The November 10 Delhi blast in front of the Red Fort has reminded us all once again that our war against terror is not over yet. It never will be. Thirteen precious lives were lost and several others were injured. While even a single death is unacceptable, we have lost 13 precious lives.
Initially, the government remained cautious and guarded as to how to describe the incident. It was reported as a “blast” only. As it has turned out now, it was a bomb blast planned and executed meticulously to cause maximum damage. It went off at a busy traffic light at rush hour. It was undoubtedly an outright act of terror in the heart of the capital city and in front of the Red Fort.
Given the quantum of explosives seized, weighing about 3000 kg, the plan appeared to be enormous and large scale. The conspirators and terrorists were clear in their design that they wanted to shake our national capital and with it, the entire nation. Thankfully, large scale damage was averted by the timely detection of the plot and arrest of the conspirators.
There are several disturbing questions that still persist. What is the guarantee that there are not more such people, white-collar terrorists in white robes roaming around in our neighbourhood anywhere in the country in any big or small city? Thankfully, this time they were nabbed in time, although they still managed to cause some damage and loss of precious lives.
Thanks to our security and intelligence agencies, which have indeed done a great job by pre-emptive action that major damage was averted. Sometimes things can go undetected. Despite such proactive action, one of the suspects managed to slip and cause the blast that cost us 13 lives. That is always possible and it can happen anytime, anywhere.
While, so far, no “direct” foreign link has been established, the very fact that the terrorists who conspired together and collected the huge quantity of explosives were influenced by Jaish-e-Mohammad headed by UN designated terrorist Masood Azhar, leaves no doubt about the seed and source from which such acts of terror originate.
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Azhar is one of the five terrorists who were released in exchange of Indian Airlines flight 814 that was hijacked to Kandhar in the year 2000. He is based out of Pakistan where he is provided full protection by the Pakistan Army, from where he keeps on preaching religious extremism in the name of jihad.
In the modern day internet era, Azhar and his likes do not even need to travel to preach from religious places. It is all done through multiple social media platforms, where the messages and conversations are difficult to be tracked and monitored. More concerning is the fact that all the members of the terror module are well qualified doctors, all of whom were doing well in their professions. As the media reports suggested, all of them were getting good salaries to make them a good living. They had no apparent reason or grievance to feel alienated and fall prey to extremism. It was simply voluntary ideological surrender.
This raises concern that no amount of welfare, education or prosperity can work as an antidote against indoctrination and radicalisation. In the current case, these MBBS/ MD doctors were indoctrinated by a semi-literate religious preacher. If such preachers can indoctrinate and radicalise such well qualified and educated professionals, imagine the impact they can have on younger minds with lesser resources and lesser education.
That calls for the need of adopting a fresh approach to dealing with such a situation. While technology is certainly being misused to spread extremism and terrorism, it can also be used to counter and fight against it. Rigorous monitoring of social media should form an important part of intelligence gathering process. If Israel defence forces can hack the 'pagers' of Hamas terrorists and trigger them to blast simultaneously, India can use technology to monitor the suspects’ activity.
Then there are persuasive means and methods that provide cover against religious extremism and radicalism. This will involve large scale community participation at social and political levels also. That has already been achieved to a great extent though. But then there can always be exceptions who fall prey to propaganda and indoctrination.
But all this does not exonerate Pakistan of its role in every act of terror that takes place in India. The bigger and the main part still remains dealing with Pakistan and its army and its notorious intelligence agency, the ISI.
Having learnt the bitter and harsh lessons in the past during the surgical strikes and Operation Sindoor, they will obviously try to ensure that no direct link is visible and it is only the local youth who are radicalised, indoctrinated and mobilised to carry out such acts of terror.
Pakistan continues to remain the primary source of terror for India and India’s war on terror has not stopped as yet. It probably never will.
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