Counter-Terrorism: India Rolls Up Local Leadership

Archives

April 8,2008: India has struck a major blow against local Islamic terrorists. Police have arrested thirteen of the top leaders of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India). This organization has been involved in nearly all of the Islamic terror attacks in India since 2001. The take down was accomplished by the capturing a few of these leaders last month, then using intense interrogation to get information on where the others were hiding out, and where camps and weapons caches were.

Over the last decade, there has been a growing number of radicals among the 140 million Indian Moslems. Indian Islamic radical groups have been around since before India became independent sixty years ago. But in the last few years, more and more Indian Islamic radicals have adopted al Qaeda's beliefs and tactics. This gathered steam in the 1990s, as radicals took over SIMI. Pakistani radicals helped out by assisting Indian Islamic militants with training, weapons and even technical advisors. Saudi Arabian religious charities, which support the spread of very conservative Islam (Wahhabism), plays right into the hands of al Qaeda and Islamic radicals in general. The Indian government has gone to the Pakistani and Saudi government for some help in halting the spread of Islamic terrorism, and has received some cooperation. But so far, the biggest obstacle Islamic radicals face in India is that the majority of local Moslems are hostile to terrorism in the name of religion. Indian Islamic radicals are responsible for a lot of the pro-Islamic terrorism web activity. That's because the Indians tend to be better educated, and speak English. But these fellow also tend to talk more, and act less. Most of the terrorism in India still comes from imported Islamic terrorists, communist rebels and tribal separatists.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close