Terror stalks India's progress
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Terrorists are targeting areas
at the forefront of India's economic progress. A
major tragedy was averted on Monday when police in
the information-technology (IT) hub of Hyderabad
foiled a plot to trigger bomb blasts by the
Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
The
plots, which included suicide bombings, targeted
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the two states that
lead the software and outsourcing boom in the
country. Police seized 14 kilograms of explosives
and said two arrested terrorists were planning to
attack the office of the city's police chief,
police headquarters and buildings housing top IT
companies.
The
arrests follow last week's shootout at the
prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in
Bangalore, considered India's Silicon Valley. A
well-known Delhi professor was killed and several
others injured.
The assailants barged into
the well-guarded campus in a car and opened fire
at delegates comprising India's top scientists who
had assembled for a seminar. The terrorists fired
from an AK-56 rifle and lobbed grenades, a clear
indication they were well trained. Police said
they suspected the attack to be the work of the
banned Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), considered a front
of al-Qaeda and with origins in Pakistan.
Analysts and intelligence reports have
been emphasizing that terrorists are likely to
attack symbols of India's technological might and
economic success. The winter months are the most
likely for such attacks to be orchestrated as the
usual terrain of operation of terrorists in Indian
Kashmir becomes inhospitable because of snow.
Attacking software hubs hits at one of the
most international symbols of Indian success and
can set off a wave of panic reactions from
potential foreign investors as well as
multinationals, which can hobble the rapid pace of
India's economic progress. Such economic and
cultural destabilization can only be the handiwork
of international terror outfits that seek out
targets that inflict maximum damage to people as
well as pass on a symbolic message. After the
events of September 11, 2001, economic terrorism
has been the hallmark of al-Qaeda attacks whether
in Kenya, Bali, Morocco, Turkey or Egypt.
October witnessed the worst terrorist
attack on the Indian capital New Delhi, where
serial bomb blasts, including one in a busy
market, left 62 dead and more than four times that
number injured, with more than 30 in critical
condition. The attacks took place at the height of
the festival season, when business is brisk.
In a bid to allay fears after the
Bangalore shooting, the National Association of
Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said in a
statement: "The Indian IT industry already has in
place many security measures. This incident
emphasizes the need to review and upgrade these.
NASSCOM and the IT industry will work, in
collaboration with the police and government,
towards tightening security measures to create a
safer working environment for the industry."
A national newspaper said: "The country is
waking up to a new reality - its success in IT and
concomitant economic boom has excited malice in
certain quarters, who would like to attack symbols
of that success. Within the frame of this inchoate
rage against modernity, an international
conference of scientists [at the IISc] is also a
target."
Bangalore, apart from Hyderabad
and Chennai, has been described as a prime target
- the garden city of 6.5 million people is home to
more than 1,500 technology and back-office
outsourcing firms, including global giants such as
Intel, Motorola and IBM. The city accounts for a
third of India's US$25 billion software and
offshoring business that employs more than a
million people. Several Indian defense, space and
scientific research institutions are also based in
the city.
The federal Ministry of Home
Affairs warned four years ago that the city could
be a prime target of terrorists with installations
there such as the Defense Research and Development
Organization (DRDO). In December 2004, police
unearthed a plot to attack software offices in
Bangalore.
Some observers have also drawn
a link between Pakistan's efforts, with the help
of China, to ramp up its IT industry and the
attacks in India. China and Pakistan have enjoyed
strong relations that include close military
exchanges. With the US having identified India as
the only country to match the might of China in
the Asian region, analysts say Beijing by default
will reach out to Islamabad to curb India, if
needed. And in the changed global scenario,
economic might counts as much as military strength
to win friends and strategic partners.
However, the predominant thought among
security agencies in India is that the top
Pakistani establishment, including President
General Pervez Musharraf, is for peace - at least
for now. It is the middle and lower levels that
have long fed off the spoils of a proxy war with
India that are the main threat. These will have to
be tackled by India independent of Islamabad's
ability or predilection to take them on.
Officials also say Pakistan is not the
only front through which terrorists manage their
operations in India, especially in the south,
which leads the IT boom. Bangladesh is being seen
as an important base, with both the JeM and LeT
active in the country, with direct links to Saudi
Arabia instead of Pakistan.
Last year, the
annual report of India's Ministry of Defense said
Pakistan and China have been replaced by
Bangladesh as the country that India needs to
guard against the most.
The US "war on
terrorism" has concentrated its efforts in
Pakistan and Afghanistan, the report said.
Although India has repeatedly warned against
Bangladesh turning into a terrorist hideout, the
US considers the battlefront to be elsewhere, thus
providing a free run for extremists in India.
Proximity with the military regime in
Myanmar, with its poor record against terror
outfits as well as a weak law-enforcing apparatus,
has made the situation worse.
The LeT has
a history of orchestrating attacks in India, and
its cadres are well connected as well as very
savvy with computers and other high-tech gadgets,
making them very difficult to track. Attacks
include an attempt to storm the Indian parliament
on December 13, 2001, which triggered a military
standoff with Pakistan and brought the neighbors
close to a fourth war; India also holds the LeT
responsible for killing 37 and injuring more than
80 Hindu devotees assembled for prayer in
September 2002 at the Akshardham temple in the
state of Gujarat. The attacks were seen as revenge
killings in retaliation for the communal riots in
the state earlier the same year in which more than
2000 Muslims were killed.
The LeT
terrorists are also known to seek out cultural
ambassadors. According to reports, international
stars such as New Zealand's Russell Crowe are
targets. Indian cricketers such as Sachin
Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly have been provided
elaborate security because of the threats they
face.
Security agencies have their task
cut out.
Siddharth Srivastava is
a New Delhi-based journalist.
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