Europe by radicalized youth who returned home. With IS
showing no signs of withering, its pugnacious ideology widely popular among
youth began to torment the peace and harmony of the World.
While the identity of eight attackers who carried out Paris
attacks is not yet established preliminary clues have indicated that
perpetrators of crime gained entry into the country through the porous borders
that permitted refugees into Europe. While a plausible solution of combating
terror unequivocally lies in annihilating the IS, the logical strategy pursued
by the coalition forces failed miserably in annihilating the IS. It is more
than a year since coalition forces were providing arms and sophisticated
weapons to the forces fighting the IS but till now no major breakthrough has
been attained. Russia too joined the mission of destroying the IS in late September
but its objectives are not in sync with that of the Coalition Forces. It has
been a month that Russia initiated air-strikes against IS and claims to have
made significant advances. Alarmed by deteriorating situation in Syria
diplomats of various countries that have stakes in Syria met in Vienna on
October 30th to review the situation. The participants included- US,
UK, Russia, Iran, Turkey, China, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, UAE,
Lebanon, France, Jordan, Italy, Germany and European Union. Parties during the
first round signed a joint Final declaration on the results of the Syrian talks
in Vienna as agreed by the participants and asked the UN to convene the Syrian
government and opposition to start a credible political process to be
administered under its supervision. But soon they reached an impasse with
parties differing over the future of Bashar Assad’s rule in Syria. Against the
backdrop of the Paris attacks, next round of meeting commenced in November 14th
at Vienna.
As a matter of fact, end of Syrian war seems to provide a
comprehensive solution to end the massive influx of the refugees into Europe
and destroying the IS will be the first step in that direction. But
unfortunately, the brutal return of the terrorism would continue to threaten
the World as long as the seeds of terror and the various agencies perpetrating
the nefarious activities are not ravaged. This can be corroborated by the fact
that US rejoiced for avenging the Al-Qaeda but the extremist forces began to strike
back more fiercely with rejuvenated savagery and barbarism in the form of IS,
an off-shoot of Al-Qaeda. Sadly Europe is now quite vulnerable than ever as
initial reports increasingly suggest that the hard-core, hardened extremist
leaders have gained entry into the continent along the unsuspicious refugees.
Europe by opening its doors to the refugees exacerbated the anxiety of “enemy
within.” France had a veritable partnership with the coalition forces fighting
in the Iraq for a long time. The brutal massacres hatched by these terror
mongers are highly condemnable and scourge on humanity. With the western forces aggravating its fight
against the terrorist forces it is highly likely that incidents of horror might
recur and “enemies within” might explore every opportunity to target the highly
congregated places disrupting the multicultural fabric of European nations.
Paris attacks are one of the most gruesome terror attacks in
Europe after the Madrid train blast of 2004 compelling nations to take a stern action
against terrorism. These attacks glaringly exposed lacunae of the intelligence
agencies that failed to bust the attacks. The complex plots which were executed
with ruthless efficiency clearly indicates that the perpetrators of this
operation are meticulously trained and can hoodwink the radar of security
agencies. Besides these attacks has opened a Pandora box of exigencies of
terrorism. The current episode of terror
is fall out of bipartisan foreign policy adopted by western countries who chose
to ignore the dangers of the extremism for its dubious strategic and financial
gains.
During the past four decades India witnessed 59 attacks
wherein 1889 people lost their lives. India has been worst victim of
cross-border terrorism perpetrated by its western neighbor which aims to
intimidate the government and people for its political, religious and
ideological goals. Of all 26/11 Mumbai attacks stand out for the intensity of
brutality suffered and number of lives lost. Indian courts acted swiftly,
identified the perpetrators and master-minds behind the horrendous acts of
violence and prepared dossiers with supporting evidence and handed over
scrupulous details to Pakistan anticipating some action. Comprehensive
investigations and the information provided by the lone surviving perpetrator
conclusively indicated that attacks were the handiwork of Laskhar-e- Toiba
(LeT), a terror outfit financed by Pakistan and ISI (Inter-Services
Intelligence). The victims included 26 foreign nationals from 10 different
countries following the international condemnation under duress Pakistan acknowledged
the lone survivor as its citizen and arrested the master-minds of attacks including
Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and commenced actual trials in 2012. The anti-terror
court of Pakistan in April 2015 granted bail to him in contravention to the UN
resolution 1267 India presented its appeal in the UN but China vetoed the move.
Disconcertingly while India having suffered brutal carnage of the radical
groups is expected to exercise restraint and not carry military attacks, elite
nations continue to reward perpetrators with financial and economic bounties to
nurture their long term strategic interests. India is worst sufferer of cross-
border terrorism which is a state-policy of Pakistan. Another facet of modern
age terrorism is its perpetuation by radicalized youth who are coerced into the
militant form of Islam by religious fundamentals. Obsessed with religious
fanaticism huge amounts of petrodollars are pumped into spreading extremist
culture.
Sadly, the dastardly terrorist attacks in various countries
continue to proliferate unabatedly in absence of international convention. It
is rather frustrating that in its 70 years of its existence UN failed to even
define terrorism and bring out strict legislation to nip the barbaric
activities of extremists. Modi bolstered the idea of evolving a concrete
legislative framework on terrorism and reiterated an urgent need for a
comprehensive mechanism to combat terror in his first address at the UN General
Assembly last year. Accordingly, he
brought about the issue of counter-terrorism and a combative legislative
approach during his bilateral visits to various countries and drew support of
like-minded nations.
Can World nations ever dream of combating terrorism while the
elite league continues to patronize the perpetrators to foster their selfish
gains? Further the knee-jerk reaction of France of mounting attacks on Syrian
city Raqqa for the unforgiving barbarian attacks will be of little significance
until nations take a deep resolve to unitedly fight against the perpetrators. Recent
months have witnessed sudden surge in terrorist attacks across the World. On
Nov 12th 41 people were killed in twin bomb attacks by IS in Beirut.
On 10th October, 107 people killed in the deadliest bomb attack in
Ankara. A Russian plane carrying over 242 people was blown up midair over Sinai
Peninsula earlier this week. But unfortunately these incidents failed to evoke
solidarity as the Paris attacks. Finally while killings are traumatic anywhere,
why is the death of Europeans or the West is raised to “highest common
abstractions” and why their loss alone is iconized as blight on humanity. Affirmatively
G-20 leaders in the ongoing summit vowed to take a global action on terrorism
and the UN secretary general assured that he will soon submit a comprehensive
plan to deal violent extremism and terrorism.
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