Several jihadi attacks failed to move the Indian State as it was not moved by continuous attacks on the State by the Marxist Leninist revolutionaries. Security breeches evoke patent speeches from the political masters. The only thing that churn the nation when the politicians get embroiled in casteism, minorityism, vote bank shenanigans and threat to their power bases, in cahoots with the bureaucrats, a class better suited for the bygone colonial days. On rare occasions some intelligence officials, military brass and rare species of analysts get alarmed over the renewed Western Disturbances that threaten Indian security, and their approaches are normally consigned to the political cold storage of expediency.

However, in reality, a huge Western Disturbance, you can say a severe tectonic disturbance, is taking place at India’s western flank and other flanks of our country over which discerning security, intelligence and military bodies cannot sleep in political Nirvana. The tsunami waves of Jihadist advances have been released by the disturbances in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is a matter of time these waves hit India devastatingly, with unthinkable consequences.

The main tectonic plates that are grinding the geopolitical and geostrategic strata in Afghanistan and Pakistan are the 1) Taliban Classic, 2) Neo-Taliban, 3) al Qaeda, 4) Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Diaspora, 5) Franchised Jihadi forces belonging to Africa, South East Asia and European countries, 5) The Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan, and 6) The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence of Bangladesh.

The collateral forces that are involved directly are the US and NATO allies. India’s lackadaisical security approaches to the emerging problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Bangladesh are mostly viewed through the coloured filters of “secularism”, “minorityism” and the artificial firewall against Right Reactionary Hindu Nationalist forces. In India, even nuclear issue is conditioned by the political paint of “minorityism.”

India is yet to recognize that after 9/11 and 11/12 the jihad forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and countries where Old McDonald al Qaeda has opened up new franchisees-in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and obviously in UK, USA and other western countries have generated new security concerns. The Jihad International cannot be dissected in isolation as the total anatomy is umbilically and ideologically one and single. For the limited purpose of our discussion we could keep confined to the immediate West and subcontinental references.

Afghanistan imbroglio has metastasized into a cancer. US decision to defeat the Cold War enemy USSR in Afghanistan with Arab and Pakistani help had encouraged the historical Islamist forces like the Wahhabis, Deobandis, Al Azharis, Ikwan-ul-Muslimin, Salafis and new Islamist order invoked by Jullandhari General Zia-ul-Haq to reinvent the Neo-Islamist philosophy of the 2ist century. The nuclear fission of Jihad against jahil and kafir communists spilled over the killing fields of Afghanistan.

No requiem is required for the demised Soviet Union, but RIP rhymes are genuinely required for the US and its allies; Pakistan included. By Islamicising Pakistan and legitimising jihad Zia-ul-Haq had done the greatest disservice to Pakistan and subcontinental Muslims than any other fanatic who might have dreamt like Shah Waliullah to restore the glory of Islam even by inviting Ahmad Shah Abdali or Jinnah invoking “Direct Action.” Zia’s invitation to the US and the Saudis was no less than a suicidal action than Waliullah’s inviting the Afghan Warlord and Jinnah’s forcing an impractical partition. The supposed virtuous people committed the most heinous crime-all in the name of religion.

The genie of jihad in Afghanistan was geopolitically and geostrategically exploited by all the involved parties, financiers, arms suppliers and jihad breeders. The people of Afghanistan were exposed to perpetual condemnation. The genie of Jihad started by the ideological concepts of the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimin (Egypt), Wahhabism (Saudi Arabia) and Salafism (neo-puritans-Jawahiri brand), Deobandism and the al Qaeda have now morphed into an ideology of Jihad International against the West and its allies, and by extension the territory of Hindoostan over which Islam ruled for nearly thousand years. While the genie of jihad have been transformed into an ideology and are affecting various parts of the world, in South Asian subcontinent it has taken the form of a formidable twister that can transform geopolitical maps of our three countries once again. Many subcontinental Islamicists have resumed thinking in terms of recapturing the TAJ-E-HIND, which they say, rightfully belonged to them and the British and Hindus conspired to snatch away the crown of Hindoostan. Understanding these blatant psychological changes is important in interpreting the present Jihadi campaign.

