The busy thoroughfare from Dharamtolla Lenin Statue Crossing to Sealdah was teeming with anti-war and anti-terrorism placards and red flags, calling for peace in the sub-continent, “but not on the conditions set by US imperialism.”

Peace activist Arindam Mukherjee told Newsclick that Tuesday’s march was “historic” with slogans reverberating against war-mongering, terrorism and the “ploy” to communally divide the country on communal lines.”

The peace march comes in the backdrop of the Pahalgam terror attack, killing 26 tourists, including a local pony man, as well as civilian and armed personnel killed during the escalation of tension with Pakistan.

“The country has been seeing polarisation on communal lines,” said Mukherjee.

Also, the US President Donald Trump “poking his nose” in an issue that concerns the two neighbours was an insult to the people of the country, he added.

He said a section of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)s  IT cell even said that “Pakistan will be taken over by India”, and fake videos were circulated in the social media.

“After Trump’s tweet on X, the Indian Prime Minister called for a ceasefire. This is a bilateral issue, not a tripartite issue. This rally is also against the narrative of linking terrorism with Islam,” he added.

Mukherjee said peace rallies should be taken to grassroot areas to dispel the counter-narrative of hatred, war and jingoism being spread by BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).”

Speaking to reporters before the rally began, Left Front chairman Biman Basu said the Pahalgam (Kashmir) incident was a nefarious one. He said the fact that Adil, the owner of pony, too, died at the hands of the terrorists to protect tourists and uphold Kashmiriyat, is being forgotten by the media.

Addressing the rally, Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary Mohd Salim said, “We had held a march in Kolkata right after the Pahalgam attack and had said that when the country is under attack, then it is necessary to keep the people of the country united at all costs. Unity is our forte, which terrorists tried to break by this heinous act. Even foreign secretary Vikram Misri has admitted that the aim of terrorists was to break peoples’ unity in the country. But strangely, the BJP IT cell has targeted the foreign secretary and trolled him and his daughter. Even the wife of the dead Navy lieutenant did not escape the abuse of the BJP IT cell for speaking in support of people’s unity. The IT cell people are working like associates of the terrorists within the country,”

Salim added that, “Strangely, the Prime Minister did not take any stance against this (attack on Misri and the Navy officer’s wife) and instead zeroed in on independent media outlet, The Wire, for publication of true news.”

Courtesy: Newsclick

The post Left Parties Take Out Huge Peace Rally in Kolkata Against War, Terrorism, Communalism appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A section of the dominant media and many political commentators present all these acts as resulting from a common thread—boundary-less religious extremism related to Islam. However, this position ignores the deeper dynamics of these painful acts. Nothing can be further from the truth. While many terror acts and groups have in common an Islamic identity, the underlying reasons for terrorism are highly varied. The birth of Hamas lies in the injustices heaped upon Palestinians and the total violation of United Nations resolutions by Israel time and again. The issue of Kashmir has another political dynamic altogether. Al Qaeda and ISIS are products of United States-sponsored training camps in Pakistan. Therefore, rather than roots in Islam, the origins of terror acts lie in deeper political issues.

One major cause of acts of terrorism is the policies pursued by global superpowers trying to control oil wealth. The imperialists and their allies have their eyes fixed on appropriating global oil resources. In recent years, a central phenomenon that spurred the rise of terrorist groups has been the United States cultivating fundamentalist Islamist groups through the CIA in client states such as Pakistan.

The United States’ goal to dominate West Asia due to its “oil hunger” has been brought out very well by many commentators. Their research based on the CIA’s own documents has shown how the CIA funded the training of the Mujahideen, ultimately leading to the formation of Al Qaeda and later ISIS.

In his book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror (Harmony, 2003), Mahmood Mamdani writes that funding these outfits cost around $8,000 million and 7,000 tons of armaments. On 19 May 2009, then-United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted that her country “came in in the ’80s and helped build up the Mujahideen to take on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan….The Soviet Union fell in 1989, and we basically said, thank you very much…”

Many commentators and the mainstream media deliberately underplay how the United States funded madrasas in Pakistan to train Al Qaeda and its clones, who later became Frankenstein monsters for the country. What is also underplayed is how these terrorist outfits have hurt Muslims around the world.

The Kashmir imbroglio has different dynamics. When the autonomy promised to Kashmir in Article 370 was undermined in the 1950s and 1960s, the disgruntled youth resorted to violent means instigated by Pakistan’s ISI, which had the backing of the United States. This situation worsened after the entry of Al Qaeda clones in the 1990s, and the resistance in Kashmir, based on Kashmiriyat, or the synthesis of the region’s Buddhist, Vedantic and Sufi traditions, became a communal issue, and Kashmiri Pandits were targeted as a result. To restate: this terrorism had regional and local political undercurrents and expressed itself in the language of religion.

Hamas has a different mechanism as far as its roots and origins are concerned. The Zionists initially declared an intention to settle in Palestine but began to appropriate the land. Further, they blocked any democratic expressions of resistance of Palestinians. It kept expanding the areas under occupation to the extent that, through two major expansions, its existing hyper-representation in the land (55% of land for 30% Jews) expanded the occupation to nearly 90% of Palestine.

Zionists are occupiers who constantly try to extend their hold over the Palestinian lands. They resort to ancient holy books to claim that Palestine is their land and they are its chosen people. Their expansionism has reduced the Gaza Strip to an “open prison” and forced the West Bank Arabs to live with tremendous hardships.

These three phenomena—Palestine, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban—are propagated as being due to Islamic terrorism. Nothing could be more myopic than this deliberate propaganda about ‘Islamic terrorism’ that the United States media has expounded in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. This propaganda allowed the United States to invade Afghanistan, where it killed 60,000 people. Its oil hunger led it to attack Iraq on the pretext that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction”, which it did not have. They repeatedly claimed that Iraqis would welcome the invasion of their country and greet the invading army “with flowers and chocolates”. Instead, Iraqis resisted, and the Islamic State was eventually born.

