Essay on “The Global Network of Terrorism” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The Global Network of Terrorism

We are the ‘people’ of this world.

We are the superior creatures and can

even touch God’s feet.

We are happy and satisfied too, to live as

God’s beautiful creation.

Terrorism is a wide concept. It may be precisely defined as  “any act or means of putting any individual or the entire human race at an alarm by the fear of danger to its very existence by any violent or terrorizing act.”

‘Ahimsa param dharma’—the mantra given by Gandhiji by which he ended 150 years of mighty British rule in India—today seems an archaic belief which no longer carries any utility. Napoleon the greatest name known of the French Revolution, finally settled with the view that the human spirit was above any sword.

In order to slake their thirst for peace, Gautam Buddha and Lord Mahavira who lived lavish lives as kings abandoned their wealth and kingship. Mauryan king Ashoka the Great, holds the title of being the great, not for the conquests he had made through bloodshed, but for abandoning all forms of bloodshed for attaining peace.

However, the poignant reality is that peace today has become a subject to be discussed in conferences and summits and all endeavours to see it prevail have been futile as violence has made its way to establish its diabolic might. And the world seems to follow the magician who has mesmerized it with his magical spell -and alas! Blinded the entire human race perverting it from its true destiny. Bloodsheds, massacres, kidnapping, etc. are on the rise and Mother Earth seems to be tired of grappling with the nasty malady.

Today, terrorism has become a global problem though its existence was felt in India long before it attracted international attention. It has been more than a decade now that India is fighting terrorism on its own like a waif child where the rest of the world shut their eyes to all that was happening. Kingpins of terrorism were the potent weapons of the powerful nations on the strength of whom they plotted to keep a hold on the other nations but little did they realize that snakes are not to be tamed.

The impact of terrorism till the late nineties was felt only in some Asian nations like India, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Thousands of people were killed and lakhs wounded; killing became a diurnal activity in this part of the globe.

Trans-border terrorism, internal terrorism and communal riots were putrefying the largest democracy from all sides and the rest of the world, sat viewing the dance of death as spectators. The Talibani rule witnessed by Afghanistan is the most blatant slap on the face of the so-called civilized world, as also the terrorism existent in Sri Lanka. Here came the need of what the old Indian slogan said, The deaf needs a bang to hear° and the bang did happen—the bombing of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan in 1995 the US Embassy boating in Africa in August 1998, and the destruction of twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001 were enough to activate the deaf ears of the Superpowers of the world and they soon realized that they were reaping the harvest of what they had sown.

And this enemy chooses its own time and place, using weapons that even the most powerful nation cannot ever contemplate. It is the civilized world versus the band of terrorists operating from any part of the world that has kept every nation on tenterhooks.

That the ranks of this enemy can recruit suicide squads for the bloody deed makes them more powerful than the atom bomb! How can you threaten to kill someone who is already prepared to die for a cause? Who doesn’t want to save his life? But here are diehards who are eager to become martyrs in the very act of mindless terrorism. Their methodology could be different and the areas of operations might vary from time to time, but their ideology of hatred is too lethal to be countered—acted by the war machinery or by the law and order enforcement agencies of various States. Blind with fury, they use the most vulnerable as the, fodder for their cannon—women, children and the unwary—anywhere in the world.

Among the victims of terrorism, India tops the list—for over fifteen years the militants trained in the camps in different parts of Pakistan and the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have been killing and maiming the innocent citizens and the security personnel in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country as well. The terrorists have their hideouts elsewhere too in the country and in the past few years they have struck in the Akshardham Temple in Gujarat within the Red Fort in Delhi, near the Gateway of India in Mumbai, in the precincts of Indian Parliament, in the busy shopping areas in the Capital during the festivities of Diwali, in Mumbai local trains and at Hyderabad recreation park. Twice we almost came to the brink of a war with Pakistan, the fountainhead of terrorism during the Vajpayee regime, but somehow nothing happened.

That Pakistan has been the breeding center of India specific the US-specific or Britain-specific militancy is known to all—the Indian establishment, the Obama administration and the David Cameron Government. One of the greatest dangers of the Second World War was the policy of appeasement that Neville Chamberlain, the then British Prime Minister, adopted at the beginning of the Second World War.

For the sake of peace and with the country being unprepared for war, he chose initially to follow a pore), of appeasement towards Italy and Germany and signed the Munich Agreement. The US took the same stand of appeasing Pakistani military leadership at a time when the latter was stoking the embers of trans-border terrorism in India, Chechnya and even within the US.

