Terrorism, a major concern of each country on the globe and it has become very difficult for each nation to fight it out. As per the data of Global Terrorism available from maintained by National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism (START), one can easily infer that the terrorism is growing at a fast pace . Terrorists use violence as a means to create terror amongst masses of a nation to achieve their financial, political, religious or ideological aims and objects. For this they need financial as well as human resources, without which no terrorist organization can operate.
So, to fullfil their needs the terrorists use all sorts of techniques and methods to acquire the human resource and train them in special training camps and centres to wash their brain and act as per the command of their bosses, for getting its ill and dangerous consequences. Our nation India has also become one of the victims of these ill practices of the various terrorist organizations and the same is apparent from various incidents which had took place in the country in the recent past, especially in Kashmir. The terrorist organization misguides the young boysand recruit and trains them to commit heinous terrorist activities. These terrorist groups use social media and other apps to target the youth of India. The youths are manipulated and are called to countries like Syria, Libya and Iraq to join the said terrorist organizations and then used as a weapon against the peaceful nations to created terror. India and other nations have to find some way by which they can stop the said recruitment process to reduce the growing global terrorism.
Terrorism is the sudden and systematic use of violence to intimidate peace loving population’s population or government for political, religious or ideological goals[endnoteRef:2]. This definition is similar to one provided ––by the United Nations. Terrorism now a day has become a major problem around the globe. It has become important for every government to make policies to tackle it. India is also amongst these countries facing terrorism at vide spread levels. The Indian government has become cautious against the increasing terrorist activities within the nation and has started taking various steps to curb these activities. Before discussing the current terrorism scenario in India, let us first know about short history of terrorism in India.
India has always been considered to be a soft target for conducting the terrorist activities and that is the reason that it faced various attacks in the past and recent past . From east to west and from north to south.. Mumbai and Pune were the victim cities which faced the various serious terrorist attacks. The infamous coordinated series of attacks of 26/11 were conducted in Mumbai, in March 1993 – 13 Bombs killing 257 people and injuring so many others, and since then various other states of India like Bihar, Punjab, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh etc.,had also been the victims of terrorist activities.
After facing a long history with terrorism, the government of India has divided terrorism in various groups depending upon the motives of the various terrorist groups. There are four major groups or categories under which the terrorism is divided in India.
When a single terrorist organization becomes operative in more than one country, then one can say that the said terrorist organization has become global and in the present era with the help of internet it become very easy for every terrorist organization to become global. There are various terrorist organizations which are operating within the territory of India and are global in nature.
The South Asia Terrorism Portal[endnoteRef:7] (SATP), has listed 180 terrorist groups that have operated within India over the last 20 years, Many of them are also listed as transnational/global terror networks operating in or from neighboring south Asian countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Ministry of Home Affairs has banned the said organizations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The said banned 180 terrorist groups belong to various categories as discussed above and having different motives accordingly. [7: South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) (2014)]
Manpower and Funding of Terrorist Organizations. An organization is ineffective without proper manpower and funds and it always strives to get the better human resource more and more funds, as the same will help them to develop new technologies and equipments which in turn help them to cause violence to fulfill their motive. To manage the human resource, the organization needs huge amount of finances. But being illegal they can never have a legal source of funding as well as human resource. The funds are made available to them by various person and countries by way of Hawala besides actual payments by personal meeting. Recently the problem is however, solved to a large extent of accounts with the help of Information Technology as discussed below.
Cyber hacking of accounts is the latest way of collecting finances. With the help of the internet such organizations and their active members can hacks the server of banks etc. and steal the huge amount of money. In the modern world everything is becoming online, from education to shopping. The use of internet is spreading at a fast pace. Major population of the country use smart phones and shares their sensitive information like debit/credit card number and passwords to various sites for online purchases without realizing the threat which they face by sharing such information. The spread of terrorist activities with the help of internet/cyber space is called cyber terrorism
Cyber terrorism means attacks through internet from cyber space both from internal and It emanates from various terrorist sources with different set of motivations and are directed towards a particular target.[endnoteRef:8]It is a newly developed concept which has emerged out of the misuse of the internet by the terrorist organizations. The terrorist use internet to kill someone financially and India is becoming its latest victim. India has the third highest users of mobile phone with an estimate of 381 million mobile phone subscriptions with internet connectivity.