The Mumbai terror attacks were also an outcome of sour Indo-Pak relations. As the army dominated Pakistan was influenced by the United States, it harboured terrorist groups like the Lashkar e Taiba, which the Pakistan Army used to drive a wedge between Pakistan and India. As Pakistan’s civil leadership initiated some peace manoeuvres, the generals, uncomfortable with peace efforts, would unleash trouble—as when Pervez Musharraf occupied Kargil and later came the 26/11 attack.

The 26/11 attack also led to the murder of Karkare, who was investigating terrorism cases from Malegaon to the Samjhauta Express, in which the likes of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Aseemanand, and Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit were arrested. Sadhvi is still on bail in the Malegaon blast case and once said she had given a “shraap” or curse to Karkare.

While remembering the 26/11 tragedy of Mumbai and the killing of ordinary innocents and police personnel, it is crucial to distinguish cause from effect. To assign the cause as religion alone is  off the mark. To club all these geopolitical developments as ‘boundary-less religious extremism’ that is Islamic in nature serves the goals of imperialist nations and their allies who have wrought havoc in West Asia, particularly by training Al Qaeda.

The media must go deeper into these developments instead of taking recourse to propaganda or easy ‘answers’ in blaming Muslims and Islam. Terrorism is not a religious but a political phenomenon with a range of instances from the Irish Republican Army to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and innumerable others.

Related:

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India should be ashamed for letting down an honest police officer, who exposed Hindutva terror

The post Are the roots of terrorism in religion or politics? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested Tawheed Ahmed Shah (22) who hails Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district. According to media reports, the police claimed Shah was “planning to carry out suicide bombings” in crowded places in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. They alleged that he also has “connection to al Qaeda-linked Ansar Ghazwat-ul Hind” and apart from “planning to carry out blasts” was also scouting recruits. The Indian Express quoted government counsel Mithlesh Singh saying Shah was sent to judicial custody by court and that his police custody remand will be sought.

Polling will be held in seven phases for the mammoth 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly from February 10 to March 7.  Shah’s arrest, according to an Indian Express report, comes months after the arrest of five other accused in July last year. They too were allegedly “planning to carry out terrorist acts and recruit members for the terror module” The NIA took up the probe from UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in July 2021. The ATS had claimed that the accused were planning to trigger blasts around Independence Day celebrations in 2021.

It was reported that the police said they got to know that “the accused were in touch with the proscribed group and were planning blasts in Uttar Pradesh.” The police conducted raids in the suspects homes and told the media that they “recovered illegal weapons, explosives and an IED fitted in a pressure cooker, among other things.”

The five accused arrested in connection with the previous case were identified as Minhaz Ahmed, Maseeruddin alias Mushir, Shakeel, Mohammad Mustakeem and Mohammad Moid – all residents of Lucknow. According to the NIA’s press release, Shah was “the mastermind behind the Ansar Ghazwat-ul Hind’s plan to scout recruits for the terror module and execute terrorist acts”.  The NIA has reportedly filed a chargesheet against Minhaz Ahmad, Museeruddin, Shakeel, Moid and Mustaqeem so far. Now, Shah was has been arrested from Manchowa, in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to a report in National Herald, NIA stated that “Minhaz Ahmad was radicalized online by two al-Qaida terrorists based in Jammu and Kashmir and he had entered into a conspiracy with them for recruiting members for AGuH and for committing terrorist acts. Minhazthen recruited Museeruddin into al-Qaida fold and involved him in the conspiracy for committing terrorist acts in UP.” 

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Paigam-e-Mohabbat: UP citizens call for harmony

Save our livelihoods to get our votes: UP weavers’ 2022 election manifesto

The post NIA arrests suspected Ansar operative for ‘planning UP blasts’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Yet another political leader was shot dead by suspected terrorists in the Budgam area of Kashmir on September 23. Block Development Council (BDC) chairman Bupinder Singh, was shot at and critically injured, at Khag in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Wednesday evening, stated news reports. Singh succumbed to his injuries later. Officials said that unidentified gunmen attacked Bupinder Singh at a time when he was not accompanied by his personnel security officers (PSO’s), reported the Hindustan Times. 

Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar told the media, “Singh left his two PSOs at Khag police station and left his ancestral home alone.”

This is the fifth such killing of a political leader, in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the past four months or so. According to news reports this incident sent fresh shockwaves in the political circles of the state. Condemning the killing, BJP state spokesperson Altaf Thakur was quoted by HT saying, “Singh was an independent chairman and was killed at Khag. Our party condemns the killing.” Since June five BJP leaders including two sarpanches have been killed in different parts of Kashmir.

“Very sorry to hear about the assassination of BDC councillor Bhupinder Singh. Mainstream grass root political workers are easy targets for militants & unfortunately in recent years the threat to them has only increased. My condolences to his family. May his soul rest in peace,” posted National Conference Vice President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Very sorry to hear about the assassination of BDC councillor Bhupinder Singh. Mainstream grass root political workers are easy targets for militants & unfortunately in recent years the threat to them has only increased. My condolences to his family. May his soul rest in peace.

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) September 23, 2020

Apni Party president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari also condemned the killing, reported Greater Kashmir. In a statement, Bukhari termed the killing “highly unfortunate, inhuman and barbaric”, adding. “Such acts of violence can never achieve anything except for bringing more miseries to the people.”  He said the use of guns on innocent civilians since the 1990s have only brought death and destruction to J&K and have further pushed the people to a dead end. Bukhari said the recent spree of killings of Panchayat representatives in Kashmir is a dastardly act by the elements inimical to peace and prosperity of J&K, reported GK. “Violence in any of its form and manifestations will beget violence and this vicious cycle needs an end so that the people of J&K who have suffered a lot in the last many decades live in peace and harmony,” said Bukhari. He has urged the Union Home minister to order a review of the security cover of political activists in J&K, and said that this “killing in Khag-Budgam has belied the claims of the government. The union home minister should intervene into the matter and order a serious review and categorization of political activists who have put their lives at risk in order to keep the democratic process alive in J&K,” stated the GK report.

Apni Party vice president Ghulam Hassan Mir, provincial president Mohammad Ashraf Mir, provincial vice president Jagmohan Singh Raina and party leader Muntazir Mohi-u-Din have also strongly condemned the killing, stated the news report. The BJP state spokesperson Altaf Thakur also condemned the killing and has demanded security cover for all political workers.

