ISIS terrorism : India and threat of global jihad

The seizure of the Iraqi city of Mosul last week was terrorist in purpose but military in design. They were not there just to do random damage and prove their point. It was a well-strategised attack in which they robbed millions from banks, opened gates of prisons, burned vehicles, killed civilians and still earned greetings from a section of civilians.

ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), founded in 2006 under the name of ISI (Islamic State in Iraq), which overran towns and cities north and west of Baghdad over the past week is an unrecognised State and Jihadi militant group in Iraq and Syria influenced by the Wahabi movement. It was established in the early years of the Iraq war and pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2004. However, Al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIS in February 2014, after a power struggle. ISIS has gone from strength to strength since 2006 by launching attacks with the strategy to seize resources like weapons, oil wells and money. Their aim is to erase boundaries — not for peace and love — but to establish an Islamic state governed under Islamic laws.

In a bid to establish Islamic States, they have different strategies for different nations. In Shia majority Iraq, ISIS has exploited Sunnis’ disappointment with the Government (hence opening gates of the prison with Sunnis prisoners) to gain strength. In Syria, it has seized territories already not under control of the Government.

That it is growing faster is evident from the fact that it was known in 2006 as ‘Islamic State in Iraq’, now as ‘Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’ and also alternately known as ‘Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’. Levant is a region which includes Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus and Hatay. Levant is described as the crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa.

With their different strategies for different nations and faster growth, it will be foolish to undermine their intentions of establishing Islamic world dominion. One of their maps of ‘world dominion’ includes parts of northern and western India, including a part of Gujarat.

Islamic terror attacks in the Middle East have hardly ever been a pressing concern for India, but the recent video released by Al-Qaeda urging people of Kashmir to wage a Jihad against India following their brothers in Syria and Iraq must open at least some eyes. The video ‘War should continue, message to the Muslims of Kashmir’ is proof of how the attacks by ISIS in Iraq and Syria are now being used to inspire Indian Muslims against India.

India shouldn’t ignore the fact that the Taliban Government in Afghanistan in 1996, which had full support from Pakistan, conducted war against India through cross-border terrorism. India should proactively react to the US withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, which is likely to lead to the Pakistani Army seeking a stranglehold in Afghanistan and stepping up its proxy offensive against India. It is arguable that this offensive has already begun with the recent May 23 attack on the Indian consulate in Herat.

Connivance of Pakistan’s ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) with Al-Qaeda and other Islamist terror outfits in its war against India sees its culmination in frequent terror attacks on Pakistan’s own soil. The recent attack on Jinnah International Airport (June 8) in Karachi is a case in point. Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Karachi airport as revenge for their late leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in November 2013. Pakistan has turned itself into the world’s laughing stock by allowing itself to become a safe haven for Islamic terror outfits which not only attack Pakistan every now and then but also operate global Jihad from the country.

It proves that Pakistan’s ISI, in its bid to harm India, has shot itself in its foot and can go to any extent even if it means killing the country’s own people.

Global Jihad is the campaign under which Islamist terror outfits are urging Muslims in Kashmir to wage war against their own country with the intention of turning it into an Islamic state. Their aim is to establish Islamist world supremacy.

Before history repeats itself, India should check the situation and rethink its foreign policy concerning the Middle East. Having better and stronger diplomatic, trade, intelligence and military ties with Middle East countries can be one way forward.

Source : Niti Central