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| Author: | Eben Kaplan, Associate Editor |
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July 31, 2006
The July 11 bombing of a Mumbai commuter railway, which killed over 180 people and injured more than 700, was the most recent of a long string of high-profile terrorist attacks in India. The U.S. National Counter Terrorism Center says India was the site of more than 12 percent of all terrorist attacks worldwide in 2005, and home to more terrorism-related fatalities than any other nation except Iraq. India, a nation of a billion people, has been confronted with terrorism since its birth, and currently contends with a variety of regional groups mainly intent on separatism.
India is embroiled in a number of low-intensity conflicts throughout its territory. Many terrorist incidents are the products of these clashes. The regions most affected are:
There are scores of insurgent and terrorist groups operating in the country. Those recognized by the U.S. State Department as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) or other "groups of concern" are:
A number of intelligence, military, and police organizations within the Indian government contribute to counterterrorism efforts. These include state-run police forces, special security forces to guard airports and other high-profile targets, and paramilitary forces that patrol the borders and assist the police when necessary. These paramilitary groups, such as the 165,000-strong Central Reserve Police Force, have been accused of committing human rights violations, especially in Kashmir, where they are particularly active. The army usually participates in counterterrorism operations as a last resort, though in Jammu and Kashmir they play a more consistent role. India's closest structural equivalent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is the Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees national police, paramilitaries, and domestic intelligence gathering.
India has several intelligence agencies that monitor terrorist activities. The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is the external intelligence agency and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), a division of the Home Affairs Ministry, collects intelligence inside India. A Joint Intelligence Committee analyzes intelligence data from RAW and IB as well as from a handful of military intelligence agencies, which usually provide tactical information gathered while carrying out counterterrorist operations.
The IB oversees an interagency counterterrorism center similar to the CIA. The Ministry of External Affairs oversees its own counterterrorism body, much like the U.S. State Department, which oversees diplomatic counterterrorism functions such as briefing other nations on suspected Pakistani sponsorship of terrorism in India.
Two days after the attacks, the government had rounded up 150 people for questioning and identified LeT as the most likely perpetrators. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not accuse Pakistan of direct involvement but cautioned his neighbor, saying "terrorist modules are instigated, inspired and supported by elements across the border."
Two weeks after the bombings, Indian authorities had made four arrests: an Indian doctor with ties to LeT, and three members of the Students Islamic Movement of India, which experts say has provided local contacts for LeT terrorists in the past. The significance of these arrests is unclear. Indian officials also announced the government would install new security equipment—including closed circuit televisions and metal detectors—in select train stations. There were no signals of any immediate sweeping changes to counterterrorism measures.
Some Indian journalists called the July 11 Mumbai bombings a failure of the country's intelligence community. Stephen P. Cohen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says that within the ongoing debate over the effectiveness of India's counterterrorism apparatus, "there's general agreement that the old institutions can't cope with the new pressures." Others countered the intelligence agencies are performing well, but politicians too often shy away from making tough security decisions for fear of angering their constituents. Jeevan Deol, a lecturer in South Asian studies at the University of London, says, "There may well be occasions where elected politicians may not see it in their interest to isolate insurgent groups." He says their actions are nothing "too unusual for an elected democracy."
India's counterterrorism measures have often been the subject of appeals by human rights organizations. Deol says Indian officials have a higher tolerance for collateral damage than counterterrorism authorities in many other nations. In an example of such tactics, he says, "Agencies and arms of the state have been accused of turning a blind eye in order to run rival gangs that would be tasked with killing other insurgents, but would also kill innocent people." Such tactics have been effective in the past, says Cohen, but only when coupled with political accommodation.
Not anymore. In 2002 India passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act, expanding the government's powers in combating terrorism. Some measures, such as the ability to keep terror suspects in custody without bringing them to trial, met with objections, and the law was repealed in 2004 after allegations that officials were abusing their powers. Other counterterrorism measures have since been slipped into subsequent legislation, though after the recent Mumbai bombings, some Indian politicians are calling for the law to be restored.
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