Mind wars against terrorism
It should not be a surprise any more that Lashkar-e-Taiba has pushed Bahadur Ali into Kashmir from the other side, and that militant organisation was quick to take advantage of the killing of Burhan Wani last month. What is certainly surprising is that Ali was assured by his LeT superiors that Pakistan Army would provide the over through friendly fire as he slipped across the border. It has always been a matter of suspicion that the LeT would not be able to operate in the unhindered manner that it does without the indulgent oversight of the Pakistan Army and other branches of Pakistan government.
The confession of Ali which is anecdotal cannot be used as clinching evidence against Pakistan. But the general point is established beyond doubt. The LeT is actively indulging in subversive acts in Kashmir, and it could not be doing so without tacit support from the government in Islamabad. It is quite unlikely that Pakistan government and the army would own up to their acts of subversion, and desist from them in the future. The new twist in the story of the Pakistans export of terrorists is the latest communication gadgets that are being used by Islamist militant organisations.
The profile of the Islamic terrorist, either of the LeT or the Islamic State (IS), remains as puzzling as ever. It seemed that the terrorist recruits came from poor, socially backward and educated in the outdated madrasas. And Ali, the latest recruit, conforms to this description.
But there is the other type of recruit, who is from a better educated and social background like those involved in the Dhaka cafe attack. Many of the Islamic terrorists in Europe seem to belong to poorer social and economic backgrounds. But the sociological and psychological analysis of the terrorist would not go far if the organisational infrastructure is not taken into account.
There are two, separate and inter-related, issues involved here. The first is terrorism itself, and the second relates to Pakistan.
The Islamic militants like the LeT and IS represent organised terrorism. They have to be dealt with comprehensively and they have to be defeated.
DNA
