The US state department’s finding that India had the third highest number of terror attacks in the world trailing behind Iraq and Afghanistan in 2016 comes as no surprise. This past year, however, the attacks have moved away from urban areas around the country to Kashmir and Left Wing Extremist (LWE) affected areas.
Data shows that India faced 927 attacks out of the 11,072 reported globally in 2016, which is a 16 per cent increase from the number of such incidents in 2015. The country also lost 337 lives to such attacks, a 17 per cent increase from 2015. That India has reported such an increase when global figures have actually come down by 9 per cent is unfortunate.
The trouble with terror that India is facing is that it is multi-pronged. While Indian forces are fighting separatists in Kashmir, India is also fighting militant politics in the less developed reaches of the country including to some extent Orissa.
The notoriety of the LWE movement is only reaffirmed by the US report, which has declared it the third most deadly terror structure in the world after the Islamic State and Taliban. Maoists were behind 336 terror attacks in 2016 which left 174 people dead and 141 others injured.
The Maoist attack on CRPF men in Bihar in July 2016, which left 16 people, including some attackers, dead was one of the most deadly last year.
That the Reds were behind almost two-thirds of terror attacks in India is in itself a clear indicator of their growing influence and resilience. More worrying is the fact that India showed the greatest diversity of active terror groups, 52 in all, operating within the country.
Now, the Intelligence fraternity in India believes that China is actively supporting the LWE. The government has given the army greater operational freedom in the Valley but efficiency in eliminating the threats has been noticeably low.
The US data showed that Jammu and Kashmir saw a 93 per cent escalation in terror attacks in 2016. The militant attacks and infiltration bids appear to have increased particularly in the wake of the surgical strikes carried out by Indian special forces last year.
Against this backdrop, perhaps it is time the government reassessed its approach to the issue both in the Valley and in the LWE areas. While development of states has been hypothesized as the chief deterrent, it is also important to understand the causes for mass support for violent movements.
The State needs to fight corruption, both moral and material, which is a key factor fostering violence. Whether it is possible or not, does not depend on a vigilant government machinery or clean politicians, but more on non corrupt citizens.
Separatists and Maoists are at one level only products of bureaucratic and political oppression and the government cannot hope to break their deadly influence by trying to impose its will by force alone. The best example of this in India is the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).