TWELVE ESSAYS ON TERRORISM A VIF Analysis TWELVE ESSAYS ON TERRORISM A VIF Analysis Edited by Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee Foreword by Gen NC Vij, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM Director, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi Vivekananda International Foundation New Delhi PENTAGON PRESS Twelve Essays on Terrorism Editor: Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi ISBN 978-81-8274-942-9 First Published in 2017 Copyright © RESERVED All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the book are the individual assertion of the Authors. The Publisher does not take any responsibility for the same in any manner whatsoever. The same shall solely be the responsibility of the Authors. Published by PENTAGON PRESS 206, Peacock Lane, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi-110049 Phones: 011-64706243, 26491568 Telefax: 011-26490600 email: [email protected] website: www.pentagonpress.in Printed at Avantika Printers Private Limited. CONTENTS Foreword vii Preamble ix List of Contributors xi 1. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its South Asian Connection: An Indian Perspective 1 Alvite Singh Ningthoujam 2. International Terrorism Post 9/11: Emerging Trends and Global Response 18 Rohit Singh 3. Maoist Insurgency: Escalation and Dimensions of the State’s Armed Response 56 Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee 4. Terror Financing and the Global CTF Regime 86 Abhinav Pandya and C.D. Sahay 5. Taxation and Extortion: A Major Source of Militant Economy in North-East India 120 Brigadier Sushil Kumar Sharma 6. Anti-Terror Laws in India and Pakistan: A Comparative Study 151 Navroz Singh 7. Rising Trend of Religious Radicalisation in Bangladesh 174 Ambassador Tariq Karim and Dr Madhumita Srivastava Balaji vi Twelve Essays on Terrorism 8. The ISIS and Radicalisation in the Central Asian Republics 196 Navroz Singh 9. Maoist Rebellion: Ground Realities 217 Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee 10. India’s New Pre-Emptive Action and Equivalent Retaliation (PAER) Strategy 225 Ashish Sirsikar 11. Breaking through A Strategic Logjam 230 General NC Vij 12. From Terrorism to Terror: Worrisome Developments for the International Community 234 Alvite Singh Ningthoujam Index 238 FOREWORD Upon Independence, India had been afflicted with many shades of insurgencies, as indeed it usually happens with new nation-states. It was the remarkable resilience of our nationhood and exemplary commitments of our military formations which prevented this anti-national phenomena from debilitating the nation’s integrity. It was thus that by the late 1970s the estranged and misguided elements had been finally controlled to manageable levels. However, the 1980s saw a new turn of anti-nationalism manifesting in the form of rise of terrorism. It appeared fist in Punjab and then in Kashmir, just as Maoist terrorism raised its head in Central India. Meanwhile, unable to retain relevance, remnant insurgencies in certain pockets of our North Eastern States have taken to terrorist activities. Thus for more than three decades past, India has been afflicted with various shades of terrorism. Terrorism in India has its roots in Pakistan’s existential pinning on anti- Indian ideology that has found radical religious moorings during the past decade. It is so that Pakistan’s policy of terror export has found powerful underwriters in the form of ‘all-weather’ and fundamentalist endorsers. Agreeably, distractive inclinations of our polity has permitted these India- inimical forces to perpetrate their trade. Though the situations in other areas are well under control, the situation in Kashmir continues to remain somewhat disturbed, due to complicity of our Western neighbours. Added to this matter of strategic concern is the spread of indigenous anti-nationals who fall victim to various forms of poisonous incitements from external propagators and their internal collaborators. Today terrorism, per se is counted as one of the three major danger issues in the world. Even the new President of US has mentioned it in his recent remark. For India, it has been a problem born with the partition of the country. viii Twelve Essays on Terrorism We, the strategic fraternity of the Vivekananda International Foundation, are seized of this growing menace. Accordingly, it has been our endeavour to analyse the phenomenon of terrorism and propagate appropriate considerations in defeating this poisonous hydra. To that end, I found it appropriate to disseminate some of the salient works carried out by the scholars of this Foundation. This book is a result of that idea. It is a compilation of twelve analytical papers on various aspects of terrorism, the purpose being to share facts and thoughts that might provide for the courses and options in tackling the menace. Jai Hind. February 2017 Gen NC Vij, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM (Former Chief of the Army Staff & Founder Vice Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority) Director Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi PREAMBLE As the mankind takes giant strides towards a dispensation of technological and economic empowerment, one of the darker fallouts of that progress is the scourge of terrorism. Individuals today are exposed to propagations of iniquitous political and religious beliefs, and facilitated by instant networking, find it easy to coalesce into groupings of like-minded catalysts for their version of societal ‘corrections’. Opportunities of fund ‘collection’ and virtually unbridled access to ‘technology of violence’ completes the diabolic circle of mindless mayhem upon the innocent and defenceless people that terrorism has come to represent. Beside a lunatic attraction for the role of ‘angels’ who are ordained to impose such bestial ‘objectives’ which the society finds abhorrent, terrorism is also seen by its propagators, controllers and executioners as a profitable commerce, a trade to live on and a ladder to political power. These lunatics – jihadists, Maoists or various factions of militants – propose to find those objectives through indiscriminate killings, funded by ruthless extortion and all manners of illegal transactions, that would purportedly force the societies and its ideologues to ‘convert’ to specified ways of radicalism. The truth, that notwithstanding the sufferings, terrorism has never triumphed against societal resilience, does not seem to penetrate the cocoon of ignorance in which the terrorists prefer to ensconce themselves. Terrorism has come to stay - till its failings mount to a level that even its most corrupt- brained adherer learns the futility of it all. Tackling terrorism is therefore no more a secondary responsibility for the governing establishments and its various institutions, it has notched up the State’s liability towards its citizen’s safety and societal stability. Study and analysis of this barbarous phenomenon is therefore a prime responsibility for the thinking and scholastic x Twelve Essays on Terrorism community. The purpose must be to dig into its causes, roots, ramifications, sustenance – and of course, remedy. The Vivekananda International Foundation, India’s premier think tank on strategic affairs has been engaged in consistent dissection of the phenomenon of terrorism that has injected a sense of despondency in India. This book is a compilation of twelve essays penned by its scholars over the past couple of years to bring out the various facets of understanding and control of the phenomenon of terrorism. Jai Hind. Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee, PVSM, AVSM, YSM (Retd) (Former Chief of Staff Central Command & Commandant Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai) Member Executive Council, Distinguished Fellow & Editor, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Alvite Singh Ningthoujam, is a Research Associate at the VIF. Earlier, he has served as a Fellow at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Centre for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has published articles in the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), The Diplomat, Asia Times, The Jerusalem Post, International Strategic and Security Studies Programme (ISSSP), Bangalore. He was also a contributing writer for the magazine Unmanned Flying Machines. He is the author of the chapter titled “Iran” in P.R. Kumaraswamy (ed.) Persian Gulf 2014: India’s Relations with the Region, published by Sage, New Delhi. Currently, he is also a final year Doctoral Candidate at the Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Rohit Singh graduated in History (Honours) from Hansraj College, Delhi University.He holds a post-graduate diploma in Electronic Media from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, and a Masters in Mass Communication from Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar. He had been a Research Assistant and later Associate Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), and a Senior Research Associate and Special Assistant to the Director at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), New Delhi. Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee, PVSM, AVSM, YSM (Retd), a former Chief of Staff, Central Command and Commandant, Officers’ Training Academy, Chennai, is a prolific writer on strategic issues, authoring so far over fifty papers and five books. He is a Member of the Executive Council and a Distinguished Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation,