Reshaping the Responses to Terror Matrix

Why in news?

The world has been witnessing a flurry of meetings to counter terrorism such as the meeting of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, No Money for Terror Conference, Interpol Conference, etc.

How prominent are terror attacks?

• The September 11, 2001 terror attack in New York, and the November 26, 2008 attacks on multiple targets in Mumbai, in their own way reflected the evolving changes in the practice of violence.
• The 9/11 attack came to be regarded as ‘new age terrorism’, while Mumbai underscored the dangers of state-sponsored terrorism.
• The attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris (2015) and on the Bardo Museum in Tunis (2015), signals the rise of new terrorist entities such as the Islamic State (IS) and al Qaeda.
• While Europe and Asia remain in the cross hairs of different terrorist groups, Africa and northwest Asia appear to have become the main hunting ground of the al-Qaeda and IS terrorists.
• Al-Qaeda’s activities are becoming more decentralised.
• It is finding fertile grounds in the Sahel region of Africa and in Eastern Africa, apart from its prominence in Afghanistan.
• The Haqqani Network within the new Taliban government provides an opportunity for al-Qaeda for a greater pull across the region.
• The intensity has declined to an extent, but there are indications of new complicated patterns of relationships among various terrorist conglomerates.

What has been neglected in such meetings?

• There have been very little discussions at these meetings on how to deal with the spate of newer terror groups whose ambit of activities had widened.
• The meetings did not note the fact that ideology intertwined with religious extremism had become a more potent threat than earlier.
• The declining level of serious terrorist incidents do not, however, translate into a decline in terrorism.
• The counter-terrorism experts across India did not read the proper meanings into terror attacks, such as the one in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and Mangaluru (Karnataka) attacks
• The incidents indicate the growing radicalisation and a sizeable base being built in the southern region, which could lead to the creation of organisations on the model of Indian Mujahideen (of 2000s).

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What measures need to be taken?

• Role of world leaders - The world leaders need not accept all declarations of a decline in levels of terrorism at face value.
• They should not treat some terrorists as good and others as bad, based on each nation’s preferences.
• The proposal for the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) that was first proposed by India in the 1990s need to be reactivated.
• Role of Counter-terrorism agencies - Counter-terrorism agencies need to sharpen their skills and capabilities in countering new age terrorism.
• There is a need for counter-terrorism agencies across the world to function in coordination, exchanging both intelligence and tactics.
• They need to look into the newer patterns of terror such as enabled terrorism and remote control terrorism, putting forward the dangers of Internet-enabled terrorism.

References

1. The Hindu | Reshaping the world’s responses to the terror matrix
2. United Nations | Counter-Terrorism Committee