Terrorism is an International Challenge

India is the frontline victim of terrorism. Terrorism from across the border has been used as a tool to destabilise India by not only using the weapons but the subversive ploys to engineer the balkanisation. Pakistan has tried every strategy right from its creation to exploit the religious diversity of India. Exploitation of democratic space is the key in this process of Pakistani machinations. It has continuously acted as an impediment for Indian rise. Using terrorism as the policy of statecraft has undoubtedly made it a de facto terrorist state. Operation Topac devised during the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq was a dangerous ploy to divert the assets of the Cold War meant to fight the USSR in Afghanistan. Diversion of arms and dollars towards Jammu and Kashmir by using ISI as the handler under the supervision of the Pakistani Army created the critical mass to engineer genocidal attrition in India. Not only that Pakistan’s indulgence in Punjab and sponsorship of Khalistani terrorists was a part of greater stratagem to hold India in a pincer. The Indian strategic community had been terming these gruesome developments as mere law and order problems that required traditional policing. But it was far from reality. As what was unfolding on the ground has larger transnational dimensions having roots across the continents. It was a clear preparation for a clash between progressive and regressive societies. The worst part being that Pakistan instigated the sleeper cells in India by invoking the religious sentiments. Terming the terrorist sponsorship as its legitimate right to complete the unfinished agenda of the partition. Though at the same time it indulged in plausible deniability. Radicalisation of religious sentiments was the art that it mastered to the worst possible extent. The outcome has been that Kashmir has lost generations of youth. What has compounded the problem is that China has emerged as the formidable ally of Pakistan in this malicious game to destabilise India by providing the moral and political legitimacy to its policy of using terrorism as a state policy. Forgetting that it is religious terrorism that is having a deep impact on its provinces too. It has banned such groups in its own territory but its shies away from doing so when it comes to India. As it suits Chinese designs to bleed and weaken India through Pakistan. This double standard has allowed religious terrorism and radicalisation gain ground in South Asia. Now Bangladesh too has emerged another launching pad of radicalisation and is posing a threat to Indian democratic space. India is facing a two and a half front war. The two fronts are staring on Eastern and Western flanks with the half front present within the nation in terms of subversives. In such a situation India has to strategize in a comprehensive manner. The assault on the adversary requires the strengthening of both internal and external security. Both military and diplomatic assets have to be kept on standby. After the successful outcomes of the Operation Sindoor, the all-party delegation is doing a wonderful job by sensitising the nations about the challenges posed by terrorism emanating from Pakistan and its ramification on other nations in the long and short run. Religious terrorism is an international challenge and the will be in the interest of humanity that it is nipped in the bud at the earliest.