Faith-based terrorism is the biggest challenge: NSA
Shunning political correctness, national security advisor MK Narayanan on Thursday said ‘faith-based terrorism’ was the biggest challenge facing the international community as most groups engaged in violent conflicts “tend to have a radical Islami...
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: Shunning political correctness, national security advisor MK Narayanan on Thursday said ‘faith-based terrorism’ was the biggest challenge facing the international community as most groups engaged in violent conflicts “tend to have a radical Islamic visage”.
Mr Narayanan tried to drive home the point that jihadis have already widened their bloody faultlines against the international community. Countries are now “pitted against global actors, dispersed, fanatical terrorist networks who have the capacity to wage war internationally”, he said while addressing an international seminar here on ‘growing challenges of terrorism with special reference to railways’.
The NSA stressed the need for larger political and security alliances with other countries. “Motives and morale, men and material, scale and scope — all have changed, apart from technology. Many more terrorist outfits today have a trans-national reach, most are seemingly unteethered to geographical locations or even to political ideologies,” he said.
He said the “institutionalisation of violence” has made new terrorism more asymmetric as newer groups combined many “precepts and practices” of older outfits with novel attributes, much of it made possible by state-of the art technology, global mobility and increased stealth.
The NSA, who said that the transnational terror networks are the biggest threat, emphasises that “they (terrorists) share common operating procedures and common training practices. They espouse common operating philosophies. And often have common funding structures”.
ADVERTISEMENT
Elaborating this point, he said “terrorist attacks, whether they are in Madrid or Mumbai, or suicide bombers be they be in Bali or Casablanca, Jerusalem or Jammu, show the same pattern of improvisation of tactics, weaponry, reconnaissance techniques, the use of improvised explosive devices and other sophisticated delivery systems,” Narayanan said. He said it was noteworthy that captured militants, whether in Kashmir, London or Indonesia, claimed it was possible for their groups to gather recruits from different climes, backgrounds, skills and countries, through a uniform training programme.
Mr Narayanan argued in favour of networking with countries said such links would help the country to protect its pluralism and democracy. “One of the important features of faith-based terrorism is the extent of its external linkages,” he said adding that in many, if not most, cases there is the element of external sponsorship — whether state-sponsored, state-supported or by non-state actors.
“Sponsorship and external linkages have tended to fertilise indigenous terrorism. We, are nevertheless, determined that even while dealing with the challenges, there will be no dilution of our determination to sustain India as an inclusive, open, multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic society,” he said.
Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
ADVERTISEMENT
