US Congress report traces root of suicide attack to India

Suicide attacks have a lengthy pedigree, with historical precedents to be found on the Malabar Coast in India, a report prepared for the US ...

Suicide attacks have a lengthy pedigree, with historical precedents to be found on the Malabar Coast in India, a report prepared for the US Congress said.

‘‘Historical examples of the use of suicide attacks is found among Muslim communities in Asia during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly on the Malabar Coast of India, in Atjeh in northern Sumatra and in Mindanao and Sulu in southern Philippines,’’ the report ‘‘Terrorists and Suicide Attacks’’ prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) that traces the history of suicide attacks said.

Employment of suicide attacks as a terrorist technique was not exclusive to one culture or religion, it said and added that most terrorist operatives were psychologically normal. The report found that suicide attacks among Palestinian groups seemed to have inspired a self-perpetuating subculture of martyrdom.

The report also brings out with much concern the role of women in carrying out suicide attacks. ‘‘About a third of the suicide attacks carried out by the Black Tigers, as the LTTE suicide squad is known, have been conducted by women. They included the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991,’’ it said.

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