Terrorism146;s Who146;s Who

Of over two decades of terrorism that India has been fighting, the brand exported by Pakistan in Jammu 038; Kashmir and which keeps popping up in various other parts of the country is almost a decade and a half old. While intelligence agencies have reams of data on the various tanzeems terrorist outfits which proliferated from Pakistan over this period, this is perhaps the first compilation accessible to the layman and expert alike.

The first part of the book is a preface and an introduction, while the second consists of crisp write-ups on 31 tanzeems. As Santhanam states in his preface, this tome is an attempt to understand and answer the question, 8220;who is doing what to whom, where and why?8221;

While 8220;conventional terrorism8221; has been covered, the alarming aspect which has emerged and which warrants more national and international attention and research is that of a 8220;slim but finite probability that Pakistan would use the Kashmir issue to resort to acts of 8216;nuclear terrorism.8217;8221; It may be recalled that in October 2001 the US was worried about Pakistan8217;s 8220;loss of control8221; over its nuclear weapon cores and trigger sub-assembles and the links of senior Pakistani nuclear personnel with the ISI and jihadis. Questions raised by reports of the discovery of reactor-grade uranium by American forces from a cave in Afghanistan remain unanswered. For India, which declared its 8220;no first use8221; policy, there is also the worrisome question of how to respond, should any tanzeem and Pakistani non-state actor collaborate to target it with a nuke.

The analysis covers the 1980s and 1990s as well as the post-9/11 period, patterns of terrorist funding, training, arms supply and continuing cross-border terrorism in J038;K as well as the recent assembly elections in the Valley.

The second part is a compendium of profiles of 31 terrorist outfits. This is no easy task. Every time a sensational or till-then-unprecedented heinous attack is launched, new names spring up overnight to confuse the security forces and intelligence agencies. The origins, links and activities of some of the organisations dispel any doubt about the global spread of the network.

The most active of all Pakistani groups in India to date, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami HUJI, was formed in 1980 by youth affiliated to the Jamaat-ul-Ulemah-e-Islam and Tabligh Jamaat of Pakistan. HUJI fought troops of the erstwhile Soviet Union in Afghanistan, has been fighting against the Russian army for Chechnya, against US forces currently in Afghanistan; and its latest brief is to establish itself in Bangladesh. The greatly multiplied ISI presence in Bangladesh in recent months bears testimony to this. HUJI gets major support from the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan, which has openly claimed that it has access to nuclear weapons.

Jihadis in Jammu and Kashmir is a welcome ready reckoner for the strategic community in India and other countries afflicted by terrorism. For the curious layperson too it could prove invaluable.