Why did the US go for a policy where it chose to rub shoulders with an abettor instead of exposing the nefarious designs of Pakistan? Nobody can unravel a policy that is a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma to use the phraseology of Winston Churchill.

Both the US and Pakistan worked together to fight enemies which they themselves created—the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. You never know that the Frankenstein you create would one day turn against you. The godfather of Osama never dreamt that one day the Saudi billionaire-turned terrorist would successfully reduce to debris the twin towers of World Trade Centre.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf too is learning the lessons of his life. Pakistan and the rest of the world stood as mute onlookers while India was compelled to set free the hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu and release three terrorists in jail in India in lieu of the lives of the passengers aboard the hijacked aircraft in 1999. The fundamentalists that grew to the proportions of a monstrous Frankenstein are now a great source of danger to the life of Pakistani government itself. Attempts on the military strongman of Pakistan were made twice and Gen. Musharraf himself has been fighting the internal enemy. The Islamic fundamentalists even claimed the former Pakistan Prime Minister Ms. Benazir Bhutto. According to the Pakistani Ministry of the Interior, 30 militant outfits are operating from Karachi alone.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2004 that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped set the stage for the September 11 attacks on the US by cutting deals with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden that allowed Al-Qaeda network to flourish. According to the report, the financial aid to the Taliban and other assistance to two of the most important allies in its war on terror date back to 1996, and appear to have shielded them from Al-Qaeda attacks within their own boundaries until long after the 2001 strikes on the US. Both these countries gave Osama the sanctuary he needed to train tens of thousands of soldiers. The funding by two governments enabled him and his ilk to expand their operations into a global network. Pakistan went several steps further by allowing its military win intelligence agencies to coordinate their plans with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Several times before the September 11 attacks, India bilaterally and multilaterally made it known to the rest of the world that Pakistan remained the epicenter of Islamic fundamentalism being exported to different parts of the world.

In the United Nations (UN) and other world forums leaders are eloquent about global action against terrorism, but do nothing to tackle it globally and every nation—Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco. Indonesia, the Philippines. Britain, Spain and so on—is now paying an exorbitant price for what they did in the past.

The global ambitions of the US to invade Iraq just for the heck of it and subdue Saddam Hussein—in the name of fighting international terrorism and finding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that were not there, only tended to provide the fertile grounds for the more jehadis to emerge. The war was unjustified and was illegal, said even the former Secretary-General of the UN, Mr. Kofi Annan. Spain that toed the American line over the Iraqi war became wiser after a devastating blast in Madrid on March 11. 2004 that left 210 dead and 1.600 injured. The available evidence pointed to Islamic extremists who wanted to avenge Spain for blindly siding with the US and the UK ignoring the massive public opinion which was against the war. The serial explosions in three railway stations in Madrid were triggered by a cell phone. The Socialists that came to power in March 2004 withdrew the Spanish troops from Iraq. Madrid blasts emboldened the Al-Qaeda that warned that its next targets could be Japan, Italy, Britain or Australia.

No nation ever takes seriously the writings on the wall and so Britain was-caught napping when terrorists blew up a bus and exploded a bomb in the tube railway in July 2005, killing more than forty and injuring a hundred innocent citizens, shaking the country out of its complacency. Australia seemed lucky as it acted in the nick of time a week just before the foiled attempt Prime Minister Mr. John Howard had said that he had credible information that a terrorist attack was being planned. Australian law enforcing agencies said on November 8, 2005 that they foiled a catastrophic act of terrorism- inspired by a radical Islamic cleric. More than 450 heavily armed officers backed by helicopters swooped on Melbourne and Sydney and they hit upon chemicals similar to those used in July’s London bombings. The police said that the suspects were committed to holy war and prepared to kill Australians and had even planned suicide bombings. Police arrested seven persons in Sydney and nine in Melbourne as a 16-month investigation culminated in raids on more than 20 homes.

Terrorism is one phenomenon that is being planned in different parts of the world every moment and accordingly every government needs to be alert all the while. No doubt, in India too there have been instances where our security forces, the paramilitary forces and even the police have acted swiftly to forestall disasters.

