Era of the Educated Terrorist

Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyeba has emerged as a trusted ally of both Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and is one of the lethal tools in the hands of its handlers to torment India. And, it’s only getting more informed by the day

With the impregnable American fortress having breached on Monday when two high-intensity bombs ripped through the finish line at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring several others, notice has been served that no one is ever really safe. While US federal authorities are yet to determine who caused the attack, there is no doubt that it was an incident of terrorism — the first on American soil since September 11, 2001.

In hindsight, the fact that the Boston Marathon was targeted makes complete sense. It is a major international event that marks an important patriotic holiday and conveniently brings together thousands of people into a relatively small place. Yet, it is safe to say that few would have realistically expected an attack to happen. In fact, there was no prior intelligence input even, at least from the information available at this point.

Clearly, in times such as these there is no scope for complacency; even when the situation seems to get better, when there is a feeling that one may have turned a corner; beware the shadowy figure that lurks in the corner.

There is a lesson in this for India too. While unlike the US, this country has suffered a series of terror attacks both before and after the Mumbai carnage of 2008, supposedly India’s ‘9/11’, the situation has been markedly different in Jammu & Kashmir. The past three years especially have brought peace dividends to the State and insurgency in Kashmir is no longer at the levels that it was in the late 90s. Many counter-terrorism and regional experts believe that this drop in insurgent activity in Kashmir has much to do with the war in Afghanistan. According to them, when the US-led Nato forces landed in Afghanistan, they hogged much of the attention of Pakistan-trained militants who were earlier pre-occupied with Kashmir.

More than a decade later, now that those forces are preparing to leave Afghanistan, there is good reason for the militants to re-focus on Kashmir. Add to this mix Pakistan’s deteriorating domestic situation and it becomes increasingly evident that Islamabad might turn up the heat in Kashmir, so as to re-direct attention from domestic problems. In fact, regional observers are still trying to decide if the flare-up along the Line of Control in January that saw Pakistani soldiers kill two Indian soldiers, one of whom was beheaded, could be a sign of things to come. If this is indeed the case, and the Pakistani establishment sees more value in re-igniting the conflict in Kashmir, then it is pretty much a given that Islamabad will turn to terror organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and others to do its bidding.

The LeT especially has emerged as a trusted ally of the Pakistani establishment, and is one of the lethal tools in the hands of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It was only earlier this month that Admiral Samuel Locklear, Commander of the US Pacific Command, told American lawmakers during a Congressional hearing that the “Lashkar-e-Tayyeba remains one, if not the most operationally capable, terrorist groups through all of South Asia.” This should be a matter of deep concern for India. Not only did the LeT mastermind the 26/11 attack, it has historically been the primary fighting force in Kashmir. Even today, LeT militants are trained to fight in Kashmir which is also where most eventually die, as a recent US military report has found.

In fact, there is now increasing consensus that the LeT is planning to go big and global. The spectacular manner in which it laid a three-day siege upon the city of Mumbai and co-ordinated from a safe distance a complex terror attack that included multiple high profile targets, is just one example of how the group is looking beyond the low-level war of attrition that it has been waging in Kashmir. In recent years, the LeT has also been linked to some international plots and is known to recruit Westerners to its campaign as well.

It is against this backdrop that the study conducted by Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point, a US military think-tank, profiling LeT militants, makes compulsory reading for anyone trying to gain a more organic and intrinsic understanding of this militant organisation, and shape an appropriate response towards it. The study, titled, ‘The Fighters of Lashkar-e-Taiba: Recruitment, Training, Deployment and Death’, looks into the biographical profiles of killed LeT militants, as available in four Urdu-language publications brought out by the LeT between 1994 and 2007, alongside media reports.

For one, it demolishes the myth that it is the poor and the illiterate from Pakistani society who join the Lashkar and shows that the opposite is more true. In fact, the LeT has been attracting the brightest and best minds of Pakistan, and Lashkar recruits actually have higher educational levels than the average Pakistani male. For example, 44.3 per cent of militants entering the LeT had completed matriculation or studied up to Class 10, whereas, nationally, only 17 per cent of the Pakistani population reached that level of education, according to Government estimates. Clearly, the time has come to revisit the commonly-held equation between education and militancy.

Adding another twist to this tale is the matter of religious versus non-religious education. The study shatters the myth that it is the madarsas in Pakistan that breed terrorists. Instead, it finds that most Lashkar recruits come from secular educational backgrounds. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they received no religious education at all. All Pakistani schools include some form of Islamic study in their curricula; also, many students receive religious education outside their schools.

However, even taking these factors into consideration, the study found that, while madarsa education may complement a young militant’s studies, it is not an effective substitution. In fact, in many cases it is only after the terror recruits have joined the Lashkar that they receive a high dose of religious education, which leads to their being brainwashed.

Additionally, the study has also found that often LeT recruits were even connected to the Pakistani Army. In fact, there is an intriguing overlap in the districts (mostly of Punjab) that contribute the most number of LeT militants and those that produce the maximum number of Army officers. Now, factor into this equation the fact that according to the study, family members play a crucial role in a young recruit’s decision to join the LeT, and the picture becomes increasingly dark and murky. What emerges before us is the shadow of an enduring terror organisation that attracts high-quality recruits, appeals to their families and enjoys the trust of an entire country.

(This article was published in the Op-ed section of The Pioneer on April 18, 2013.)

