Saturday, November 29, 2014

Of Terrorism and India's Pakistan Fixation


Of Terrorism and India's Pakistan Fixation Pakistan's state ...

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Sid Harth
3 days ago - Of Terrorism and India's Pakistan Fixation Pakistan's state actors behind attacks in India: Rajnath TNN | Nov 29, 2014, 10.25 AM IST in Share Comments More A A ...

Pakistan’s state actors behind attacks in India: Rajnath

TNN | Nov 29, 2014, 10.25 AM IST

READ MORE Rajanth Singh|Islamic State|Security Conference
IS a challenge, some youths swayed by its ideology: Rajnath
IS a challenge, some youths swayed by its ideology: Rajnath
NEW DELHI: Union home minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday that there may be many terrorist organizations in the world but the government will not allow them to get a foothold in India.

 Addressing the 49th DGPs/IGs conference in Guwahati, the Union home minister raised the issue of ISIS and called it a major security threat.

 "Islamic State is a major challenge. Some youth are swayed by its ideology," Rajnath Singh said.

 The home minister also added that the country is united to fight any anti-national activity. "Muslims fought for India's freedom like Hindus did. Al-Qaida won't succeed in their motives," Rajnath said.

 Talking about the Burdwan blasts, he said that West Bengal police and NIA are playing crucial role in its probe.
Pakistan's state actors behind attacks in India

 Mentioning the attack in Arnia sector in Jammu and Kashmir, the home minister said "Pakistan claims non-state actors are behind such incidents, which is not true."

 Rajnath Singh said state actors of Pakistan are playing a role to destabilize India.

 Eleven people were killed in the gunfight that ended on Friday.
  taslima nasreen @taslimanasreen
Thousands of innocent Muslims & nonMuslims r shot/beheaded by ISIS. Dead bodies look same,can't separate them based on nationality,religion
(Union Home minister Rajnath Singh just before his speech in Guwahati. Photo: PIB/Twitter)

View image on Twitter
HMO India        ✔ @HMOIndia
Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh with Police Medal winners. The HM awarded them medals and certificates today
 (With inputs from PTI, IANS)