India is a vast country of more than a billion, professing different religions and speaking different languages and it might be difficult to mount such vigilance as is possible for the Homeland Security and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the US. All the same, we cannot take chances as there are insurgents fighting for a square deal in areas such as Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and elsewhere. Naxalites active in more than thirteen States have already struck a deal with Maoists it Nepal.

The most unpredictable thing about terrorism is the uncertainty as to when and where the terrorists will strike. Terrorism is a daily affair in Jammu and Kashmir, but the criminals out to destabilize the country may choose any soft target anywhere to attract greater publicity.

Their vicious plans include insidious designs to stoke communal fires too. India needs to be vigilant all the 24 hours and 365 days. The police in every State, together with the paramilitary forces, need to be given special training to tackle all facets of terrorism. After all, we have to fight the battle all alone as we could not get extradited any of the outlaws including Dawood Ibrahim for a fair trial in India. A mass media campaign has to be mounted to elicit people’s cooperation to report on suspects or suspicious activities in the neighbourhood.

The global network of terrorism could trigger disasters of unpredictable magnitude if any of their outfits secures access to the material for making nuclear bombs. One shudders to think about the consequences but there are countries which pass on such information to such groups. Nations are worried about such possibilities. All this pinpoints the necessity of forging a global front against the terrorist networks. The desperados might do anything. This is why all stand to lose if we fail to work concertedly to deal with a common enemy.

Terrorism is the biggest menace faced by the international community today. It has been posing a serious threat to international peace and security and has made us helpless in the wake of the horrors of violence, bloodshed, destruction, cruelty and deaths. It is not confined to one particular nation: most of the nations in the world are forced to put up with the scourge of terrorism whether it is cross border terrorism, cyber-terrorism, narco-terrorism or any other form of terrorism. Narco-terrorism is the way by which the operations of terrorist groups are financed in various parts of the world, by smuggling narcotics and hence destroying the lives of teenagers.

Terrorists can do anything. They can kidnap people or hijack aeroplane to pressurise for the release of their militant accomplices detained by security forces of some countries. They can kill anyone at anytime. In fact, they are ready to die anytime, by becoming ‘fidayeen’ or suicide bombers.

History of Global Threat

We think about Pakistan whenever we think about terrorism but the origin of international terrorism can be traced back to the year 1948 when the partition of Palestine led to the formation of Israel. The Palestinian leaders refused to accept Israel as a sovereign entity and resorted to terrorism and destruction in the newly formed Israel. During 1960s Red Brigades in Italy, Red Army Faction in the then West Germany and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland started indulging in terrorist activities.

During the Cold War period intense rivalry between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union led to an arms race, making the international systems stressful, thereby resulting in local was ethnic wars, proxy wars and many other forms of terrorism. The intense arms race fanned violent activities in different parts of the world. Some of the nations started supporting, arming and funding militant groups to operate in their rival States.

In the 1980s, a new form of terrorism cropped up which was termed as jehad. Its main motto was to establish a radical form of Islam all over the world. These Islamic jehadi groups came to thrive in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Egypt, Central and West Asia and Middle East. The Afghanistan-Pakistan region turned into grooming ground for jehadis and became responsible for introducing and spreading fundamentalism and terrorism in the Indian states of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

In the 1990s, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, South-East Asia, India and many other nations became the victims of the monster called terrorism. Subsequently, the US and the UK have also joined the list. Can we forget how these militants used the sky for their crimes when they hit the World Trade Centre twin towers or when they hijacked IC 814?

According to a research study conducted by the London Institute of International Security, “About 18,000 potential terrorists are functioning in about 60 countries and there has been a terrifying jump in terrorist incidents …” In short terrorist incidences are on a spurt and terrorism is making its presence globally. In fact, it has emerged as the biggest challenge to civil society.

According to a study undertaken by the Strategic Foresight Group, a think tank based in India, there are 40,000-50,000 madrasas, with the enrollment of two million students, which are being run in Pakistan. Every year about 15,000 men are recruited into those madrasas. The 9/11 Commission Report says, “Some of the madrasas have been used as incubators for violent extremism.’ The tenets of Islam do not favour the killing and slaughter of innocent people but terrorists interpret the teachings of Islam in such a way as would justify their heinous actions.

