The route to terrorism in India starts from Pakistan — and this is a well-documented saga. The arrest of six members of a module from Delhi and nearby states this week by a special cell of the Delhi Police and their interrogation showed they were unleashed by the D-Company with backing from ISI, the notorious Pakistani military intelligence. Their assignment was to cause blasts and attacks during the Hindu festival season in the national capital and also in UP and Maharashtra. If these were to happen, the situation would be tailor-made for a huge communal flare-up across the northern parts of India and elsewhere too.
The police and intelligence establishment deserve praise for their professionalism vis-à-vis checking terrorist attacks in the country in recent years. Outside of Kashmir Valley, terrorist attacks are rare now and several modules attempting such outrage have been busted. The central government deserves praise for the alert it maintains in this respect. Notably, however, India’s response to Pakistani machinations of this kind — happening repeatedly and most prominently in the attacks on military establishments in Pathankot and Uri; and not to go farther to the serial Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008 – has been disastrous. The Pulwama attack in which large numbers of CRPF personnel were killed was neither here nor there. The highly publicized military retaliation in Balakot had been a tame affair; and Pakistan claimed only some pine trees were lost for them at the bombing spot. There was no response at all from India to the Mumbai attacks. The involvement of the D-Company of Dawood Ibrahim is well-established as also of the Jaish in several of these attacks. The family that hijacked the Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar, took huge ransom money, unloaded it in Dubai and later reached it to further anti-India terror acts from the Pakistani soil, remains well-entrenched in the Islamic nation.
None of India’s efforts through normal channels paid any dividends in terms of bringing such men to book, though entities like Interpol are in existence. But they are of no use even to the US in this respect. This apart, the “unprovoked” border firings from the Pakistani army along the LoC and international border along Kashmir were a common occurrence all through the Modi terms, with some let-up of late. Now, as per information obtained from the arrested men in Delhi, several Bangladeshis too had been trained in Pakistan and sent to India for terrorist acts during the festival season. They are at large. This is time for high alert.