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Sid Harth • 2 mins ago
REFERENCES Blo o mberg SB, Hess GD (2010). “From (no) butter to guns? Understanding the economics role in transnational terrorism”. Terrorism, Economic development and politic al openness, Cambridge university press, pp. 83 - 115. Br a i n L (2007). “Draining the swamp: An empirical examination of the production of international terrorism 1968 - 1998”. Conflict Manage. Peace Sci., 24(4): 297 - 310 . David F, Anja S (2010). „An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth‟: political violence and counter - insurgency. Egypt J. Peace Res., 47(4) : 433 - 448 . Fauzan S, Rakhshan Z, Abdul A, Noor Z (2008). “Fighting Terrorism Using Directed Energy Weapons”.2008 Multi - topic Conference, INMIC 2008. IEEE Intern ational, pp. 485 - 488 . Houghton M (1948). Quote by: Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Source: The Gathering Storm, bk.I ch. 19 p. 348. . James AP (2009). Is Islamist Terrorism More Dangerous? An Empirical Study of Group Ideology, Organization, and Goal Structure. Terrorism Polit . Violence, 21(1): 62 - 88 . James AP (2011). “Poverty, Minority economic discrimination and domestic terrorism”. J. Peace Res., 48(3) : 339 - 353 . Savitch HV (2007), Book: Cities in a time of terror: space, territory, a nd local resilience, p . 211
Sid Harth • 3 mins ago
Pakistan as a whole is marked by economic deprivation ; majority starves while a portion of the society thrives . This reality is in alignment with the theme and conclusion of research of James (2001 ). Hence, it is necessary that all these issues from religious extremism to deprivation and disparity should be address ed; th is is the only way peace will prevail. The only way these problems can be resolved is through public awareness and encouraging them to speak their mind as we men tioned in our study - majority of the moderates fear to speak out , they do n o t even want to participate in surveys . Our future aim is to enable this on the basis of our present research by encouraging people that their voice has importance and it can be he ard all around the world. Finally I would like to end by quoting the last phrase from the golden statement of Sir Winston Churchill, “ It is better to perish than to live as slaves ” Houghton (1948) . These are the thoughts that will brew in the minds of the people if the present situation is not properly resolved in Pakistan. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S The author would like to thank all those who supported in this paper , e specially the Director , Dr Waseem Akhter who is always there for the young researchers in givin g them moral s upport and also the management of Usman Institute of Technology .
Sid Harth • 3 mins ago
Saeed et al. 5 Table 1. Platform of c ountry casualties due to terr oism. Country Deaths Monthly a verage Daily a verage ( people ) Pakistan 34738 526 17 - 18 India 12843 194 6 - 7 Srilanka 35309 534 17 - 18 terrorism. In Table 1 , the biggest casualty rate due to terrorism is in Srilanka but the positive aspect in case of Srilanka is that there has been peace there since 2010 and no casualty happened in 2010 and 2011 till end of July, but in Pakistan and India , this terrorism is persistent and Pakistan is still suffering more tha n India having an average of 17 to 18 casualt y rate daily . All a fore mentioned countries do have inequalities in their country especially when it comes to economics and hence , it is in accordance to research by Brain (2007) . With majority of casualties actually happening in 3 rd world countries , the re ality is clearly against the theory Bloomberg and Hess (20 10 ) gave that developed nations have a greater chance of experiencing terrorist attacks th a n less develop ed countries (Bloomberg and Hess, 2010) . This is the time when Pakistan requires most help fr om international community to curb and eradicate terrorism once and for all. Conclusion We have to take due steps to tackle this menace of terrorism, because otherwise , this nuisance that was once limited to a certain portion of our world will engulf u s all in a cataclysmic war . We should learn lessons from the past two world wars that extremism should be nip ped in the bud before they could gather any support. Today , most of the Asian countries are going through the same period that Western societies ha ve already seen. It is our collective duty to support the powers of peace and progressive states of the world should be united not only in their statements but also in their actions to root out this evil. Presently , Asia has become an active mount Vesuvius of this world (with I srael - A rab rift and crises in I raq and A fghanistan differences between P akistan and I ndia, internal crises in Pakistan between different factions and rivalry between N orth and S outh Koreas has given b irth to terrorism in the region ) , which if exploded , will take both Pompeii and Herculaneum (referring to some of the most advance and prosperous countries) with them. Along with religious extremism , steps should be taken to root out ethnic divide in Karachi which if inflamed , would result in wide spread genocide .
Sid Harth • 5 mins ago
This can then be synchronized with our law enforcing mobiles which can pursue these vehicles and stop them before they can wreak havoc. Casualties of terrorism By 11 September 2001 , world t rade towers bec a me a target of terrorism in which thousands of innocent people lost their lives ; from then on , the universal search for terrorists was started. America was joined by its allies to fight this disease, among the allies was Pakistan . 10 years on , this fight is still on and Pakistan is at the frontline of fighting terrorism with maximum casualties that no other ally equals. Overall , Asia has suffered a lot to terrorism especially Pakistan, India , Srilanka and Afghanistan . As far as Srilanka is c oncerned , most of the attacks there were orchestrated by Tamil Tigers which is an internal problem of the country and not related to the global war against terrorism (Taliban and Al Qaida). On other hand , Afghanistan capitulated to Taliban in the first pla ce and their lack of resistance gave the terrorist a platform country of their own in form of Afghanistan. Table 1 is a detail of country wise casualties due to
Sid Harth • 5 mins ago
