Terror: A Complex Rigmarole

Ram Puniyani

The major actors involved in this tragedy in Kashmir is an offshoot of terror groups, which came up in the aftermath of the American project of countering the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

As the US was in no position to take on the Russian army’s presence in Afghanistan, it promoted Madrasas in Pakistan which gave training to Muslim youth; Taliban and its later clones was the result. MahmoodMamdani in his well researched book, ‘Good Muslim Bad Muslim’, tells us how the syllabus of these Madras’s was prepared in Washington. Communists were presented as Kafirs. Killing Kafirs was propagated as the goal and in the achievement of this goal, even if one loses life, Jannat was assured. America spent eight thousand million dollars in these madrassas and provided them with 7000 tons of armaments, which included the latest stinger missiles.

The same phenomenon of terror, promotion of which was the imperialist ambitions of America in controlling the oil wealth of West Asia, did assume dangerous proportions creating havoc in the region. Just to remind it was this era when Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilisations’ thesis was ruling the roost. To the global good fortune, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, appointed a high-level committee to examine ‘Clash of Civilisation’ in particular.

This committee came out with a report “Alliance of Civilisations” which concluded that the World has progressed due to the alliance of Civilisations. This report did not get projections from various quarters. The Islamophobia planted by the acts of terror and the negative role of American media was so intense that in places, copies of the Koran were burnt.

The terror phenomenon turned into Frankenstein’s monster. While it played its negative role at multiple levels, it turned into destruction recklessly and Pakistan has also been a victim of this phenomenon. One recalls that the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in one such attack by the terror groups. GTI (Global Terror Index) is a composite measure made up of four indicators: incidents, fatalities, injuries and hostages. To measure the impact of terrorism, a five-year weighted average is applied. In this, Pakistan is 2nd and India 14th. Meaning the acts of terror have tormented Pakistan much more than India.

No wonder that the victims of terrorism are more in Pakistan, as it is the madrassas in Pakistan where the training was given. While India has to ensure that no acts of terror take place in India, there is also a need to understand that this cancer of terror sown by imperialist ambitions for control over oil can be eradicated by cooperation at global level.

“…Pakistan—a country repeatedly labeled as the “global exporter of terror”—has been appointed to chair the United Nations Security Council’s Taliban Sanctions Committee in 2025. Simultaneously, it will serve as vice-chair of the Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee.” Surely this tells a complex tale.

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 2, Jul 6 - 12, 2025