So, in simple words cyber terrorism means spreading or strengthening terrorism with the help of internet and today internet has becomes a very important part of every individual`s life or the made today’s busy life quite simple. Information, daily utility services etc. can be availed by just clicking the mobile phones. Vast scale of economical activities is online and nations are moving towards digitalization of economy to become more accountable and efficient. On the other hand, the terrorists are using this as an opportunity to create terror. They use different types of cyber hacking to generate finance to fund their organization. Many terrorist organizations use the sensitive information of the people like bank details and loot their amounts to generate their finances.
Terrorist organizations use social media and other digital applications for spreading terrorism. The ‘Social Media’ has now become an inseparable part of the life of the general public. It is not possible to survive without it. Virtual world is now the new reality instead of the real world. People are more active in virtual world than real word. But at the same time one have to be cautious while using the social media because people sitting far away from us can use our information which might create a problem for us in future. Cyber terrorism is one of the biggest dangers of today and tomorrow. So the people have to be made more aware and cautious while using the internet and online services as they have to guard themselves and their information from being misused by the people involved in cheating /hacking and terrorism.
As discussed earlier that human resource is one of the important part of any terrorist organization, without which the same cannot operate. So, to fulfill their needs terrorist organizations like ISIS (Islamic States of Iraq and Syria) etc recruit unemployed Indian youths by offering them handsome salaries and allowing them of so many other benefits.
India socially divided amongst the Hindus and Muslims and creating disturbances in an area and various political leaders use this communal difference for their vote bank politics. There speeches are sometimes so hateful that they create the feelings of hatred amongst the youths against the nation. The individuals which are full of anger and hatred become easy prey for the terrorist organizations. The terrorist groups with the help of the social media and other digital applications develop a contact with such individuals and wash their brains with their manipulative skills and ask them to join their terrorist groups. Once an individual get ready to join these groups they sent them to Pakistan, Iraq or Syria and coverts them into proper militants within a few months and then use them as a proper terrorist to create terror. The terrorist organization not only aims on individuals having physical strength but also on youths having mental skills, so as to strengthen their research and development departments.
The recruitment of Indian youths in such organizations is increasing day by day. Recently it was news that the local recruitment in the terrorist groups is increasing alarmingly in Kashmir. Due to political instability there the individuals in search of job, lands into the hands of terrorist organization which offers them handsome money to create terror in the different parts of the country. The terrorist take advantage of the ill socio-political conditions and leave no opportunity to create and promote terrorism. Religious terrorism in India is also a major cause of concern.
Conclusion
In the growing world of technology and internet we cannot ignore the people who are against the humanity, who always seek the opportunity to create terror amongst the masses just for their personal needs, ego and its satisfaction. But by being together against terrorism and without criticizing the government over the steps taken by it we can give a strong message to the terrorists and terrorist organizations that India is united to fight terrorism and is not divided on caste, creed or religion basis against the barbaric and inhumane activities of terror.
So, we should stop promoting the communal politics in India, which at the present time is at its peak. Secondly, we should promote basic education regarding the safe use of internet by masses and not to fall prey to the terrorist organizations through social media. The Government is using its full potential to tackle the problem of terrorism in India and our Hon’ble Prime Minister Mr. Narender Modi in his frequent tours to foreign nations and meetings with the foreign governments has always been raising the issue of global terrorism and to take collective steps to curb terrorism. So, now it is our turn to be more responsible towards this very sensitive issue and work together to curb terrorism and to save our progenies from terrorists’ attacks.
