Arun Bajpai
The recent Al Qaeda video of 55 minutes directly threatening India that Al Qaeda is opening a south Asia branch and that Kashmir, Assam and Gujarat will be its target areas within India as also that Bangladesh, Myanmar and India will be within its range of operations, just cannot be taken lightly. The Modi Government has already alerted the states but is this enough?
The famous ex CIA top analyst Bruce Rydal is very right in his recent statement that this Al Qaeda video of their top man Aymen Al Zawahiri threatening India has been prepared in Pakistan where according to him the Al Zawahiri is living in an ISI safe house. According to him the Pakistani Army and ISI combine are stage managing advance of Al Qaeda into India. The Pakistan connection to Al Qaeda’s this new South Asia Branch which they have named as KAIDAT-AL-JIHAD gets established by the fact that the leader of this new jihadi organisation is Asim Umar who is a Pakistani. Its spokes person Usama Mahmud is also a Pakistani and the breakaway faction of Tehrik-e-Pakistan Taliban Jamat -ul-Ahrar has hailed this new development.
Since 1988 Pakistani Army and ISI combine have been sponsoring terror in India. Pakistan based terror organisation Lashkar -e-Toiba (L-e-T) has been raised and equipped by ISI to carry out jihad against India. Its head honcho who is the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attack Hafiz Saeed roams about freely in Pakistan spitting fire against India. Jaish Mohammad and Hijbul mujahedeen are other jihadi organisations sponsored by Pakistani army. Since last few years Pakistan has succeeded in radicalising a small percentage of Indian Muslim population within India resulting in jihadi organisations like Indian Mujahedeen and SIMI sprouting in India who owe their allegiance to ISI and L-e-T.
All this has happened in India because we are seen by the world including Pakistan as soft state incapable of taking strong counter measures against terror both internally and externally. It is really pathetic that India which is one of the most terror affected country in the world, till now in six decades do not have a long term all inclusive anti terror policy. Governments come and go and implement their short term knee jerk policies that lead to further confusion. A decade back when Congress led UPA Government came in power first thing they did was to remove POTA the only strong anti terror law we had in the country. Since then we do not have terror specific law.
After the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack we woke up to the looming jehadi threat on India. This attack exposed wide gaps in our internal security. At that time it was decided that India will raise a special maritime police force to guard our coast line. Radars were to be installed to look deep in sea and discern sea borne terror threats. It was decided that all the police stations of India will be brought on line and interconnected for quick sharing of information to be called NAT GRID. Even though six years have passed none of these projects have been completely implemented. Every where it is work in progress.
It was also envisaged that a National Counter Terror Centre (NCTC) will be established in centre with the newly created National Intelligence Agency (NIA) working under it and both of them having sweeping powers to arrest any terrorists anywhere in the country without the permission of states for the simple reason that terrorists do not have any working boundaries and that taking prior permission from states amounts to leak of vital information. All this has died down in the din of the turf wars with the states insisting that law and order is their responsibility. So the NCTC is still a far cry and NIA is very pale self of what it was meant to be an Indian CBI.
In 2007 Supreme Court had directed Centre and state governments to carry out police reforms as outlined by it. Till date no Indian state has implemented these reforms in letter and spirit. Indian police is still functioning on the colonial ways and laws. In addition they have been dubbed as one of the most corrupt police forces of the world by the world reputed agencies. They need better equipment, better training and better leadership. They also need insulation from political interference.
All said and done we are totally ill prepared for the type of terror threat looming over us. Modi Government must take this latest Al Qaeda threat seriously because in actual fact it is threat from Pakistani army and their allied jihadi’s. We must come out with long term anti terror policy. We must improve centre-state coordination on all matters concerning terror. Modi Government must enact a strong anti terror law after taking all parties in confidence. Police reforms must be implemented immediately. There is need for the constitution to be amended so that the subject of terror is brought on the concurrent list of state and centre. All efforts need to be made to plug the gaping holes in our internal security set up. The need of the hour for all politicians of India is to sit together, bury their ideological differences and come out with strong anti terror measures. Any delay now will result in horrendous terror related casualties in India.
(The author is Defence and Strategic Analyst)
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