To understand this new wave of Jihadism we may briefly examine the main players:

The Classical Taliban was not born out of pious Naqshbandi (originated at Bokhara) Sufi piety. Pakistan had linked up the Herati and Kandahari Naqshbandis with the Qadiriya Sufis of Paktia, Paktika etc eastern provinces and formed a nebulous coalition under the Deobandi guidance and Jammat-ul-Ulema Islam’s supervision.

Most of Mullah Omar’s bands were trained in Pakistan based Deobandi and JUI madrasas and were coalesced as a fighting force by the ISI during the regime of Benazir Bhutto. They were initially used as a group armed by the ISI and the CIA to help opening up Kandahar-Heart route to Turkmenistan and other countries for trading and for laying a gas/oil pipeline. Later, the border madrasas were temporarily closed down and over 15, 000 talibs were sent to strengthen the hands of Mullah Omar. Thereafter, regular Pakistan Army personnel and ISI recruited Tanzeem fighters also joined the Taliban for capturing political power and establishing a strategic depth for Pakistan and for opening up trade routes.

After capture of Kabul Mullah Omar took out the gown of Hazrat Mohammad in April 1996, put it on and in front of 1200 Pashtun mullahs and assumed the title of Amir-ul-Mu’minin (protector of the faithful). The same year Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Jawahiri and their entourage flew into Afghanistan after being evicted from Sudan. The relationship waxed and waned and a tricky balance was maintained by the ISI, though Saudi Arabia and USA were keen to get Osama extradited.

Prince Turki, chief of Saudi intelligence had visited Kandahar to persuade Omar with a fat purse, but the prince was rebuffed. The US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 had destroyed the intangible edifice of the Classical Taliban. Mullah Omar and his close associates survived by using guile and plenty of help from the ISI, which always maintained a steady link with the one eyed fanatic.

The Taliban regime was demolished but installation of Karzai and restoration of some semblance of government and governance has also been intangible. The physical corpus of the Classical Taliban was created by the ISI, CIA and fanatics like Maulana Fazl-ur- Rahman (JUI). But the effervescent ideology of purist Islamic rule advocated by the old Naqshbandis, Qadiriyas and Chestiyas (Chisti school of Sufism) and fortified by Wahhabism, Ikhwan-ul-Muslimin, Salafism and al Qaeda brand International jihad has given rebirth to the New Taliban movement. New Taliban is the first umbrella jihadi organizations in Pakistan, which have the potential of spreading all over Pakistan. Already the New Taliban forces have started operating in Punjab and sooner than later they are likely to obliterate the Indo-Pak border.

Mullah Omar and few of his close associates are still exercising suzerainty over half of Afghanistan. They have seeped into Kabul and have started shaping minds and events. The new forces inside and outside Afghanistan have set goals to establish a new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Pakistan, either as two separate geopolitical entities or as a federation of two different Emirates bonded by the ideology of purist Islam.

What is this Neo-Talibanism? There is nothing new in it. Way back in 1998 groups of mullahs and madrasa students were enforcing purdah, banning video parlours, closing down barber shops and enforcing strict Islamic laws in NWFP areas. In 1998 Mullah Omar obliged the Pakistan unit of Tehrik-e-Teluba (Taliban movement) in Orakzai Agency of Pakistan. Thousands of people were executed in Taliban style to enforce pure Islam.

The Orakzais were imitated by other tribes and in Quetta the mullahs also created Tehrik-e-Teluba and tried to enforce strict Islamic way of life. The so called Neo-Talibanism is nothing but reformation of the Islamist ideological forces amongst the tribal population of Pakistan, and Afghan tribes other than Pashtun. These forces are now spreading into other areas of Pakistan.

Between 1998 and 2008 Pakistan itself has undergone vast changes. Pashtuns living in Punjab and parts of Sind, besides the NWFP, were inspired by the spirit of Jihad advocated by the Taliban and al Qaeda. They were drawn more towards the resurgent Islamic forces by the intervention of the US and NATO in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and threatened intervention in Syria and Iran.