The Lt Governor of J&K, Manoj Sinha, has also expressed his condolences.  He tweeted, “I strongly condemned the killing of BDC Chairman from Khag Budgam,Bhupinder Singh. My deepest sympathies to the bereaved family and pray for eternal peace to the departed soul.”

I strongly condemned the killing of BDC Chairman from Khag Budgam,Bhupinder Singh.
My deepest sympathies to the bereaved family and pray for eternal peace to the departed soul.

— Manoj Sinha (@manojsinha_) September 24, 2020

This killing comes in the wake of multiple such attacks in recent months, targeting political workers in various parts of the UT.

• August 10: Abdul Hamid Najar, shot, critically injured

• August 6:  Sarpanch Sajad Ahmad Khanday, shot dead

• August 4: Arif Ahmad, shot, critically injured

• July 8: Sheikh Waseem Bari, his father and brother, shot dead

• June 8: Sarpanch Ajay Pandita Bharti, shot dead

According to the  report in Greater Kashmir, the slain leader Bhupinder Singh was a resident of Tulsi Bagh Srinagar and he had gone to Budgam to attend a function. DGP Dilbagh Singh told the media that Singh had left his two security guards at the local police station. This nature attack, when the victim had a lack of police protection too has been reported before in the case of other politicians who were killed recently.

On August 15, when he was newly appointed, Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, in his Independence Day speech had remembered the local leaders Ajay Pandita and Wasim Bari, who he said had “laid down their lives to defend the idea of India.”

Related: 

Local politicians continue to be attacked, threatened, killed in J&K

10 reasons why Kashmiri Pandits feel betrayed in the Valley

BJP handpicks Manoj Sinha as new J&K LT Gov

Kashmir journalist assaulted, harassed by Cyber Police, for article on cyberbullying  

The post Suspected terrorists kill BDC chairman in Budgam, Kashmir appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On Saturday January 11, 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir police stopped a car at the Kulgam checkpoint on the Jammu Srinagar highway. Inside it were three men; two members of the Hizbul Mujahiddin and one decorated policeman.

The terrorist group members were identified as Syed Naveed Mushtaq, a former policeman who joined the militant organization in 2017 and his associate Asif. But it was the third man in the car whose presence raised the most questions. Davinder Singh is a decorated policeman of the rank of Deputy Superintendent. Why was he accompanying two known members of Hizbul Mujahiddin?

It is noteworthy that Parliament terror attack convict Afzal Guru had also named Singh during investigations in that case. In 2004, Afzal Guru had reportedly written a letter to his lawyer Sushil Kumar claiming a DSP Davinder Singh who was posted with J&K police’s Special Operations Group at Humhama had asked him to take a Pakistani man named Mohammed to Delhi and help him rent a flat, and also purchase a car for him.

In fact, Afzal Guru recounted the same to journalist Vinod K Jose during an interview. The veteran journalist recalls this in this Facebook post. Jose raises some key issues in the aftermath of Singh’s arrest writing, “Do these attacks qualify as “terrorist” attacks on the feet of meritorious evidences, collected and tried legally with due processes, or do they stand on the shaky ground of politics and rhetoric done by incomplete and convenient investigations? And who are the agents who make most out of such acts politically?”

He also asks, “The second point is that the long pattern in Davinder Singh’s conduct, from 2001 to 2020, where Davinder Singh’s connection with militant organisations is more than evident, it must make every Indian raise questions on the logic of covert operations itself—for which India spends an unaccounted large sum of tax payer’s money year on year. What is the political and financial accountability of covert operations?”

Jose’s post goes on to say, “And foremost, at what levels does sanctions come for these acts? For eg, who asked Davinder Singh to send five terrorists with Afzal to Delhi in 2001 and who asked Davinder Singh to leave Kashmir to Jammu (or Delhi?) with Hizbul Mujahideen commanders in 2020? Also the question to be asked along with it: If Davinder Singh was useful on a longer leash of time, what does it mean suddenly today to see him behind bars for those leaders and officers who must have played a role in supervising him? Is it an inter-agency rivalry that got him arrested in the weekend with Hizb commanders, a mistake, and in which case, the superbosses of both agencies must be scripting a harmless way out as we speak.”

Jose’s complete interview with Afzal Guru may be read here.

The 2001 Parliament attack

The attack on the Indian Parliament was carried out on December 13, 2001. This was perhaps the most brazen attack on India and in fact the very idea of democracy appeared to be under threat from terrorist organisations. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister was in power at the time.

The perpetrators allegedly belonged to two terrorist groups; the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). However, LeT denied their involvement. 14 people, including five of the terrorists were killed in the attack. The terrorists had sneaked in using fake ID stickers on their car. The Delhi police later gave the names of the five terrorists as Hamza, Haider alias Tufail, Rana, Ranvijay and Mohammed. The last one was the same person Afzal Guru had claimed he had been instructed to find housing and a car for by Davinder Singh.

After the attack three Pakistanis were accused of planning the attack; Masood Azhar, Ghazi Baba alias Abu Jehadi and Tariq Ahmed. They could not be nabbed. Four other people were subsequently charged and tried in the case. They were Afzal Guru, his cousin Shaukat Hussain Guru, Shaukat’s wife Afsan alias Navjot and Delhi University professor SAR Geelani.

Davinder Singh tortured Afzal Guru in custody?

Interestingly, it was Davinder Singh who had admitted to journalist Parvaiz Bukhari that he had tortured Afzal Guru in custody but could not get him to divulge any information about Ghazi Baba and other Pakistani accused. Singh allegedly had quite a reputation for torture at the time. Writer Arundhuti Roy’s book on Afzal Guru mentions as much. Afzal Guru had also mentioned his torture to Jose detailing use electric shocks to private parts. Afzal allegedly dd not have any legal representation during his time between his arrest and filing of charges and has subsequently retracted his confession claiming it had been extracted under duress.