Let Them Reap What They Sowed

There is already legitimate fear that, as the besieged Jamaati leadership of Bangladesh seeks refuge in India, it will be welcomed with open arms by unscrupulous elements to foment communal trouble here. That must not be encouraged

The March 30 rally organised in support of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh by a group of Islamist parties in Kolkata was, unfortunately, largely overlooked by the national media. Yet, those who cared to scan through the news capsules have been rightly alarmed by this blatant display of support for a group of men responsible for the massacre of three million people. Between the months of March and December 1971, the Jamaatis’ razakar militia collaborated with the Pakistani Army to squash the nationalist Bengali movement in what was then East Pakistan. In the process, they raped, maimed and killed millions, burnt down entire villages and displaced millions more.

Four decades later, a handful of those razakars are finally being brought to book, thanks to the war crimes trial initiated by the Government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. However, if the coalition of Islamic organisations in Kolkata have their way, the likes of Jamaat-e-Islami vice-president Delware Hussain Sayeedi (whose crimes during 1971 earned him the nickname ‘Butcher of Mirpur’) and his brand of merry men will go scot free, never to be held accountable for their heinous actions.

Members of the Islamist coalition — that includes groups such as the All-Bengal Muslim Youth Federation, the Sunnat-ul-Jama’at, the Madrasa Student Union and the Welfare Party of India, among others — that gathered at the Shahid Minar grounds in central Kolkata this past weekend, believe that the trial against Sayeedi and other Jamaat leaders is unfair and politically motivated. Specifically, they remain opposed to the death sentence handed down to Sayeedi, the senior-most Jamaati in Bangladesh, who they argue is being persecuted for his religious and political beliefs.

Now, the Islamists in Kolkata are by no means the first or the only group of people to claim that the trial is unjust. Others have also said that Bangladesh’s international war crimes tribunal does not always meet global standards; but then again, the tribunal, for the most part, has credibly defended itself against these allegations. Even then, it is one thing to hold the legal processes of the tribunal to scrutiny and quite another to say that Sayeedi and his ilk committed no crimes at all, which is exactly what the Jamaat supporters would like you to believe. In fact, Syed Jalaluddin Umari, the chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, which is the Indian franchise of the Jamaati party, has even gone so far as to say that there were no war crimes at all during the 1971 war.

Such a perversion of the truth is, no doubt, both appalling and infuriating; yet, it is by no means illegal. In a democratic country such as ours, there is space — political, social and constitutional — for the peaceful expression of even the most virulent of opinions. To that extent, the protesters were well within their rights to hold a rally, even if it was to support mass murderers. But as galling as that may have been, it was perhaps still not as morally reprehensible as the deafening silence maintained by the political establishment of West Bengal on the issue. Indeed, in the several days that have passed since the March 30 rally, neither of the State’s two main political outfits — the Trinamool Congress or the Left Front — has thought it fit to offer a counter-response.

Interestingly, this is despite the fact that the average Bengali, including the vast majority of Bengali Muslims, remains vehemently opposed to the Jamaatis and their brand of politics. For instance, the chief of the one of the Islamist groups Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Maulana Siddiqullah Chowdhury, who has made no secret about his support for the likes of Sayeedi, was routed in the 2011 Assembly election. He was contesting from the Domkol constituency of Murshidabad district, which is almost 90 per cent Muslim, and yet he managed to secure less than three per cent of the votes. He had played the religion card to the fullest.

Moreover, mainstream Bengali society has come out in whole-hearted support of the Shahbagh protesters — as is evidenced by the many exhibitions, panel discussions and cultural events that have been organised in Kolkata and elsewhere to show solidarity for Bengalis across the border. So, why then are those who have been elected by this same society and claim to represent Bengal, so reluctant to rein in fringe elements and speak up for the majority of the people?

The answer, as expected, lies in the dirty details of vote-bank politics. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress rode to power on the back of minority votes. In fact, Islamist organisations played an important role in mobilising public support during the Singur protests which proved to be the game-changer in the 2011 Assembly election. Expectedly, therefore, Ms Banerjee has spent the past two years engaging in the worst kind of minority appeasement politics that there can be, and her Government’s silent support for the Jamaati supporters is only further proof of that.

As for the Left Front, do not forget that this Muslim vote-bank was traditionally its own, and that the Front will do nothing to further alienate this group, given that it already lost some part of the pie to the Trinamool. There is nothing new in this kind of cynical vote-bank politics — indeed, it is the routine in the country; yet, the moral bankruptcy of Bengal’s political establishment that has been reflected in its decision to maintain such a conspiracy of silence, is deeply disturbing.

Equally worrying also is the implications this might have on India’s national security. With the protests in Bangladesh only gaining in strength, the Jamaatis there have also notched up their game. Their ‘march to Dhaka’ that has been scheduled for later this week that is expected to unleash yet another round of violence and bloodshed is proof of this. The Government of Bangladesh, in response, has also intensified its crackdown on the Jamaatis, and there is enough evidence to suggest that the latter are already fleeing their country and moving into India. In fact, Indian troops along the porous Bangladesh border have already been put on high alert to tackle the crisis.

It in against this backdrop that a section of Muslim Bengalis’ support for the Jamaatis, and the tacit support they receive from the Government of West Bengal, becomes hugely problematic. There is already legitimate fear that, as the Jamaati leadership of Bangladesh seeks refuge in India, it will be welcomed with open arms only to foment communal tensions in the near future. Add to this mix, news reports that Bangladesh’s police believes that the terror group, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, is also being revived under the leadership of Jamaat leaders in coordination with some Afghan war veterans, and the situation seems definitively terrifying.

(This article was published in the Op-ed section of The Pioneer on April 4, 2013.)