Today, the network of terrorism has become so strong-that it can destroy any city or many cities in one go. The increase in the number of arms and development of weapons as well as explosives of various kinds together with their easy availability have exposed the world to a grave danger of mass destruction. The thought of weapons and explosives like the AK-47 and RDX scare us. The other big danger is from nuclear bombs. These terrorists can obtain stocks of biochemical weapons, where the chemical agents will destroy more than bullets or bombs can do. These may be nerve agents, blistering agents, or choking agents. The terrorists can infect people with diseases like anthrax, smallpox, botulism or viral fever and no one would have inkling that it is a terrorist attack. Iraq is said to have used mustard gas against Iranians and Kurds in 1980s. We have to deal with this problem quickly and effectively and for this we are increasing our weapons, holding joint defence exercises with other friendly countries and diverting more of our funds into defence. Today, India is one of the 15 largest spenders on defence world-wide.

All countries need to stand up and be united against terrorism as was seen in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks. The European Union and India have signed a political declaration to fight against terrorism united. The countries of the world need to keep all their differences aside and join hands together in fight against terrorism.

Broadly, what needs to be done is to regain arid retain the confidence of people of terrorism-affected areas and help them to forget the-scars of terrorism and to become bold enough to fight it with determination

Classification of Terrorism and its Presence in India

Terrorism may be classified into two categories:

(i) External terrorism

(ii) Internal terrorism

All forms of cross-border terrorism are called external terrorism. Jammu and Kashmir which decided to remain a part of the Indian territory during the partition of India into two nations—India and Pakistan—after India’s freedom, has been the victim of external terrorism.

The border State has been the target of the neighbouring country since its demarcation as a State of India. The demarcation has not suited the neighbour who harbours the intention of deceitfully entering into its neighbour’s land and capture it. The scapegoat of such intention has been the people of the State. Killing of innocents in the name of jehad or the Holy War knew no bounds. The indigent youth of Kashmir are brainwashed in the name of religion by a few nefarious minds instrumenting them against their own land. But the pristine concept of ‘jetted seems to stand miles apart from the so-called jehad of the terrorist groups.

Internal terrorism is the second kind of terrorism. Any form of disturbance or anti-social activity against a State by its own people is called internal terrorism. Such activities may be to fulfill a legal or illegal demand by illegal means. All forms of rioting, activities of mafias or dons or taking up of arms against the State by any group individually or on the backing of any other Slate comes within the ambit of internal terrorism. This type of terrorism seen in the North-Eastern States in India was once prevalent in Punjab. The 1993 Mumbai serial blasts are an instance of internal terrorism.

Causes of Terrorism: The causes of terrorism can be summarized as follows:

• The avid desire of some nations to extend their territories and establish their supremacy and might over other nations.
• Some indignant youths taking up arms against the State on the abutment by certain anti-social elements.
• The indigent conditions or insatiable greed or desire to make quick money making certain sections of people engage in activities against the State.
• Certain educated youths, who though holding high degrees, failing to make way to the job market, thus depressed, their minds becoming malleable and falling easy prey to the anti-State activities who use them against their own States.

India’s Resolve to Combat Cross-border Terrorist: India has realized that the best way to put an end to cross-border terrorism is to maintain an amicable relationship with its neighbour.

Means to Tackle Terrorism: The former Secretary-General of the UN, Mr. Kofi Annan while addressing a conference on “Democracy. Terrorism and Security held in Madrid (Spain) on March 10, 2005, suggested five approaches to tackle terrorism. They are:

The world community must dissuade disaffected groups from choosing terrorism as a tactic. The world community must deny terrorism as a means to carry out their attacks. State must be deterred from supporting terrorist groups. The weak States are exploited by terrorists as here they can hide from arrest and train or recruit personnel. States must, therefore, be made tenable to combo! terrorism. While tackling terrorism, the States should not violate human rights and the rule of law. For if they do so, they are handing out victory on a platter to the terrorists.

Conclusion: The vice of terrorism has crippled our nation. The need of the hour is a unified effort against it. “Wars have won territories, wars have won wealth but no war has ever been known to have won hearts, for the only way to win hearts is through love and peace.”

There are many conventions, articles, laws, etc. but the real convention should be in the heart of every person. If each and every person stops getting terrified and starts resisting terrorism, the blood-shed of innocent people can be prevented.

Let us ourselves become a threat to this global menace so that we can breathe cool and fresh air, free of the stench of burning dead bodies. The day is not far when we will be able to see a wonderful environment where everyone will live in brotherly affection. We will be able to hear the sweet chirping of birds in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility.

“Peace means end of terrorism by an individual or a Slate.”