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Kathmandu Saturday December 15, 2001 Marga 30 2058.
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Terrorism again
The other day, a group of five or six
unidentified suicidal gunmen — wearing army uniforms and loaded with explosives
— stormed into the Indian parliament, leaving six security personnel and a gardener
dead on the spot. Last December, Kashmiri militants had stormed into the historic Red
Fort. No militant group — be they operating in Jammu and Kashmir or northeast India
— has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s ugly attack. However, the attack
comes two months after the attacks at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon building in
the United States. The US has labelled Thursday’s attack as similar to that of
September 11, which claimed over five thousand lives and destroyed the nerve centre of US
capitalism. A month later, terrorists had carried out a similar attack on the Jammu and
Kashmir state legislature. The Pakistan-based Islamic militants claimed the responsibility
for the October attack only to deny it later. Soon after that attack, various terrorist
groups had threatened to attack the Indian parliament too. So there is no denying the fact
that terrorists were involved in this brutal attack on the sacred sanctum of Indian
democracy. This was the first such attack on the world’s biggest democracy and in
this part of the world. How did the gunmen breach Parliament security? How seriously has
India taken Thursday’s attack? Will India too follow a US style hot pursuit to flush
out the terrorists? These are a few questions that remain unanswered yet.
Militiamen came on a white Indian made
Ambassador car and managed to reach the parliament complex using a home ministry window
sticker and an official-looking siren. These sorts of signs on vehicles are used only by
Indian parliamentarians. The gunbattle that lasted half an hour took place on the lawns
and front steps of the sprawling British built Parliament building. Nepal expressed its
solidarity with India, calling the suicidal attack "an armed terrorist act" and
stating that Nepal stands by India in the fight against terrorism, besides strongly
condemning such heinous crimes. Nepal has also been a victim of such heinous acts of
cruelty and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has pledged to eliminate such terrorist
acts. The Maoists have not only crippled the administration of this country but also
reduced the country’s economy to cinders in the name of the people’s war. The
Maoist war that started six years ago has been against the democratic establishment rather
than for the rights of the poor. Any act that directly hurts pluralistic values should be
considered a terrorist act. India alone cannot deal with such terrorist acts, nor can any
other country by itself. One must admit that unless all countries join hands and find the
root causes of such activities, terrorism cannot be banished from the face of this
country. Thus pointing out how deplorable the attack on the Indian parliament, we also
strongly believe that countries of the SAARC region must cooperate in real meaningful
terms to wipe out terrorism from this part of the world. |
