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Challenge of Islamist terror

Investigative leads point to the Harkat ul-Jihadi-e-Islami (HUJI), the Islamist organisation behind the Mecca Masjid attack in Hyderabad, as being behind the terrorist strike at the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer. What can one say about an outfit so consumed by hatred as to deliver death to the shrine of a saint who preached the oneness of god’s creation? The Ajmer bombing is the latest in a series of terror strikes directed at both Hindu and Muslim reli gious institutions. Investigators have been able to establish that many of these attacks were carried out by Islamist terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the HUJI. Manifestos available on websites affiliated to these organisations, conversations in Islamist internet chat rooms, and published pamphlets make clear that these organisations despise Hindus, Christians, Jews, and atheists — but hate even more the syncretic popular Islam followed by the overwhelming majority of Muslims. Islamist terror groups have attacked Muslim shrines not just in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan in an attempt to stamp out a form of Islam they proclaim is a heresy. The larger ideological-political project is to deepen communal fault-lines and precipitate an apocalyptic war which their perpetrators imagine will usher in a new millennium. The calm and fortitude demonstrated by the people of India in response mean the defeat of the terrorists’ project.

The Hindu has editorially advocated the need for public institutions, including places of worship, to invest in modern security systems. There were closed circuit cameras at Ajmer Sharif; only, they had been out of order for two weeks. Nor has the shrine management chosen to fund arrangements to frisk pilgrims or scan their belongings for explosives. But the problem goes beyond Ajmer. India’s Intelligence Bureau is among the smallest domestic counter-terrorism services of any major country, with only half its estimated 20,000 personnel committed to covert duties. The Research and Analysis Wing lacks adequate resources. Most State police intelligence services remain dumping grounds for out-of-favour officers. Most important of all, politicians must strengthen India’s greatest defence against the extremist project — its centuries-old traditions of religious tolerance — by opposing all forms of chauvinism and communalism. Eight centuries ago, Khwaja Chishti did just that — and his order today commands a following that cuts across religious and caste affiliations. Leaders searching for means to combat the fundamentalist onslaught could do worse than leaf through his books.

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