Burdwan blast: Why India is a soft target for terrorists
The accidental blast at a house near Burdwan in West Bengal on October 2, in which two members of JuM (Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen) became a casualty, has unravelled details of an underground network of militants who were engaged in executing an extensive plan of this Bangladesh-based terrorist organisation to use Indian territory for manufacturing bombs and sending them across the border to aid insurgency against the Sheikh Hasina government.
The JuM is a cohort of the older Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and is the new spearhead of the pro-Pak forces in Bangladesh trying to bring down a regime that had demolished and eliminated the leadership of JeI there.
Context
The connectivity of the deceased with SIMI and IM — off springs of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the well known protege of Pakistan operating across South Asia exposes the grave dimension of this large covert activity of collaborating militant groups in the eastern parts of India. They seem to be preparing for a renewed offensive against India as well, in furtherance of the proxy war of Pakistan.
India must remain watchful against an escalation of the Pak ISI-sponsored mischief in the days ahead. The stage for this has been set by Maulana Asim Umar, a cleric of Indian origin, who has from his location in Pakistan called for jihad in India and claimed that he was the Al-Qaeda chief for South Asia.
It is important to understand that in the context of a rising threat of Islamic radicals — symbolised by the call of Al-Zawahiri for the revival of Al-Qaeda in South Asia and demonstrated by the violent assertion of ISIS in Iraq and Syria-Pak army finds it opportune to step up its own proxy offensive against India by tapping the modules of agents it has been able to create in this country over a long period. That the pan-Islamic impact of ISIS is felt in India too is indicated by the report of a few youth here making a bid to join up with it. This adds to our security concerns.
The Pak ISI is not deterred by the successes achieved by our security agencies in detecting many SIMI and IM operatives. It is using the tactic of blaming India's problem on the alleged discontent of our own minority and exploiting the communal card against the new government here. ISI is quite capable of running its own operations against India and naming the Al-Qaeda-Taliban nexus for them. This is what was seen in the attacks on our missions in Kabul and Herat.
Migration
The Burdwan case puts the focus back on the problem of illicit migration through the India-Bangladesh border and lack of police vigilance in the interiors of India. It is a matter of satisfaction that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval reached out to Mamata Banerjee, CM of West Bengal to ensure that the state police geared itself for coping up with the threat to security and extending total cooperation to the NIA's probe into the matter.
Also, considering the unresolved India-US differential on whether the India-specific militant groups like LeT and HuM which were used by Pakistan as instruments of cross border terrorism against India, could be viewed differently from the radicals of Al-Qaeda-Taliban combine, Doval has hit the nail on the head by telling the Munich Security Conference that the global fight against the new faith-based terrorism should be based on "convergence" and not mere "coalition". It is good to see this clarity about security policy.
India needs to be cautioned against the danger of Pakistan army seeking its hegemony in Afghanistan and possibly getting a sympathetic ear from the US in the context of American "withdrawal" from that country. The aggression being shown by Pakistan on the LoC and IB in J&K is meant to internationalise the Kashmir issue and also tell the US that the Pak army would not be free enough to take on the combat against radicals on the Afghan front without a resolution of this imbroglio.
Vulnerability
It needs to be mentioned that the vulnerability of India's domestic scene to the continuing problem of communal divide can not be allowed to weaken our national security. Many self-appointed leaders of the minority community here — ulema or the elite — are, for reasons of politics, losing sight of the sovereign character of democratic India and are now encouraging Pakistan to meddle in our internal affairs. This has to be sternly discouraged and dealt with as it borders on subversion.
It was not surprising to find that the apologists of Pakistan cropped up once again, after the provocative mortar firings by the Pak army on the LoC and IB in J&K attracted headlines. They did not cut much ice this time as the mood of the nation is different - the Modi government having made it clear that India-Pak relations would have to rest on a healthy reciprocity.
The average Indian of any community is engaged in earning his or her livelihood and expects the government of the day to work for the economic betterment of all. Indians are now alive to the need for politics of development to prevail over identity politics. The outcome of the last General Elections demonstrated very well that this thinking had now taken root.