In fact, Roy also wrote this essay on Afzal Guru where she raises several important points. Roy writes, “Sadly, in the midst of the frenzy, Afzal seems to have forfeited the right to be an individual, a real person any more. He’s become a vehicle for everybody’s fantasies—nationalists, separatists, and anti-capital punishment activists. He has become India’s great villain and Kashmir’s great hero—proving only that whatever our pundits, policymakers and peace gurus say, all these years later, the war in Kashmir has by no means ended.”

The legal journey

The case was adjudicated by a Special Court by judge SN Dhingra over a period of six months during which testimony of 80 witnesses was presented. Three of the accused Afzal Guru, Shaukat Hussain and SAR Gilani were convicted for the offences under Sections 121, 121A, 122, Section 120B read with Sections 302 and 307 read with Section 120B of IPC, sub-Sections (2), (3) and (5) of Section 3 and Section 4(b) of POTA and Sections 3 and 4 of Explosive Substances Act. Afzal and Shaukat were also convicted under Section 3(4) of POTA. Afsan was acquitted of all the charges except the one under Section 123 IPC for which she was convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and to pay a fine.

The other three were sentenced to death for the offences under Section 302 read with Section 120B IPC and Section 3(2) of POTA. They were also sentenced to life imprisonment on as many as eight counts under the provisions of IPC, POTA and Explosive Substances Act in addition to varying amounts of fine. The amount of approximately Rs 10 lakhs recovered from the possession of Afzal Guru and Shaukat Hussain was forfeited to the State under Section 6 of the POTA.

But in a twist in the tale, SAR Geelani and Afsan were acquitted on appeal by the High Court on October 29, 2003! This was a body blow to the State’s case considering they had pitched Geelani as nothing short of the “mastermind” in the case. But the HC upheld Afzal and Shaukat’s death sentences. Afzal Guru was represented by legal stalwarts Shanti Bhushan and Colin Gonsalves.

When the matter went to the Supreme Court, Shukat’s sentence was commuted to 10 years in prison and he was subsequently released 9 months before the end of his term due to good conduct. Afzal Guru though was not that fortunate and was hanged on February 9, 2013 and his body was buried in the Tihar Jail premises. His family was informed about his death by post and was thus unable to meet him one last time, leading to speculation that he was executed in secrecy.

In wake of Davinder Singh’s arrest while in company of terrorist group members, one wonders if Afzal Guru’s conviction and subsequent execution will now once again become open to debate? Did a dirty cop send Afzal Guru to jail and did India hang an innocent man? Moreover, what was the extent of Davinder Singh’s operation? Did he have any more accomplices in the police force? Did they conspire with terror groups in any other cases? Were other terror attacks made possible due the complicity of such policemen?

The post The policeman, the patsy and the true tale of terror appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“ An Individual Psychology is birth place of terrorism “ – is a demonic statement which missed the head lines of media. What the Hon’ble Home Minister tries to project his people as (i) By birth, people could be criminals ; (ii). An terrorist lives in cocoons here with no interaction with society and develops his own mentality ; (iii). As the terrorist crime is in brain, we will have to create a feeling of terrible threat in his brain which is the only solution; (iv) Unless you attack brains of all civilians of society, the country cannot be progressed.

This unfolds the “rightist style” of governance. It wants to take every brain into control. The institutional and structural reforms are only some polish jargon for them and there is no conviction to think in that direction for these forces – is the clear out and out perspective the Hon’ble Home minister was presenting in the house. On the same grounds, where does the crime of child abuse come from ? where does the crime of attacks on Dalits come from ? Where does the crime of mob lynching come from ? If Hon’ble Home Minster chiefly thinks of assigning pristine importance to a “cultural revolution” , that will deserve a grand welcome ! However, the crudeness of his statement only circles around an isolated individual “brain” – for which the presumed solutions would be “ brain wash “ or “ existential threat “ !
Let us look at this UAPA Bill amendment. The unforgettable and unpardonable party to the origination of the original Bill is none other than Congress Party itself. It passed this draconian law and brought several “ Brains” into a torturous state. Be it Prof. Saibaba ( Delhi University Profesor voiced against “green Hunt “ and assault on tribal rights)  or Thirumurugan Gandhi ( activist in Anti-Sterlite movement in Tamilnadu) or Hem Mishra ( student of JNU ) or any so-called “Urban Maoist” who use their “brains” and not any weapons to fight out a cause, were framed charges under this law.

While Amit Shah tries to substantiate that the proposed law is as per laws of various foreign countries like US, China etc., Amnesty international bluntly brushes of this claims in its statement  – “It is ironic that the government is relying on international law for passing this amendment when the entire law is ignorant of international discourse on human rights. Time and again, UAPA, India’s principal counter-terrorism law has been abused by recurring governments to target human rights defenders working with the poor and marginalized communities and those who criticise government inactions or excesses….. International laws and conventions must not be cherry-picked by the government to suit their objectives.

Terrorism must not be countered at the expense of human rights. ”

While the Home Minister tries to portray that he is following some international standards on countering terrorism, it is actually another white wash of the perspective he is putting forth on behalf of his “rightist mentors and colleagues”.

There are two critical provisions which arms Central Government to wield its baton over any crime that is perceived as “terrorism”
 

1. NIA has been given full authority to brand anyone as “Terrorist” without approaching court and seize their properties. The rank of the officer who recommends this is not less than Circle Inspector ( Section 25)
2. Any individual or organisation ( Section 35) is “deemed” as “terrorist” if it “promotes” or “prepares” for terrorism with no defined terms of “prepare” and “promote”

NIA Circle Inspector who could be around 30 years of age and with some basic qualifications is authorised to recommend to DGP to reckon some one as Terrorist as against ACP, earlier designated. The funny explanation given by Home Minister was that there is a shortage of staff at NIA. We fail to understand why cant Govt. create more jobs like this instead of dragging down the important responsibilities ?! The point is not that ACP range officer will have a different thinking. The Hon’le Home minister does not want to play the game straight. The apparatus for state fascist imposition on elimination of thoughts in brains, which essentially, the Minister was targeting at, is being expanded and the “looseness” he wants to create in the system to deepen scare in the minds of people is the real problem.

