Dr.Sudershan Kumar
A recent incident where a father of a slain terrorist refused to accept the body of his son (Saiful) for performing the last rites can be seen as an eyeopener for 200 Million muslims in India. His son, Saiful was killed in an encounter at Lucknow on 8th March, 2017. Father’s words for his son were “Jo Kaam usne kiya hain, hum uspe naraaz hain aur desh drohi ki laash to hum nahi lengey.” These words and sentiments expressed by Sartaj the father of the slain terrorist were not only commendable, but also a source of inspiration to the parents of other children especially those in the valley. It is ironical and dreadful to see teenagers in Kashmir valley getting radicalized by the malicious propaganda across the border. The parents should motivate and persuade their children not to get carried away by social media and twitter messages.
It is also time for the security forces to introspect that how a teenager from middle class family gets self radicalized through aggressive media propaganda concerning religious fanaticism. Moreover they are offered to work for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS) also known as “Daesh” in many countries. These young misled and brainwashed teenagers prefer to die over the chance to surrender. Indian Muslims have long believed in peaceful narratives of Islam, further endorsed by Muslim parents like Sartaj. But the dark side is slowly growing prominent and India is gradually loosing its inherent peaceful soul to foreign Wahabi ideologies “violent Jihadism” being preached at a distant land of Iraq and Syria.
ISIS was born in 2003, when hundreds of Sunni Muslims were rendered jobless after unceremonial ouster of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein by American forces. The terrorists outfit Al Qaeda took the initiative and capitalized their anger and established Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). The sole aim of AQI was to fight the American troops stationed in Iraq. Further the peaceful unrest in Syria against the Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad gave a flip to AQI to spread its wings in Syria. This peaceful unrest later turned into a civil war when Syrian president Bashar al Assad started killing his own people. At this particular time AQI moved into Syria and renamed itself to Islamic State Iraq and Syria ISIS. Further ISIS also declared itself as Islamic State Caliphate(a theological empire) and captured vast Swath of land in Western Iraq and Eastern Syria. Besides, ISIS also forged allegiance with different radical Islamic groups scattered around the globe from Nigeria to Afghanistan. These Islamic groups governed the self proclaimed provinces and had also established a reign of terror. On the pretext of cleansing their territories from Christians, Alawites, Shias and Yazidis they committed genocides with the intention of destroying them completely. ISIS/Daesh also institutionalized slavery and raped women from Yazidis religion. Besides ISIS also indulged into suicide attacks at Baghdad, Ankara and many other places around the world. This resulted in to loss of innocent lives. Among these, the deadliest was in France on November 2015 where 130 people were killed and around 400 were injured. Besides they also detonated a bomb in a Russian air liner, killing 200 people on board. ISIS also grew into notoriety through extensive use of social media, and websites. They also generated viral videos of glorifying violence and also uploaded photos of Jihadis in combat dresses holding weapons with the sole aim of drawing the public attention and instigating many youths.
Although after Baghdadi declared him self as a caliphate of global Muslims in 2014,nearly all muslim clerics and other organizations in India had openly condemned the violence on the name of Islam. But at the same time a larger question was that up to what extent the ISIS can influence the younger muslim generation in India through its malicious and aggressive propaganda and website apps and hatred speeches. It is a well known fact that India has been on the map of ISIS ideologies. These ideologies are mostly led by educated Muslim Jihadis including IT professionals from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Middle East countries who joined ISIS between the year 2015 and 2016. Even few Indians, who were working in Middle East were also radicalized through religious fanaticism and joined ISIS camps in Syria and Iraq. Cardinally, from India,the members of Indian Mujahideen fled and reached Syria/Iraq via Nepal Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to join ISIS. These people might have been able to influence their friends and relatives residing in India. As for reports available, the first Indian citizen who joined ISIS was from Tamil Nadu Soon after ,4 men from Kalyan(Maharashtra) left for Iraq on the pretext of religious pilgrimage to join ISIS. These men hit the news posing with ISIS T-Shirts. There may be many more who might have made attempts to join ISIS camps. But their number is minimal as compared to Pakistan and other Middle East countries. These people through their local contacts tried to cause some stray incidents in different parts of country. But the timely action of our intelligence prevented the damage. Incident of 8th March was one of them. It is also a matter of concern that some teenagers in Kashmir valley are getting incited through the malicious propaganda across the border. They also display the ISIS flag along with Pakistani flag during protests. Therefore the need of the hour is to ascertain the fact whether ISIS module does exist or it is a game plan of few anti social elements/separatists to create confusion. Hence a strict vigil on these sort of activities is required. Also innovative technologies to counter aggressive ISIS propaganda in the country has to be applied. It is also the responsibility of every citizen of India that if they find same thing unusual in their area they must share it with the security agencies so that the appropriate and timely preventive action is taken by them to avoid any damage.
The author is of the opinion that till date ISIS is not able to lay its footage in India. Although there has been minor incidents in certain parts of the country, but the timely action of our security agencies helped curtail the damage.
In today’s global environment, the younger generation has lot of expectations from the society. To fulfill their aspirations, the role of parents, Govt agencies, Politicians is indispensable. Also attempts should be made for the upliftment of socio economic conditions through development so that various avenues are created for their employment. Hence the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to transform India by 2022 (75 year of India’s independence) through development of all sections of society is a ray of hope in this direction. But this has to be implemented in true spirit through combined efforts of all. Political Pundits must understand that the era of using people of different sections of society as their vote bank on the name of caste, creed and religions is over. They cannot be the champion of various sections of society. That is amply clear from the recent election results of five assembly states of the country. Hence instead of criticizing ,they should work together for fullfilling the expectations of younger minds who are the key to face the future challenges of the global world. It will also counter the game plans and menace of ISIS or any other organizations like that.
(The author is former Chief Controller R&D and Special Secretary MOD GoI)
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