T his can be achieved by using EMP that we already know can fry a circuit and make it non - functional. So , our scenario that a bomber trying to enter the main gathering point will first be detected through UWB , and EMP will neutralize his suicide belt, security can now come in and pick him up . The bomber will try his level best to detonate his device but it will b e worthless and the culprit will be apprehended. We can also use UWB at toll gates . Like in developed countries , a number of toll gates exist within a city . There, the purpose is to deduct charges as the vehicle passes under the gate . Here, in our case , by using UWB , we can detect vehicles for any suspicious material .
Sid Harth • 6 mins ago
4 Int. J. Peace and Dev. Stud. Figure 3. Poll genocide. (Barr, 2001) . This ability of UWB can be used for detection of bombs underground or be hind the walls . This concept can also be used to detect bomb vests worn by suicide bombers, as UWB has the ability to reflect objects that are at a distance. Now , if we use UWB in conjunction with electro magnetic pulse ( EMP ), we can not only detect but ca n also make a suicide bomber in - effective . The basic work of electro - magnetic pulse is that it has the ability to fry electrical circuits from a simple grinder to airplane . Let us consider a scenario of public gathering where hundreds and thousands of peop le enter an arena to listen to their favorite politician - this is a sort of occasion where implementing flawless security is unthinkable e specially when we consider Asian countries. In this crowd , a suicide bomber manages to enter, there is heightened sec urity around the stage and no one can penetrate this security. The s uicide bombers target is the p olitician ; but despite all the efforts , he/she fails to even come close to the target . In desperation , the bomber blows him self up , resulting in scores of cas ualties and chaos. This is something which is considered as in - curable but the suggestion I want to give here is that this might have been averted. Now , let u s see the whole scenario again - this time by including a buffer zone outside the main arena. This buffer zone can act as a passage way towards the central gathering zone . Now, as we know the ability of UWB is that it can traverse walls and metal at short distances and can reflect back at long distances , th e n it can be used to see suicide vest hidden b eneath a bomber‟s clothing . O nce a suicide bomber is detected , he can be apprehended but the problem is that we have seen from some previous accounts that suicide bombers never give up ; they are so brain washed that instead of being captured they prefer to be blown up so it i s useless to only detect a suicide bomber . T here should also be a mechanism that can be used to neutralize the suicide vest .
Sid Harth • 7 mins ago
Out of the two questionnaires , we will talk about the first one in which we asked “ is there any possibility of genocide in Karachi” . O ut of 238 unique selections , 156 said yes and 80 said no and 2 were uncertain (Figure 3) . The s econd questionnaire had two questions, first was “ what do you think are the causes of terrorism” . Here, 141 unique individuals selecte d 287 different options . Out of 287 options selected , 64 were in favor of „religious extremism‟ , 47 selections were „for money‟ , 71 selections were marked against the option „ foreign intervention‟, 89 selections were done in favor of „ lack of education‟ an d finally , 16 selections were for „ ethnical disparity‟ (Figure 1) . The s econd question of this questionnaire was “ do madrasas (Religious Sanctuary) need reforms to curb terrorism?” Out of a total 141 individuals , 102 (72.3%) said yes while 38 (26.9%) said no and only one was uncertain ( he/she marked both yes and no) (Figure 2) . These results clearly indicate the consensus of a common educated man, people clearly think that it is lack of education that is leading the country towards terrorism ; along with tha t , they also blame foreign interventions in form of American attacks in northern parts of Pakistan and Saudi influence as being responsible for religious extremism in the country . Polls indicate that around 72% want reforms in madrasa. This shows that peop le are tired of extremist doctrines that are being taught in some of the religious institutions ; only 27% were against such reforms and then a most vital question that concerns every Pakistani is that , are there chances of geno cide in Karachi ? This is beca use in July 2011 alone , roughly 300 people were murdered in the name of sectarian violence the poll indicated that 65.5% fear the chances of genocide in Karachi and 33.6% thinks that no such thing is possible in this era . The results are very important as it represents the fears of educated class and shows that our country is marked by lack of education, extremism, foreign interventions and discrimination and all these factors can destroy a nation and with it the whole region. DISCUSSION Prevention and detection Terrorists are evolving and they have acquired new methods . Suicide bombings are a new form deployed by the terrorists to achieve political objectives (David and Anja, 2010) , and to cause anarchy. We have already mentioned the use of ultra wide band ( UWB ) as something that can be used for detection of suicide bomber ( Fauzan et al., 2008) . With UWB, radio signals can penetrate nearby surfaces while reflecting through surfaces that are farther away. This capability would allow radar - type applicatio ns to detect objects, such as people or weapons, behind walls or under surfaces
Sid Harth • 8 mins ago
Many refused while others helped . W e did this survey in Karachi - the biggest and most populous city of Pakistan. We went to different universities and distributed a questionnaire in which we asked “ is there any possibility of genocide in Karachi” to 238 unique individuals . Similarly, we constitute d another questionna ire containing two questions ; first question was “what do you think are the causes of terrorism” and the second was “ do madrasas (Religious Sanctuary) need reforms to curb terrorism?” Options were „ yes‟ or „ no‟. Those who marked both yes and no come under the category of uncertain. Both questions (Appendix) were answered by 141 unique individuals (population) , but in the first questions , people selected more than one option hence 141 people selected 287 options. In the second question , again , 141 individual s answered either „ yes‟ or „no‟ . Without any shadow of doubt that the population survey is small given the population of Karachi , this is a beginning for a society that is so afraid to openly express their ideologies fearing any repercussions . This for sur e represents the concern of youth and common educated class regarding the horrors of terror. RESULTS The r esults represented a mixed reaction .