As far as the definitions of “ prepare” and “promote” are concerned, the Minister left them deliberately undefined opening to any sort of interpretation. There have been several cases possessing mere literature of Maoists was interpreted as Maoist and were persecuted. A person who watches pornography cannot be labelled as “ rapist” but a person who possesses Maoist literature ca be labelled as “Maoist”. Essentially, the Minister is not just targeting any other individual or organisation limited sympathisers or researchers of any terrorist organisation, he empowers his Government to act against any party in the name of “preparation and promotion of terrorism” as terrorism itself is an undefined term. And, this leaves great scope of misuse of power on the bill. This is decided by someone who is sitting in Delhi and labelling people across all states.

Amit shah taking cognisance of this says “ completely assures no misuse of law” to the House. This is a very wickedly naïve statement as everyone knows IPC itself is being abused and several thousands of people were being prosecuted under false charges. It is pertinent to recollect that Amit Shah was prime accused in Sohrabuddin encounter case. Shrbauddin was a criminal ivolved in extortions  having close realations  Islamic preaching terrorist organisations and Dawood Ibrahim too. It has been alleged that Sohrabuddin was as aide of Amit Shah. Sohrabuddin’s wife, being prime witness, who was an unarmed lady, was also killed in a planned encounter. CBI named Amit Shah as prime accused in the case. The judge dealing with the case viz. Mr. Loya was offered bribe to protect Amit Shah and was suspiciously fund dead, after his denial of the bribe. As we see through the facts brought out by various journalists and some socially responsible media, Amit Shah deserves to be a prime suspect by CBI.However, this entire episode may not convict Amit Shah.  But the point is, a person who assures the bill poses as if he has sterling character who extends assurances to the people of India.

Ambedkar had always worried about constitutional morality rather than implementing constitution itself. If ruling class does not possess respect to the Constitutional morality, there is no point in putting constitutional provisions to discussion. The Government has not believed in federalism and took over the powers into its hands and Government executive position is being turned into judiciary role. The Government has started functioning as an “RSS Camp” where they aim to change “psychology of individuals”. Unfortunately, we can observe that the opposition has paid lip service to protest the demonic nature of amendment as the biggest opposition was to come from the originator of the main act itself. Other parties like BSP, CPI, CPM etc could not put up a fight or could not take up any concrete exposing plan for the potential “terrorist” suspects, as they are not going to be  part of their vote banks and it is a long term impacting action on “brains” .There are cases like Prof. Saibaba which are appalling not just to India alone but to the entire world. If one looks through the judgement on him and other accused, the judgement has decided that they are Maoists just because they hold a news paper in their hands, which is interpreted as a general signal Maoists use to meet up at a particular point. That classifies whoever holds a particular news paper in a bus stand or railways station as “Maoist”. Thats how the judgements are benchmarked in India when it comes to UAPA. In such a back drop, we get assurance from Amit Shah that the law will not be misused.

Amit Shah , who is named as prime accused by CBI Sohrabudding encounter case, is assuring this entire nation that the law will not be “misused”. What does that really mean ?  Sohrabuddin’s case is a classic case of misutilisation of Government apparatus while Sohrabuddin was well-known to be the aide of Amit Shah. The apparatus functioning becomes seriously questionable when the judge Mr. Loya passes away in a very suspicious manner and the interrogation of the same is still not known to public. Amit shah who neither cares to clear these disconnects nor releases a white paper on the developments from Government. We need to question ourselves – is there any law which was not put to misuse till date ? How UAPA, which is the most demonic law in India so far, cannot be misused ? Secondly , the Home Minister also hints that he is not going to put any structural measure in place to avoid misuse but ‘his own word’. This sends a signal that people must be dependent on countenance of someone, on 24X7 basis, to rescue themselves off from  demonic imposition. This tantamounts that – the accused like Bhima-Koregaon movement activists need to plea before the Home Minister to not to misuse UAPA law on them and that is the level of scoffing what the Hon’ble Home Minister seems to be expecting.

The burden of proof in any other case is with police to prove someone culprit but in UAPA cases the burden of proof always lies with the accused, who is a victim in such cases, to prov his innocence. The evidence what police produce in front of the courts have been seen from previous cases, as tampered or fabricated. In case of Prof. Saibaba, the he was first arrested on “ house theft in Maharashtra “ ( and everyone knows how a 90% physically challenged educationalist can travel to a remote place in Maharashtra, that too, for the prupose of robbing a house ) and then was brought into UAPA charges ( Till, now the court did not ask a single question on what happened to the theft case )
The conviction rate in UAPA is one of the lowest, though, compared to any other law. Except direct cases like Khobad Gandhy ( a Central Committee member of Maoist) most of the accuse in these cases are from Urban areas. The UAPA is nto really meant to curb terrorism. It is meant to threat “ existence of certain thoughts.” And those thoughts must have been acknowledged by the majoritatiranist state or otherwise, they fall under UAPA. That’s the demonic shape of this amendment !

P Victor Vijay Kumar is An investment banker and CFO of infra group having interests in social writings. He may be reached at pvvkumar@yahoo.co.uk or facebook id “ P V Vijay Kumar “)

Courtesy: Countercurrent

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The recent ghastly and disgusting Christchurch terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand, in which 50 Muslims were killed and several were injured is the sheer case of Islamophobia. He live-streamed his terrorist attack on Facebook, playing American Civil war music in the background and had justified attack by publishing his manifesto earlier. The semi-automatic gun which the terrorist had used was inscripted with islamobhobic and right wing ideology. Nothing is more anxious then this even after the terrible attack leaders of the right-wing didn’t speak against the attack and the international media which immediately swings into the action, start spewing venom against the whole Muslim community; if the attacker belongs to the same community had called Christchurch terrorist a shooter. Terrorism is terrorism, it is against the humanity, no religion, race, caste and region has monopoly on it. It should be condemned in its stickiest form no matter who is instigating it.

