The sole purpose of terrorism is to terrorise us. It is to create fear, gut wrenching fear, and spread panic everywhere. If terrorists can’t get that right, if they can’t whip up enough fear and hysteria, their entire purpose is defeated. All the bloodshed, all the deaths add up to nothing and people forget the tragedy as quickly as they forget a bus falling into a ravine or a train toppling over at high speed. The statistics of death don’t scare us any more. What scares us is the way it happened.
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That’s the difference between an accident, an Act of God, and a terrorist strike, though some fanatics would like us to believe that a terrorist strike is an Act of God. It is not. It is just another criminal act, plotted and planned by criminals, and often executed by some foolish, misled young men who are angry with life and society. There was a time, when I would have added the word poor to describe them. No longer. The kind of people who plot, plan and execute terror acts are no more poor, illiterate, foolish people who have been misguided by criminals masquerading as religious or political leaders. As Kasab told the courts, he was sold off to the Lashkar by his father when he was a kid. He grew up indoctrinated.
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Today’s terrorists are a different lot altogether. They are smart, educated, well brought up young men and women who have wilfully taken to terrorism to fight for what they see as their cause. To defeat them is not easy and, as time goes on, it will become even more difficult because they are no longer people you can easily recognise or would even suspect as potential terrorists. Many of them are white. Some come from affluent Western families. No, they are no longer recruited from poor, third world nations. Terrorists come today dressed in Armani suits, flaunting Ivy League badges. Surprise is their secret weapon. That’s how their first axiom is best served, to spread gut wrenching fear. That’s what gets them the headlines.
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Headlines are what terrorists die for. Headlines and non-stop television coverage. That’s why 9/11 was such a great success for them. That’s why 12/10 in Bali, 7/7 in London, 26/11 in Mumbai were such famous strikes. The recent bomb blasts in Peshawar and Rawalpindi are no match. They were just messages to the ISI from their former protégés, to warn the Pakistan establishment that they won’t let them rest in peace as long as they play surrogate to the US army in return for billions of dollars in aid. It’s never easy to pull back the demons you unleash. Yes, people are dying in these terror attacks. There’s lots of bloodshed. Women, children, ordinary people are getting drawn into this tragic vortex of violence. But none of this is as important as headlines. Headlines create fear, panic, terror. For terrorists, headlines are everything.
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So every time we revive memories of 26/11, show hours and hours of TV coverage, write long scary articles on how terrorism has destroyed our lives and liberties, we are actually encouraging the terrorists, helping them build their superstructure of fear. Terrorists do not need to celebrate the success of 9/11 or 26/11. We are doing it for them, even as we weep for the victims and tell the world that we are better prepared to face future strikes. Let’s not kid ourselves. Terrorism is the scourge of our times and no Government, no police force is ever adequately equipped to anticipate it. The more we talk about the pain, the horror, the memories of these terrible events, the more the perpetrators celebrate, the more they go down in history as villains or heroes, depending on who is providing the perspective, and to whom. In the wilds of tribal Pakistan where the Taliban is schooling its recruits, Kasab is a hero and his dead colleagues, martyrs to the Cause.
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It’s important, therefore, to treat such anniversaries with caution and circumspection. We don’t really need to overload the nation with cardiac stress. 26/11 was a terrible tragedy and also a moment of amazing heroism. We lost some of our finest policemen and many innocent people who had no reason to die. But our future lies not in recalling its memories and reassuring the rascals who perpetrated it that they had struck home and caused us unforgettable pain. It’s no use crying over our failures, our mistakes. It’s important to be prepared for the future, as prepared as we can possibly be, but it’s even more critical to move on with our lives, show the world we are not afraid. Terrorism may hurt us but it cannot break our spirit, our resolve. Therein lies our courage, our wisdom as a nation.
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And therein lies defeat for those who use terrorism as their weapon.
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