Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “The Menace of Terrorism and Ways to Combat It” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The Menace of Terrorism and Ways to Combat It

Terrorism is not new phenomenon. It has been with us for years. Even in the very first century there were groups based on religion, operating in Palestine. The assassins feeding on hashish, terrorised the population in eleventh century. But over the years the face of terrorism has changed. It has become more lethal, more widespread more difficult to control.

Terrorism is the threat or use of violence for political purpose when action is intended to influence the act and behaviour of a specifically target group other than the immediate victim and its ramifications transcend national boundaries. Contemporary terrorist grous are less organized than their for bearers and their depredations are unorganized acts with political motivation. At the same time they are implacable, less structured and more difficult. The unpredictability of terrorism magnifies the effect of nature of the threat and makes it difficult to predict.

Terrorist groups have sprung up everywhere and there are too many targets. They shift the focus to soft targets like schools, trains, buses.

Technological advances have helped the modern terrorists to arm themselves with small, and easy to operate weapons. Terrorists are also unreasonably making use of bombs and explosives. Semtase is awesome and gruesome weapon of today’s terrorists. Detection of the perpetrators becomes almost impossible.

The most awesome trend in terrorism is its crualization. The terrorist groups are without compassion or ethical consideration. Moral scruples do not weight with them, they are mostly cold blooded murderers for whom there are no moral standards. More than 50% of attacks are directed against people rather than property. It is clearly because attacks on people get full attention.

Today, terrorist groups have global making or establish contact with groups in different countries. Today the focus has shifted from the ideological and anarchist brand of terrorism to so called nationalist, separatist religious and ethnic variety. Both religion and ethnicity have become dynamic forces. India is having to control with this kind of terrorists in different regions. Another form is economic terrorism which includes mass counterfeiting and mass fraud. Women have become victims of violence and are often forced into prostitutes.

 The nexus between terrorists and drug barons is another alarming trend. The Shiang Path Peru is an example of terrorist narcotics, smuggling link. The nexus is more under cover but certainly exists in India. The fact that the country is placed between two drug producing regions the golden triangle of Myanmar Thailand and Laos, and the golden crescent of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan is a cause of concern to the world. An ideology is grafted on to give the trade a certain legitimacy Narcotics dealers have enough funds to finance the terrorists who require ready cash to procure weapons. These weapons are also easily brought with the help of infrastructure set up by the drug smugglers.

Terrorists are today adopting Mafia tactics. They extort production money from businessman to fund their activities. Sometimes ethnopolitical terrorists groups get help from foreign government which exploit the genuine or imaginary grievances of the terrorists. However hostile governments can not create the necessary grievances or potential terrorists where they do not exist. It is unfortunate perhaps, that the conditions political or socio-economic that encourage the growth of terrorism are now existent in several regions. There is religious revival growing out of dissatisfaction of existing corruption and communism. It soon grows in to rigid mould of fundamentalism, If political infighting and instability again provide suitable ground for the growth of ter-rorist groups. Socio economic conditions of rising unemployment lack of opportunity to earn a livelihood, growing awareness of inequality in distribution of wealth and well being, exploitation at the hands of powers that-be-these factors create a situation which encourages youth to join terrorist groups and others to support them. With the proliferation of such conditions there is spread and growth of terrorist groups in several regions of the world.

It needs to be emphasised that these groups lack the ideological and moral fervor that prompted the terrorists of an earlier era. The idealism is superficial now, beneath this terrorism the lust for power lies. This explains the mushrooming of many terrorist groups espousing the same cause witnessed in Afghanistan or our own Kashmir.

Democratic states find it difficult to deal with terrorist groups because of freedom of movement in a democracy; soft targets come in handy for terrorists. The terrorist take full advantage of the rights and freedom granted in such a system and cynically exploit them. The media too publish terrorist attack and gives the groups the publicity they desire. The terrorists of today find it smooth with human rights groups speaking up for them and with modern means of communications and transport within their easy reach.

The terrorist groups are now decentralised and can spread their tentacles anywhere and everywhere. The modern face of terrorism can- be combated only by a superior intelligence network. Indeed intelligence is the key to decide the tactics to be employed to deal with the actual tactics of terrorists. The law enforcing machinery has to gear up, think faster and anticipate the moves of the terrorists. Ultimately, whatever short term tactics are employed, the conditions that give rise to terrorism should be tackled and that can be done only on a political plane.