The organised violence against the Muslims all over the globe is being done in the facade of Islamophobia. The propagators and preachers of Islamophobia are not much sacred of from the terror of any person but their actual fear is; Islam has the capability to influence minds of the people and if it would not be contained, it would spread in the western world very swiftly. British political philosopher David Selbourne “Losing Battle with Islam” enumerated ten reasons and he argues because of these reasons now it is very tough for the western world to win battle from the Islam. Similarly, French writer Micheal Houellebecq in his novel “Submission” argues that in the upcoming seven years France would have Islamist government with the support of Socialist Party. These books have posed the strong impression on the minds of western policy makers and due to these fear anti-muslims policies are being framed in the western world. In this whole well framed propaganda, international media plays an indispensible role in adding fuel to the fire. A hoax is being created round the globe that Muslims are the common enemy and they are the real threat for the peace. But reality is quite contrary to this, for a moment, let us ask ourselves, who are the leading manufacturers and exporters of the arms and which country dropped Mother of all Bombs on Afghanistan. None of the Muslim-dominated country tops the list in terms of annual defence budget expenditure. Moreover, 2011 report of the US government’s National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC), said that “In cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97% of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years.” Question which needs to be pondered upon is if Muslim countries are the worst sufferer of terrorism then why Islamophobia? Irony is, terrorism killed less people around the world than “War on terror”.

We never heard when Christian- terrorist killed worshippers in the Masjid and media never called him a Christian-terrorist, when Buddhist-terrorist killed Rohingyas in Myanmar and media never called him a Buddhist-terrorist , When Jewish-terrorist killed Palestinian in Palestine media never called him a Jewish-terrorist. Why religion is deliberatively affixed to the Muslim terrorist only? This is how international media creates vicious design against the Muslims and project them as a common enemy for the world.

Indiscriminately, incident like Christchurch terror attack must be vehemently criticised by all leaders of the world and onus goes to the international media to call spade a spade, they should show what reality is without manipulation. Solidarity of the New Zealand’s Prime minister, public and international community is appreciable. The solidarity which Jacinda Ardern showed with the Christchurch victims is worth-appreciating and she gave a beautiful lesson for all the leaders of the world. But it is not just about to criticise one particular terror attack and after sometimes everything will be normal. It is high time to criticise all the terror attacks explicitly and simultaneously international media has to demystify the hoax which is being created against the Muslim community. Silence of the world leaders and media gives impunity to the terrorist to carry out such types of inhumane attacks in broad daylight.  If the deadliest attacks like Christchurch will not be condemned unequivocally round the globe on time, then there is no chance to stop these attacks in future.

Zulafqar Ahmed is Doctorate Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University, E- mail ahmedzulafqar78@gmail.com

Courtesy: Counter Current
 

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People pay their respects for the victims of the mosques attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 17, 2019. Guo Lei/Press Association. All rights reserved.

The terror attack in Christchurch in New Zealand has raised many questions about the responsibility of the media, particularly social media, in spreading racism, far-right terrorism, and questions about how the values of the West are under threat. A fundamental question, however, is overlooked: the decades-old immigration policies and narratives of Australia, Europe, and the USA that feed into the rhetoric of far-right terrorism on ‘migrants’ invasion’.

The new normal

A poster of the Australian government about the ‘boat people’ says: ‘You will not make Australia home’. The poster is a visual manifestation of the Australian government’s policy of stopping refugee boats before they arrive in Australia and diverging them to other countries for off-shore asylum processing. Off-shore immigration control has been contemplated by European states and the EU and is now partially accepted. The EU border agency Frontex coordinates naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea; the European Commission sends financial help to countries such as Turkey, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, and Senegal to strengthen border enforcement bodies and conditions in camps and detention centres; it also signs bilateral repatriation agreements to send ‘unwanted’ immigrants back. These policies are now the ‘new normal’ in migration management in Europe. They all aim to prevent unwanted immigrants from arriving in European territories.

Probably, the most striking companion of ‘You will not make Australia home’ in Europe is ‘the hostile environment’ formulated by then Home Secretary Theresa May. The ‘Go Home’ vans, as part of Operation Vaken, were underpinned by the same mentality as the Australian poster. This political rhetoric may be beneficial for its formulators, as it gives them a chance to show the voters how tough they are on ‘illegal immigrants’.

However, it also does something else: it reproduces an image of the ‘immigrant’ who does not belong ‘here’: ‘This is not your home; go back where you come from’. And this image, and the political-cultural rhetoric underlined by it, has a long and disturbing history.

Eugenics

The fear of the ‘white race’ becoming overrun by ‘non-white races’ first appeared through the arrivals of slaves in Europe and USA, then deepened and spread through the colonisation and arrival of people from the colonised countries in Europe. Eugenics, which was developed in parallel with Social Darwinism, served to generate ‘scientific’ methods to protect the ‘white race’ through regulating reproducing practices. In this way, it sought to conserve ‘civilisation’ against the ‘barbarians’ who were always ‘at the gate’, who were always lurking in the dark to contaminate ‘us’, ‘our home’.

Although this scientific racism was discredited with the defeat of Nazism, it must be noted that it was powerful in Europe and USA until the late 1930s. Now it is back in far-right ideology, which is globally spreading across Europe, USA, and Australia.

‘This is not your home’ posters and ‘Go Home’ vans allegedly targeting ‘illegal immigrants’ are put into practice in this dangerous and violent historical-cultural context: ‘our’ country was not yours 300 years ago, and it is not yours today so ‘go home’. The ‘manifesto’ of Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, and the statement that allegedly belongs to the Christchurch killer all point at the same direction. Mainly racialised immigrants are constructed as a threat who will outnumber ‘the whites’ in the number games of Eugenics – hence the justification for their harassment, abuse, and extermination.

Taking steps

The rise of global far-right terrorism cannot be thought through independently from the immigration control narrative and policies of the affluent states in Europe, North America, and Australia. There are steps to be taken:

An immigration approach that is historically and culturally conscious: Racism is not a relic of the past. It is well and alive today. Any immigration narrative and discourse that ignores this fact risks reproducing and justifying racism and strengthening far-right ideology. The ‘home’ rhetoric is built upon the painful and violent historical experience of slavery, scientific racism, colonisation, and white supremacy. ‘Home’ is not a static formation; it changes and transforms along with the people in it. Suggesting otherwise is giving a lease of life to the far-right.