The festering sore in Palestine and growing gangrene in Lebanon and blatant intervention in oil producing African countries have convinced the Muslims that the West and its allies are trying to destroy the Islamic countries for all time to come. The Jihad fever, Muslim scholars feel, is not likely to subside without redrawal of political maps of the Islamic countries through guerrilla warfare, and recognition by the WEST that whenever they intervened in any part of the world, for establishing territorial, economic and hegemonistic colonies they left those countries in total shambles. Britain escaped from India after creating deep scars and the USA is in the process of escaping from Iraq and Afghanistan after creating enormous human sufferings.

This psychological trauma, prolonged war situation and failure of the WEST to score battlefield victories have inspired numbers of Afghan and Pakistani groups to embrace the Taliban, al Qaeda and Jihadi philosophy and way of life as deemed weapons of deliverance.

Mankind has the deep rooted tendency of escaping to the supernatural when it finds the natural happenings beyond his control. Jihadi aggression, as prescribed in the Quran, is a simplistic escape route to justify different kinds of war against odds. Even Babur, after being threatened with defeat at Panipat, had broken his wine glass, destroyed his cellar and told his soldiers that the war against Hindoostan was a JIHAD and they would sacrifice everything to achieve that Allah appointed goal.

The rise of new bands of Talibans, euphemistically called Neo-Talibans, is a mix of old Afghan mujahideen stalwarts like Haqqani and new incarnations like Baitullah Mehsud etc. Haqqani had set up strings of madrasas in North Waziristan. Recently one such madrasa was destroyed by Pakistan army.

The Haqqani led Taliban group has had waxing and waning of relationship with the ISI, CIA and Omar group. Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani was part of the preeminent Afghan militants exiled to Pakistan during Daud’s presidency. During the Jihad years, Haqqani fought the soviets in Paktia and Paktika provinces as a powerful mujahideen commander under banner of Maulvi Yunes Khales’ Hezb-i-Islami. He was respected in Arab countries and received Saudi intelligence backing beside CIA and ISI support. He had emerged as a respected commander. For a while he was a member of the Mujahideen government.

He had sided with the Taliban Force and was appointed Minister of tribal affairs. However his relationship with Omar soured and he spent his time in Pakistan and Gulf countries. However, after renewed US attack and re-emergence of insurgency the Haqqani led Taliban emerged as a group challenging Omar’s leadership. Omar has no Pan-Afghan Vision. Haqaani claims to have better political vision for entire Afghanistan. He refuses to recognize Omar as self-appointed Amir-ul-Mu’minin. Haqqani was inspired by Naqshbandi Islam and he never cherished the Ikhwal-ul-Muslimin and Salafi brand of Islam.

In an open letter to Taliban fighters and other Afghan insurgents written in the pad of “Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan.” Haqqani’s message described Mullah Omar as an illiterate person and alleged him for misleading the Afghan people. Haqqani suggested that errors by the Taliban leadership had caused the loss of many prominent commanders, including Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Osmani, Mullah Dadullah, Mullah Abdul Manan and Mullah Saifullah Mansoor.

The veteran jihadi commander believes that the Taliban’s shura (consultative council) in Quetta was influenced by al Qaeda and the ISI. He bitterly criticized Mullah Azizullah Eshaqzai, Mullah Abdul Shakoor and Mullah Jan Muhammad Baloch, all relatives of Omar for issuing orders that have caused losses to Taliban forces. He also pleaded for better relationship with other countries (probably including India).

Jalaluddin Haqqani has strong influence in eastern Afghanistan and the North Waziristan tribal agency of Pakistan, which puts him in a far stronger position than any other leader of the Taliban except Mullah Omar. His “Haqqani Network” has proved highly effective in striking government and Coalition targets, leading him to be regarded in some quarters as already a greater threat than Mullah Omar. A confrontation between Mullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani over the leadership of the neo-Taliban, however, may provide the opportunity for a Coalition/Kabul government success against the insurgents, who continue to control at least 50 percent of Afghanistan.

