Terrorists breeding most in riot-hit areas

Subodh Varma & Rema Nagarajan

21 Sep 2008

NEW DELHI: One of the questions troubling security experts and government agencies in the context of growing incidents of terror attacks is the origins of the terrorists.

Going by results of investigations, most of these terrorist hail from states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat.

There are reports of cells in these states, which provide logistic support, training grounds and the personnel to carry out the actions. In many cases, the locations of these places are unexpected. How and why are youths from small towns in these states getting influenced by the ideology of violence?

Undoubtedly, there is a complex set of circumstances contributing to the evolution of terrorists. But a disturbing truth emerges if one looks at the recent history of communal relations in various states. Between 2001 and 2007, over 71% of all communal incidents in the country took place in the very same states where these terrorists hail — that is Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, MP and UP.

Of the people killed in these communal incidents, an overwhelming 85% per cent were in these states. This exceptionally high proportion is partly due to the Gujarat carnage, which saw nearly 3,000 people, mostly Muslims, killed after the Godhra train-burning incident. But even if one excludes Gujarat, more than two-thirds of all deaths in communal incidents in the rest of the country during this period were in Maharashtra, UP, MP or Karnataka.

Several states, like Assam, West Bengal and Kerala, have a high Muslim population and yet do not display such tensions on anything like the same scale. In fact, Assam and Bengal have a huge problem of illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Yet neither has a recent history of communal violence of the scale witnessed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, etc.

And, neither do these states seem to have thrown up sizeable numbers of Islamist terrorists. In fact, where the intelligence or police have accused Bangladeshi migrants of being involved in terrorist activities, they were allegedly working with people from essentially the same states on which we are focusing here, apart from Andhra Pradesh.

It appears, therefore, that there is some correlation between the areas from where terrorists are arising and the deep sense of siege and fear that follows communal violence. The fact that in most cases of communal riots, the perpetrators have got away scot free even where they have been identified obviously only makes matters worse.

This alienation, when tapped and played upon by fundamentalist forces, may be creating a distorted desire for some kind of revenge. For instance, in Gujarat some of the accused in the Ahmedabad bomb blasts were directly affected by the riots of 2002 where mobs burnt down their houses, schools or college.

In a chronology of major communal incidents in India collated by the Institute of Peace & Conflict Studies, the same states show a much higher number of incidents of communal riots in the period between 1989 and 2003. This period coincides with the rise of fundamentalism in the country, led by the VHPs movement relating to Ayodhya, and the watershed year of 1992 when Babri Masjid was demolished by kar sevaks of various Hindu fundamentalist organizations like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal.

So, for those born since the 1980s, especially in these states, communal conflagration and the toxic propaganda that accompanies it must have been a constant background as they grew up. The fact that the Muslim community in the country is generally more afflicted with poverty, unemployment and lack of education would also contribute to youths being more susceptible to calls by fundamentalists for revenge.

Source: The Times of India, New Delhi

URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/terrorists-breeding-most-riot-hit/d/770