Halting immigration is not a solution to the rise of the far-right: In an interview for the Guardian’s series on the rise of populism, former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton identified immigration in Europe as the factor that ‘lit the flame’ of far-right populism; she continued that ‘I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part’. This approach justifies and gives a moral ground to the far-right by re-confirming their argument that immigrants are the problem, not racism.

Going beyond the ‘economic assets’ justification: Most immigration management policies are now underlined by an economic mentality. It is argued that some immigrants are economically beneficial to our economies and market needs; therefore, they are welcomed to contribute. This approach significantly ignores the cultural-social dimension of immigration and reduces immigrants into economic assets which can be made redundant once their jobs are considered done. Its ethnocentrism overlooks the needs and demands of immigrants as humans. It dehumanises immigrants and, hence, feeds into the far-right ideology.

It is time to develop a holistic approach to tackle far-right ideology and terrorism and immigration lies at the core of it. It is now time to rebuild ‘the home’ as an ever-expanding inclusive house. The question is: can we trust the politicians who sent out the ‘Go Home’ vans in the first place for this task?

Courtesy: Open Democracy
 

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When lives are tragically cut short, it is generally easier to explain the “how” than the “why”. This dark reality is all the more felt when tragedy comes at the hands of murderous intent. Explaining how 50 people came to be killed, and almost as many badly injured, in Christchurch’s double massacre of Muslims at prayer is heartbreaking but relatively straightforward.

A cacophony of hateful rhetoric has made it hard for those tasked with spotting the emergence of violent extremism to separate it from the background noise. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

As with so many mass murders in recent years, the use of an assault rifle, the ubiquitous AR15, oxymoronically referred to as “the civilian M-16”, explains how one cowardly killer could be so lethal.

It was much the same in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando three years ago, when one gunman shot dead 49 people in a crowded space and, though the motive appears very different, the same sort of military instrument of death lies behind the 58 deaths in Las Vegas a year later. An AR15 was used to shoot dead 11 worshippers in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue last October and a similar weapon was used to kill six people in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017.

It is a credit to the peaceful nature of New Zealand society that, despite the open availability of weapons like the AR15, the last time there was a mass shooting was in 1997. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern rightly identified reform of gun laws as one of the immediate outcomes required in response to this tragedy.

But lax gun laws are arguably the only area in which blame can be laid in New Zealand. Ardern, together with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was also right to refer to this barbaric act of cold-blooded murder of people in prayer as right wing extremist terrorism driven by Islamophobic hatred.

State and federal police in Australia have long warned that, next to the immediate threat posed by Salafi jihadi terrorism, they are most concerned about the steady rise of right-wing extremism. There has been some comfort in the recognition that the most active right wing extremist groups, and there are many, are disorganised, poorly led, and attract but small crowds.

On the face of it, then, right wing extremism in Australia is nowhere near as serious as the neo-Nazi movements of Europe or the various permutations of white supremacy and toxic nationalism that bedevil American politics. In America, it is conservatively estimated that there were 50 deaths due to terrorist attacks in 2018, almost all linked to right-wing extremism.

In 2017, it is calculated that there were 950 attacks on Muslims and mosques in Germany alone. Many of last year’s attacks in America involved a common right wing extremist hatred of Islam, and a targeting of Muslims, joining a long-standing enmity towards Jews.

Almost all recent terrorist attacks have been lone-actor attacks. They are notoriously difficult to predict. Whether inspired by Salafi jihadi Islamist extremism or right wing extremism, lone-actor attacks commonly feature individuals fixated on the deluded dream of going from “zero to hero”.

One of the main reasons authorities struggle with identifying right wing extremist “nobodies” who post online, before they turn to violence, is that it’s difficult to pick up a clear signal in the noise of a national discourse increasingly dominated by exactly the same narrative elements of mistrust, anxiety, and a blaming of the other.

In Australia, as in Europe and America, mainstream politicians and mainstream media commentators have increasingly toyed with extremist ideas in the pursuit of popularity. Many have openly brandished outrageous ideas that in previous years would have been unsayable in mainstream political discourse or commentary.

Donald Trump can be deservedly singled out for making the unspeakable the new normal in mainstream right wing politics, but he is hardly alone in this. And sadly, for all of the relative civility and stability of Australian politics, we too have now come to normalise the toxic politics of fear.

No-one put it better than The Project host Waleed Aly in saying that Friday’s terrorist attacks, although profoundly disturbing, did not come as a shocking surprise. Anyone who has been paying attention and who really cares about the well-being and security of Australian society has observed the steady growth of right wing extremist and right supremacist ideas in general, and Islamophobia particular.

They have seen the numerous attacks on Muslims and Jews at prayer and worried about the day when the murderous violence that has plagued the northern hemisphere will visit the southern hemisphere. But more than that, they have worried about the singling-out of migrants, and in particular asylum seekers, African youth and Muslims as pawns to be played with in the cynical politics of fear.

Scott Morrison is right to say these problems have been with us for many years. But he would do better to point out that our downward trajectory sharply accelerated after John Howard’s “dark victory” of 2001. The unwinnable election was won on the back of the arrival of asylum seekers on the MV Tampa in August followed by the September 11 attacks, and at the price of John Howard and the Liberal party embracing the white supremacist extremist politics of Pauline Hanson.

Both major parties, it must be said, succumbed to the lure of giving focus groups and pollsters the tough language and inhumane policies the public appeared to demand and reward. We are now beginning to see the true price that we have paid with the demonising of those arriving by boat seeking asylum, or looking too dark-skinned, or appearing too religious.

The result has been such a cacophony of hateful rhetoric that it has been hard for those tasked with spotting the emergence of violent extremism to separate it from all the background noise of extremism.

There are, of course lessons to be learned. Authorities need to do better. We can begin with a national database of hate crimes, with standard definitions and robust data collection. Clearly, we need to pay attention to hateful extremism if we are to prevent violent extremism.

But ultimately, we need to address the permissive political environment that allows such hateful extremism to be promulgated so openly. The onus is on commentators and political leaders alike. They cannot change the past, but they will determine the future.

