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Analysis: India Reels Under Terrorism

Council on Foreign Relations

October 14, 2008
Author: Jayshree Bajoria

The Indian state is no stranger to terrorism. According to the latest report on global terrorism by the U.S. government's National Counterterrorism Center, more than one thousand people died in India because of terrorist attacks in 2007, ranking the country fourth behind only Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Most of these deaths relate to the territorial dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. But internal causes contribute significantly to this violence, including conflict with India's Maoists-the Naxalites-and other separatist and insurgent movements in the country's northeastern states.

Yet a spate of bomb attacks (BBC) across the country in the last six months has stumped the Indian government and its intelligence agencies. A group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for many of these attacks, raising fears that India may have a homegrown Islamic militant problem. "The role of Pakistan-based terrorist groups cannot be minimised but the involvement of local elements in recent blasts adds a new dimension to the terrorist threat," admitted the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The mostly Hindu nation of over a billion people has a large number of ethnic and religious minorities, including the world's second-largest Muslim population, numbering some 150 million. Each of these minority groups face economic disadvantages and some demand political and territorial concessions, say experts.

For decades, India has blamed Pakistan for supporting terrorist activities inside India and funding and training Islamic militant groups in India's part of Kashmir. In recent times, New Delhi has pointed to Bangladesh, too, where it claims militants responsible for some terrorist attacks find shelter. India-Pakistan friction over Kashmir also trickles down to India's Muslims. As Indian columnist Kuldip Nayar has said, "When we have friction with Pakistan, Muslims in India feel the heat and suffer" (Rediff).

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.