Terrorism — the very act that helps to ratchet up fear levels and justifies extra-constitutional illegalities committed by states has virtually made every citizen a malfeasor in the eyes of security agencies. For long, countries have deliberately used this very ambiguous terminology for selfish political ends.
In fact, terrorism has come to represent a unique form of purposive and planned violence that has politico-religious motivation of the highest order. And a minute study of the terror outfits operating around the globe reveals that they are surreptitiously used by intelligence agencies as a pawn in their strategic armory. No wonder why, one man’s terrorist often turns out to be another man’s freedom fighter in today’s bickering world of ours. But the problem arises when you are over with the strategic mission and yet do not know what to do with the deadly human assets assembled and indoctrinated painstakingly.
Al-Qaeda’s recent missive to the South Asian leadership is reflective of such a dilemma that intelligence agencies confront intermittently. Was the world not told till the other day by very confident American security officials that Al-Qaeda has not only lost its relevance but is almost dead after Osama Bin Laden’s reported elimination in Pakistan? And yet we are faced with a situation where the Indian subcontinent is on the verge of getting engrossed in a no-holds-barred witch-hunt after Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri declared in a dramatic video message that his substantially weakened organization has launched a South Asia branch. With Narendra Modi (accused of presiding over gruesome anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat) at helm, India will be primarily affected by this sudden turn of events with overzealous security agencies tempted to launch a shadow war on poor citizens.
Since, the society these days is more concerned with the religious identity of the perpetrator instead of the monstrosity of the crime, it is only a matter of time before innocent Muslim youths are heckled and taken into custody arbitrarily by police merely on the basis of suspicion. Doctored data may even surface to justify entrapment of Muslims thus ruining precious lives in the process.
One does not know whether Zawahiri is indeed a well-wisher of Indian Muslims — as he has tried to paint himself in his speech — but the fact is he did manage to give the Hindu hardliners in India a rallying point for trashing the religious minorities. In the words of a respected Muslim cleric, “Al-Qaeda will give communal forces another reason to further polarize Indian society.” Very rightly, Muslim clerics in India have denounced Zawahiri’s speech while reposing faith in the Indian Constitution.
The apex forum of Muslim organizations in India has displayed no inhibition in criticizing Zawahiri openly as it believed such a move would be a great disservice to the cause of the peace-loving Muslim population in the Indian subcontinent. Any meddling in their affairs by a foreign terrorist outfit, which knows nothing other than death, destruction and mayhem, will be counterproductive. True, the dynamics of majority-minority relationship in India has undergone a drastic change since the demolition of Babri Mosque in 1992 and the subsequent Gujarat pogrom of 2002. Lack of visionary politics in India coupled with rising Islamophobia in Indian society has vitiated the atmosphere further.
But then, Indian Muslims, being no lesser patriots than their Hindu brethren will surely fight shoulder to shoulder for preserving peace and amity in every nook and corner. It is important that Muslim youths are kept at arm’s length from terror-scouts so that they do not fall prey to the extremist propaganda of Al-Qaeda. Ideologies propagated by Al-Qaeda or for that matter the Islamic State (IS) at the end of the day does not represent the true facets of the great religion Islam, which has always stood for tolerance and harmony.
The big question that arises today is about the timing of Zawahiri’s message. Experts believe the meteoric rise of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s IS has forced Al-Qaeda to search for new frontiers. Ever since the formal separation of IS and Al-Qaeda last February, Zawahiri has been trying to keep pace with the desperate and brutal terror-competitor for keeping his flock together. IS has been gathering strength continuously and according to some estimates boasts of a military budget that far exceeds some European nations’ defense spending. Besides, the size of its armory — consisting of modern sophisticated weaponry — will baffle any impartial defense analyst. To expose those behind-the-scene players or the real puppet-master, seeking to sow the seeds of final war in South Asia, there is a need to honestly anatomize the basic ideological vision of Al- Qaeda.
Ever since his fallout with the US intelligence instructors, Laden had targeted the West, especially America instead of delving in sectarian schism or establishing Caliphates in West Asia. So, why would his successor Zawahiri, wade into something that is strategically untenable and practically impossible to implement in the Gangetic plains unless goaded by some shadowy power? For the South Asian security establishments, it is time to put away old enmity and stitch together a strategic partnership for thwarting this tactical plot of keeping the region destabilized permanently.
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Seema Sengupta is a Kolkata-based journalist and columnist.
Email: [email protected]
