As the world wades into a quarter of the 21st century where economic progress has reached dizzy heights and dominance of AI in everyday lives a reality; the stark reality is that the age old problem of terrorism continues to haunt the globe. Despite high levels of achievement in economic and technical fields, the ideology of terror defies the longing for peace. There are different kinds of terrorism with varying objectives but all defined by a common denominator – death and destruction. Recently, India and Canada have been at loggerheads over the activities of Khalistanis operating from Canada directed against India. Due to its extreme west-oriented liberalism, Canada has not only tolerated terrorism with pacifism but even going to the extent of defending the activities of its ‘Canadian citizens’ as freedom of speech and action.
Khalistanis want to establish an independent nation ‘Khalistan’ and have been funded and abetted by Pakistan. Khalistanis operating from Canada were behind the bombing of Air India’s Kanishka flight 182 on June 23, 1985. India had in 1982 demanded extradition of Talwinder Singh Parmar, wanted in India for various terror acts but then Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau refused the Indian request. Parmer went on to mastermind the bombing of Air India plane Kanishka which killed over 300 people but was “protected” by the government headed by Pierre Trudeau, father of the incumbent, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. It may be noted that the current Canadian prime minister had protected Hardeep Singh Nijjar a Khalistani extremist who was shot dead by unknown gunmen. Justin openly accused India of being behind the killing of the Khalistani extremist. Another kind of terrorism is social revolution such as the Naxalites /Maoists, active in several parts of India who are waging a class revolution to overthrow the constitutional democracy and replacing it with Marxist-Leninist dictatorship.
Another type of terrorism use of religion as has been ongoing in Jammu& Kashmir by Pakistan-backed terrorists. Terrorists using religion to camouflage the ruthless and cold blooded minds of the perpetrators is not unknown. Perhaps among all terror outfits, ISIS, the world’s most brutal, murderous and deadly terror outfit has drenched itself with the blood of several thousands of people, mostly innocent who were beheaded in a most horrific manner while enslaving thousands of minor girls as sex slaves in territories it overran. Terrorists choose the softest targets possible – unarmed civilians or crowded markets. It is a cowardly act and heinous crime against humanity carried out by depraved minds. Terrorists have no qualms about killing innocents simply to create mayhem and devastation. Fighting terrorism requires not only highly trained men with the right attire, weaponry, transport, assault helicopters and sophisticated equipments; but also very high degree of intelligence inputs with in depth knowledge about the psychology of terrorists. The war on terror has to continue with greater commitment and the free world must unite on this issue and fight back to survive.