Courtesy: The Conversation

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Lost in the headlines, rapidly accelerating news cycles and the pervasive fear generated by terrorist threats is the fact that terrorist attacks worldwide have actually been declining – in some areas substantially.

The aftermath of a 2018 attack by the Taliban in Ghazni city, Afghanistan. Will terrorist attacks like this one be as common in 2019? Reuters/Mustafa Andaleb

Terrorism researchers like me have long noted that the number of terrorist attacks rises and falls in waves – generally lasting several decades.

I’m the founding director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START, and one of the original creators of the Global Terrorism Database. My colleagues Laura Dugan, Erin Miller and I define terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by non-state actors to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion or intimidation.” The database shows that the world has been gripped by a wave of terrorist attacks that began shortly after the 9/11 attacks.

My research using the START database shows the extent of this spike. From 2002 through 2014, worldwide terrorist attacks increased by 12 times and terrorist fatalities increased by more than eight times. Especially hard hit were Iraq and Afghanistan in the Middle East, India and Pakistan in South Asia, and Nigeria in sub-Saharan Africa.

The most active terrorist organizations driving this worldwide boom were the Taliban, Al-Shabaab, the Islamic State Group (also known as IS), the Communist Party of India–Maoist and Boko Haram.

But since 2014, the picture has changed dramatically – a development that has gone largely unreported in the media.

Let’s examine that change.

A downward trend

In 2015 total terrorist attacks decreased by 11.5 percent and total terrorism-related deaths by 12.7 percent.

In 2016, we saw a further 9.2 percent decrease in attacks and 10.2 percent decline in total terrorism-related deaths.

The downward trend continued in 2017, the most recent data available, with a 19.8 percent drop in attacks and a 24.2 percent decline in fatalities.

Taken together, these 36 months have witnessed the single largest three-year decline in attacks and fatalities since the Global Terrorism Database began in 1970 – nearly a half century ago.

The recent declines are geographically dispersed. In the peak year of 2014, five countries – Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Somalia – accounted for 57.2 percent of the world’s total terrorist attacks and more than half of the worldwide terrorism-related fatalities.
By the end of 2017, all five of these countries had experienced sizable declines in attacks.

Three of these countries also experienced a dramatic decline in fatalities: a 53.6 percent drop in Iraq, a 55.4 percent drop in Pakistan, and a 97.1 percent drop in Ukraine. The violence in Ukraine was concentrated in 2014 and 2015 and associated with the rapid rise of the Euromaidan revolution and culminated in the overthrow of the Russian-backed Ukrainian president.

During the same period, fatalities increased by 12.5 percent in Afghanistan and 203 percent in Somalia, but these increases weren’t big enough to offset the declines in Iraq, Pakistan and Ukraine.

Major groups less active

Attacks and fatalities claimed by the world’s most active and dangerous terrorist organizations have also declined during the last three years.

In 2014, the five most active terrorist organizations in the world were the Islamic State Group, or IS, the Taliban, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and the Donetsk People’s Republic – a separatist organization operating in Ukraine and receiving military backing from Russia.

A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic forces, one of the world’s most active terrorist organizations, in the rebel-controlled village of Yelenovka outside Donetsk, Ukraine. Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko

By the end of 2017, attacks by the Taliban, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and the Donetsk People’s Republic had all declined. Total attacks by IS decreased by 2.2 percent from 2014 to 2015 but then increased by 7.7 percent from 2015 to 2017.

In Western Europe and the United States, total terrorist attacks are down sharply from the 1970s. In 2017, Western Europe accounted for only 2.7 percent of worldwide attacks and the United States for less than 1 percent of attacks.

That may seem surprising given the amount of media attention generated by a small number of high profile attacks. In 2015, attacks in Paris took the lives of 130 and injured another 400. In 2016, Western Europe experienced a series of mass casualty attacks carried out by IS and its affiliates in Nice, Brussels and Berlin.

While the total number of attacks in the United States remains extremely low, the public was shocked in 2015 by the 14 victims of the attack by Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik in San Bernardino, California, and the nine people killed by Dylann Roof’s attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

In 2016, Americans witnessed the 49 deaths linked to the assault carried out by Omar Mateen in Orlando, Florida. And in 2017, Americans learned of the eight deaths in New York City linked to Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov who claimed an affiliation with IS.
 

Some hotspots remain

Terrorist attacks and fatalities are not declining everywhere and every year.

The START database shows that in 2017, attacks and fatalities increased in India, the Philippines and Nepal. In 2016, attacks and fatalities increased in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Turkey. And in 2015 attacks and fatalities increased in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Egypt.

Also, while worldwide attacks have declined, a large number of countries are still being targeted. Thus, while terrorist attacks took place in a total of 100 countries in 2014, total countries experiencing attacks was 99 in 2015, 108 in 2016 and 100 in 2017. Countries only experiencing attacks in 2016 included Kazkhstan, Panama and Switzerland.

This effect was especially apparent with IS and its affiliates, which claimed fewer attacks and deaths in 2017 but at the same time carried out attacks in a larger number of different countries.

Not all reasons for declines in terrorist attacks are positive.

For example, an argument can be made that terrorist attacks have declined in Afghanistan in part because the Taliban in recent years has been so successful in taking back control of the country.

A similar outcome – but with the regime rather than the terrorist perpetrators gaining control of the situation – no doubt explains declining terrorist attacks and fatalities in Syria.

While we have observed major declines in terrorist attacks and fatalities from 2015 to 2017, both attacks and fatalities remain at historically high levels.

The number of attacks in 2017 is 27.9 percent higher than in 2012, and deaths 70.6 percent higher.

Even more strikingly, attacks were more than twice as common in 2017 as they were during 1992 – the peak year for an earlier wave.

An end to chaos?

One thing is certain: The number of terrorist attacks in a particular region of the world as a whole will eventually peak and then decline.
It seems logical to conclude that the chaos and disorder that follow in the wake of terrorist attacks provide strong incentives for societies to adopt strategies for countering them.

Few individuals or communities prefer living endlessly in chaos and violence. We can only hope that we have reached that tipping point in 2019. At the same time, we must humbly admit that prediction is the most precarious task of the social sciences.

Courtesy: The Conversation

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