1149 Words Essay on Terrorism in English language

Terrorism refers to extortion, kidnapping and killing to attract wider attention to a particular cause and thus to force a targetted authority to concede demands of the perpetrators of terror. Terror tactics are generally adopted by isolated groups or ethnic minorities who are despaired of getting a sympathetic audience for their real or perceived grievances.

They generally get moral or financial support from the group or community on whose behalf they take up arms to challenge the authorities. Most terrorist movements derive their motive force from sections of population who nurse strong feeling of being wronged, deprived or denied of their just rights by the people wielding political power. Terrorists remain a menace to the Governments as long as they enjoy a measure of overt or covert support from some sections of the people. They begin to lose ground as their activities start dislocating the lives of the people in whose name they claim to fight. Gradually, their erstwhile supporters turn against them for indiscriminate use of terror.

When a group or community feels that the preservation of its identity or way of life is threatened by a stronger group, community or state and no normal or usual methods of redressing its grievance will be effective, it takes resort to violence or terrorism to achieve its cherished objectives. Irish Catholics resorted to terror against Protestant England when they failed to have their way in Northern Ireland. Palestinians took to terrorism when the state of Israel was established on their land by displacing them.

Near at home, the poor and backward tribals resent their dispossession from land by better off and more advanced non-tribals. They are angry with the State for failing to protect them. Such resentment comes handy to the extremists who promise to their folks that they would throw away the ruling establishment and bring about autonomy or independence so that they can live with dignity and without fear of oppression from outsiders. Moreover, people of the North- east also resent the dominance of the people from outside their states in much sought after positions in bureaucracy and in the business and industrial sector. The militant groups mobilise the resentment of the people against the state and are often able to win their passive if not active support for their acts of terrorism against the symbols of establishment such as security forces, Government employees and public.

Although conditions for rise of terrorism exist in many parts of the country, it finds favourable environment to grow in States located near the international border. For one thing, terrorists can hit the targets and then escape into a foreign country without any apprehension of being chased or arrested in that country. Secondly, they get arms, training, strategic and financial support from the bordering country which will always like to see it neighbour in trouble. Thus, most terrorist groups in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir receive covert and overt support from the bordering Pakistan while the insurgents of North-east have their sanctuaries and training camps across the borders in Bangladesh and Mynamar.

The L.T.T.E. (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) could emerge as a menacing group in Sri Lanka with the support of people of Tamil origin not only in the bordering India but also from Tamils living in other countries of the world including Great Britain.

Enemy’s intelligence agencies are actively engaged in helping the terrorists with money and arms. The AK 47 rifles, mortars and rockets recovered from slain militants show the extent of money spent by foreign agencies in arming the terrorists. The camps in foreign territory provide safe, prolonged and reliable hideouts to the extremists. The new recruits are given systematic and exhaustive training in use of arms. Diplomatic efforts to persuade the border countries to demolish the camps have met with very limited success in case of Bangladesh while these have totally failed in case of Pakistan. Perhaps, it will be difficult to efface terrorism without achieving normalcy and friendliness in our relations with the bordering countries.

Terrorists fighting for secession from the mainland or for greater autonomy initially target the security forces of the country to demoralise the opponent. They ambush the army and police vehicles killing security personnel and seizing arms and ammunition to add to their firing power. It serves two purposes. First it establishes among their supporters their credibility to challenge the organised armed forces of the country. Secondly, it causes demoralisation in the ranks of Government as well as the opponents of the terrorists’ cause who fulminate against the terrorists but have no effective response to their elusive guerilla tactics. The security forces are not as unconstrained and motivated to engage in battle against the terrorists as they would against the enemy across the border.

Terrorists are very often their own countrymen and the Law requires that they should be arrested and prosecuted in conformity with the procedures and formalities prescribed in the law of the land. Moreover, they are, many a time, so much mixed up with the local population that an operation against terrorists may inconvenience or even endanger the lives of innocent or passive sympathisers. Security forces fighting insurgency in Mizoram in the sixties and seventies of thes last century had to resort to the system of grouping of villages which caused great inconvenience to the villagers in performing their daily chores or tasks relating to their livelihood. All the villagers were required to work in fields and workplace up to a specified time.

These timings were strictly enforced by the security forces. Many people, so long indifferent to the cause of terrorists, were annoyed with security forces and as a reaction they withdrew their willing cooperation from them.

Worsening economic conditions and growing unemployment in Border States enable the terrorists to get a ready crop of fresh recruits. Educated and unemployed youth often swell the ranks of the terrorists. They join them not always out of conviction. Very often they are fed up with their unproductive, unemployed status and join the militants for money and adventure. Bureaucracy is neither sensitive to people’s problems nor responsive to their needs and demands. People, therefore hardly identify with the state. They either remain indifferent when some sections of restive population takes up arms against the repressive authorities or provide them with moral or financial support.

There are no short-cuts in the difficult task of combating terrorism. The authorities should analyse the causes of growing disaffection against the establishment with an open mind. The genuine problems should be taken up immediately and earnestly for finding their short term and long term solution. Such a sincere response will bring the people sitting on the fence to the side of the establishment thus eroding the support for the terrorists substantially. When the right thinking and patriotic citizens are enlisted on the side of the Government, the obstinate, antinational terrorists can be defeated in their designs.