Sid Harth • 8 mins ago
They tell stories of h eaven (as if they have been the r e ) and mention beautiful maidens waiting for them in heaven . All this is religiously motivated - like it or not , certain individuals have taken religion in their own hands and all they want is perpetual wars with western society . We have an example of Afghan istan where this is going on for the past 25 years. To get an insi ght of what people think are the causes of suicide bombings , we did a random survey in the city of Karachi which is considered as one of the most educated and moderate in the whole country . We asked certain questions through the procedure of survey and questionnaires . This is further presented . METHODOLOGY In Pakistan , people are afraid to express their ideologies in the open .
Sid Harth • 9 mins ago
2 Int. J. Peace and Dev. Stud. large group of people say that it is a re sult of religious extremism. In order to treat this problem , we will have to first come to cons ensus about the actual causes behind these attacks . In our opinion , no one can do this for money because money is of no use to him after dying and he will have no surety that money will be delivered to his family after his death ; therefore, those who say “ people do it for money” are wrong. I t is usually said that it is foreign intervention - let us make this clear that foreigners never blow themselves up . T his trend is existent only in Muslim and Asian countries . We have never seen any European or American blowing himself up or even threatening to do so. The only factor behind it is religious extremism that encourages and motivates people by telling them that all their sins will be neutralize d and the only way to attain God‟s forgiveness is to carry out such attacks . By doing so , they will be killing infidels and those who support those infidels (even if they are Muslims) . They convince the simple and young mind to do so in order to get a luxurious life in the here after. We have seen that most of the suicide bombers are from 16 to 25 years of age, and we all know what attracts a young man - status, women and praise. To attract young men , terrorists praise those who have already carried out such attacks .
Sid Harth • 11 mins ago
T his paper also discusses some of the weapons that might prove to be useful in fighting terrorism in Pakistan and how Paki stani government should develop their infrastructure to cater for the casualties of terrorism . Further on , through game theory , we will discuss the situation of Karachi that sits at the flash point as it is a cosmopolitan city which welcomes people from di fferent backgrounds and culture . Karachi is considered as the backbone of the whole country and chaos in Karachi means instability in Pakistan . This makes Karachi the prime target for Taliban and other extremist organizations that operate in the cover of e thnic, political and religious cover to harm this jugular vein of the country . Possible causes There are different opinions according to people belonging to different walks of life . Some say that it is all because of foreign intervention ; according to others, suicide bombings are a result of l ack of education . A
Sid Harth • 11 mins ago
F or the Kashmiris , a mere freedom struggle is considered as rebellion by Indians and same is the situation in Russia and Israel and since no consensus is achiev ed on the actual definition of terrorism , therefore , we constantly see an increase in this activity with the loss of innocent lives . In Asia , this terrorism is taking its toll with the efforts in war against terrorism ; all the hatred of extremist religious fundamentalist is on Afghanist an and Pakistan. This region has a tendency to breed extremism . There was a heavy influence of Tamil Tigers in Srilanka ; Tamil Tigers *Corresponding author. also use suicide bombings to inflict damage but they are less destructive when compared with Islamite extremists . Since 1968 till 2005 , Islamists have ki lled more people th a n Tamils (Savitch, 2007 ) . These days, India and Pakistan are under severe and constant attack by extremist religious groups. In this paper , we w ill discuss the impact of terrorism in Pakistan and the view of the educated class ( college and university students) about terrorism.
Sid Harth • 12 mins ago
International Journal of Peace and Development Studies Vol. 3(1), pp. 1 - 5 , February 201 2 Available online DOI: 10.5897/IJPDS11.061 ISSN 2141 - 2677 ©2012 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Tackling terr orism in Pakistan Fauzan Saeed* , Mustafa Rahid, Haris Zikr - ul Rehman, Salman Mobin and Shaheer Ahmed Usman Institute of Technology , Karachi, Pakistan . Accepted 4 January, 2012 Terrorism has become a nuisance for all the citizens of the world especially since the terrorism has taken the form of suicide attacks; this is a phenomenon that cannot be dealt with force. Imagine that a person so motivated that he or she is not afraid to die will eventually end up causing massive destruction. Here in this paper , we discuss the possibilities that can be used to reduce this threat as much as possible ; this includes from detection and prevention to reduction of loss of lives . W e will also find out that in such event , what else can be done to mitigate the chaos as mu ch as possible. The paper will also focus on ethnic rifts that are brewing in Karachi and might result in explosive situation. INTRODUCTION As we all know , terrorism is ab horred by any civilized society. It is a sort of pest that leads to utter destruction and ironically along with that , its prevention is also difficult. We have seen throughout the history how religious fanatics use the holy name of religion to perpetrate their devilish schemes; unlike other terrorists , people religiously motivated try to find soft targets so they can cau se maximum casualties ( James , 2009) . W e have examples of crusades that lasted for 200 years leading to mass massacres and sheer destructi on of people and cities respectively. According to Laquer (1977), it is impossible to give a broad definition of terrorism as it has appeared in many forms and different circumstances . The reason L aquer gave that statement was because this is an act that h as varying meaning for different individuals all over the world.

Source: TOI

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