Terrorism in South Asia

The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC on September 11, 2001 shocked the international community. Terrorism, which by and large was considered a phenomena limited to middle east and South Asia, was threatening the world’s most rich and powerful — the United States. The initial response to these terrorist acts was a knee-jerk military attack led by the US on the bases of al-Qaeda and its host Taliban in Afghanistan. As the dust settled in the mountains of ‘Tora Bora’, the international community shifted its attention to a much more serious business of understanding the anatomy of terrorism and various other issues related to it. Influenced by these developments, South Asia also witnessed renewed interest in terrorism, which even before September 11 has been a substantial security threat for the countries in the region. Terrorism in South Asia not only has direct impact on the different sectors of the economy of the affected countries, but it also creates unfavorable conditions for foreign investments, which has come to play an important role in the economic growth in this region. Terrorism in Bangladesh, the presence of terrorism in Chittagong Hill Tracts has led to the underdevelopment of this resource rich region. The substantial presence of anti-social elements like Mastans, who create severe law and order problem, discourage external investment in Bangladeshi economy. In Nepal, the tussle between the Monarchy, political parties and the Maoists to control the political imagination of this poor Himalayan country and the violence associated with it had an acute impact on different sectors of its economy. rnIn South Asia, terrorism has for long been a factor influencing interstate relations. India and Pakistan have a conflictual relation on the issue of terrorism. India accuses Pakistan and its ISI of sponsoring cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and North East and encouraging internal violence all over India. While Pakistan blames India of inciting ethnic and separatist strife in Pakistan. The relations between the two worsened further after terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in the December 2001, which saw India threatening to launch a full-scale war to end the cross border terrorism. Nepal and Bangladesh for allowing the terrorist originations of North eastern India to utilise their territories to run terrorist camps. Sri Lankans, on the other hand, had problems with India helping Tamil terrorist organizations form Sri Lanka. Examples of cooperation are limited but worth mentioning. There has been cooperation between India and Nepal in 1950’s to deal with political revolts in Nepal and India sent its troops to pressurise the LTTE for the implementation of 1987 agreement. On regional level, the 3rd SAARC summit in Kathmandu (1987) adopted a resolution to suppress terrorism, which was further reinforced in the Summit of 2001. After September 11 attack there has been a renewed effort by the US to cooperate with the South Asian countries to end the South Asian nexus of global terrorism.