26/11 and after

Fifteen years after the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai, India paused on Sunday to look back in anger, but with a sense of palpable relief. Several emerging trends effectively neutralised the sway of terrorism in the subcontinent and at the global level. Acting in unison here was the presence of a relatively strong government that has, through sustained efforts, worked at multiple levels to effect a turnaround vis-à-vis the terror scenario in India. Overall there’s a sigh of relief that things are changing for the better, and this is evident even in the testing terrains of Kashmir, where life is steadily getting back to normal. The 2008 serial strikes by Pakistan-based terrorists at multiple landmarks in Mumbai had killed 175 persons and injured over 300 in running battles punctuated by 12 incidents of coordinated shootings for four days at a stretch. Terrorists held the whole of India on tenterhooks and a shocked nation was stunned into silence for a full week. The central government headed by Manmohan Singh sat back and blinked for the most part. India, with all its might, was simply unprepared to face up to a handful of terrorists – as had also been the case when China ran into the unguarded territories in 1962 and annexed large swathes of land. When Pakistani terrorists aided by the ISI military outfit stormed the western commercial metropolis in 2008, India had the option to take on Pakistan militarily and effect collateral damage. But, silence was India’s response. By contrast, India retaliated in less than a fortnight after the Pulwama terrorist attack on a CRPF convoy. It flew military jets deep into Pakistan, close to their military headquarter in Rawalpindi, and rained bombs on terror camps in Balakot. This was the time for Pakistan to experience shame and shock. This also effectively called the bluff of Pakistan’s loudmouth generals who had, in the past, threatened India with nuclear bomb attacks should India dare to cross the borders. The ISI and its generals are yet to recover from that nerve-chilling shock, leave alone the weak political establishment there. Alongside, the global terror scenario has also changed for the better with hard-edged US actions targeting terror networks in Islamic nations. There has been a lull in terrorist camps both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Syria neutralized the IS networks and the US exterminated their masterminds one by one. What’s special about terror networks is they cannot sustain their energy for long, set against the huge military might of nations. Instant revolutions had unsettled and overthrown some dictators in the Islamic world. But, even in Sri Lanka, the LTTE lost its steam when a tough leadership took charge of the island nation.