Terrorism and India: Plane Hijack-Parliament Attack-Mumbai Attacks and Bombing-Uri Attack-Pulwama Attack-UAPA & POTA-Arrest of Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi-Army personnel under severe Stress

 There is No Universal Agreement on the Definition of Terrorism yet, it does not mean that the World is not Aware about the Aims and Missions of this Menace

On the eve of Independence, Broadly there were three major challenges in front of the Leaders i.e; Development of nation, Eliminating Poverty and Unity of the Country. During the course of time Terrorism had taken a central role prohibiting the development and other goals of the Country in fact it created lots of other allied issues which India is struggling till now. In this Article you will going to have a brief idea about the role of Pakistan based terror groups, different terrorists attack on the India, what India has done to curb this menace and lot more....let's begin...

After the Partition of the Country as planned by Sir Red-Cliff line, former princely State of Jammu & Kashmir was unwilling to join either of the Countries, since majority of the population living in the State belongs to Muslim Community but the State is ruled by the Hindu Raja Hari Singh. Pakistan assumed that People in the State are not happy and want to join the Pakistan, based on this assumption it sent Tribal Infiltrators to capture Kashmir. Actually they were not Tribal but trained militants sponsored by Pakistani Army. The root of the Terrorism belongs to this act of Pakistan. The real threat of Terrorism in the State began during 1990s, there were many terror outfits active in both sides i.e; within the State and was sponsored by the Pakistan and within the Pakistan. Lots of terror attack were planned and some of them executed successfully against India.

Plane Hijack, Dec,1999:

The Indian Airlines flight took off from Kathmandu, Nepal and scheduled to land at Delhi but terrorists belonging from Taliban hijacked the plane and after making several landings finally landed in Kandahar, Afganistan. In exchange of three terrorists including Massod Azhar they left the plane to fly back to India.

Parliament Attack,2001:

In Dec, 2001, few terrorists belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) entered the Parliament by skipping security check. They were laden with advanced weaponry and launched a shooting assault on the security personnel that led to death of at least 10 persons.

Mumbai Attacks,2008:

It was a deadly series of terrorists attacks taken place in Nov,2008. At least 10 terrorists belonged to LeT launched a planned shooting and bombing. The hot zone of assault were Taj Palace & Tower, Nariman House etc. It was the counter strike of National Security Guard(NSG) that led the neutralization of the situations. 

Mumbai Bombings,2011:

It was a series of 3 coordinated bomb explosion at different location in Mumbai. The blast taken place at Opera House, Zaveri Bazar and Dadar west Localities. The attack led to the death of nearly 30 peoples.

Uri Attack,2016:

It was on of the deadliest attack on security personnel, planned and executed by the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group. In the attack Four to Five terrorists crossed over the border from Pakistan with advanced weaponry system and cowardly launched a attack on the sleeping security personnel in Jammu region.

Pulwama Attack,2019:

It was taken place in Feb,2019 and a kind of Lone Wolf attack sponsored by Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group. A terrorist was driving a four wheeler vehicle laden with huge amount of explosive, somehow he managed to collide the vehicle with the convoy of trucks of security personnel that led a big explosion. At least 40 soldiers lost their lives in the attack.

India's Response to Terrorism:

Indian Parliament has enacted two major Acts to curb the terror related activities in the Country- first is the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,1967(UAPA) and second is the Prevention of Terrorism Act(POTA), 2002. These Acts have elaborately defined and provide provisions to prohibit terrorism in the Country. The Act defined the Terrorism as who so ever does any act by using explosive substances or other lethal weapons with an intent to threaten or likely to threaten the Security, Unity, Integrity or Sovereignty of India or with intent to strike terror either in India or any Foreign Country. The Act also includes-

-Punishment for organizing terrorist camps, recruiting any person or persons for terrorism. The punishment is either death or up to Life imprisonment with fine.

-Punishment for harbouring, holding proceeds of terrorism or threatening witness against terrorism. This has punishment up to Life imprisonment with fine.

-Court has the power to order forfeiture of proceeds of terrorism, whether or not the person from whose possession it is seized, is prosecuted in a court for an offence under terrorism. The proceeds of terrorism shall be liable to be forfeited to the Central Govt or the State Govt or the case may be.

-Given power to police authorities to arrest and search. Any officer of the designated authority empowered by general of special order of the Central Govt or the State Govt as the case may be, can make arrest or search in case of having reason to believe from personal knowledge or information from intelligence that any person has committed an offence punishable under this Act.

-The Act has enlisted both Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) as the terror outfits.

Arrest of Mumbai attack mastermind:

Mumbai Attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander ZAKI-UR-RAHMAN LAKHVI was arrested and sentenced to 5-year of imprisonment by a Pakistani Anti-Terrorism Court in a case related to terror financing. He was accused of running  a dispensary and using funds collected for terrorism financing. Experts claimed that due to mounting International pressure on Pakistan, Lakhvi was arrested. In contrast to this, recently Pakistani Supreme Court has acquitted Omar Saeed, he was chief accused in the brutal beheading of American Journalist in 2002. He was also one of the terrorist serving jail term in India for the alleged role in the kidnapping of western tourist in India in 1994. He was one among three terrorist, who were exchanged with the India airlines IC814, which was hijacked when took off from Kathmandu, Nepal, and landed in the Kandahar, Afganistan. To let the Plane and passenger fly back to India, the Talibani terrorist offered the exchange of Jailed terrorists in 1999, which was accepted by the then Govt in India.

Army Personnel are under severe stress:

United service institution of India, a service think tank has studied and find that more than 50% percent of Indian Army personnel seem to be under severe stress because Army has been losing more personnel every year due to suicides or other unpredicted incidents than in response to any enemy or terrorist activities.