Little known facts about this New-Taliban Force are interesting. After 2002 Haqqani was invited to Islamabad, where the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), with which he had close ties, offered him the presidency of Afghanistan, provided he broke all ties with Mullah Omar and carved out a moderate Taliban faction. Haqqani refused the offer and went back to the mountains between Khost and Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area and began his campaign of pitched battles against US-led forces. He became a prime US target, with a number of attacks aimed specifically at eliminating him.

Although Haqqani still commands great respect all over Afghanistan and especially among the tribal elders of Khost, Paktia, Paktika and Gardez, he still does not belong to the Taliban core - Mullah Omar’s kitchen cabinet.

Haqqani led Taliban launched a major recruitment drive in 2007. This coincided with the government of Pakistan clamping down on jihad activities in Indian-administered Kashmir. This played right into the Taliban’s hands as many former members of Pakistani Jihadi organizations, including from the banned Laskhar-i-Toiba and the Jaish-i-Mohamed, gathered in North and South Waziristan, where the Taliban established a virtual Islamic state along the lines of the former uncompromising fundamentalist religious Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

While some Pakistani Jihadis joined hands with Haqqani the majority pledged their allegiance to Mullah Omar. About 27,000 fighters are reported to have gathered in North Waziristan alone. More than 13,000 are believed to be in South Waziristan. The Taliban leadership there had formed about 100 suicide squads by February 2008, assembled under the motto to fight until the last man and the last bullet. There objective is said to the establishment of the United Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Besides the third major Pakistani Taliban group styled as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by Baitullah Mehsud some minor Pashtun groups headed by Mohammad Mokhtar Mojahid, Mufti Latifullah Hakimi and Mohammad Yusof often function independently in Paktika region. Some suggestions have been made that these smaller groups are armed and assisted by the ISI for weakening the Omar group.
The TTP was formed as an umbrella group to enable the numerous pro-Taliban groups operating in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. In recent months the most significant threat has been posed by the forces under the command of Baitullah Mehsud in the South Waziristan agency of FATA, and the Tehrik-e-Nefaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) forces under the command of Maulana Fazlullah in the Swat district of NWFP.

In both South Waziristan and Swat, militants have demonstrated an ability to progress from hit-and-run tactics to full-scale assaults on military and police positions with the intention of permanently holding territory. In Swat, Maulana Fazlullah’s (Maulana FM) forces seized control of a number of towns and administrative districts between October and December 2007.

In South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud’s forces conducted successful assaults on key forts in Ladha, Sararogha and Seplatoi between 10 and 17 January 2008. Although the Pakistani security forces have generally been successful in rolling back such gains, even the temporary loss of control over towns or military facilities represents a significant blow to the legitimacy and credibility of the government, and a corresponding boost to the militants. This situation has been exacerbated by the dual failure in government’s counter-insurgency strategy. The desire to avoid antagonising local tribal jirgas has seen the government reluctance to deploy sufficient forces to prevent areas of FATA and NWFP from slipping into the hands of the Neo-Talibans.

The targets of TTP broadly aim at assassinating those tribal elders and other representatives of traditional power structures who opposed their rise. Those tribal leaders perceived to be co-operating with the government have been the particular focus of attacks. Estimates suggest around 200 tribal leaders have been killed.

TTP forces, together with their Uzbek, Arab, Uyghur and Tajik etc allies, have launched a number of attacks against pro-Taliban militant leaders such as Maulvi Nazir, who have resisted incorporation within the TTP, and spoken out against the increasingly influential role played in FATA by Uzbek militants associated with Tohir Yuldashev. One such attack occurred on 7 January 2008, when nine tribesmen affiliated with Maulvi Nazir were killed in South Waziristan.

A common target of all pro-Taliban groups in the region, whether affiliated with the TTP or not, is the targeting of individuals and institutions perceived by the militants as being ‘un-Islamic’. This accounts for the spate of attacks across the region on barber shops, music and video shops, and girls’ schools. A large proportion of attacks are directed against Pakistani security forces deployed in FATA and those areas of the NWFP being contested by the militants. While initially limiting themselves to ambushes and abductions, more recently TTP forces have conducted a series of successful assaults on forts serving as key outposts for the security forces in FATA.

A new Taliban group named after Tora Bora has been set up by the son of late Afghan Mujahideen leader Maulvi Yunis Khalis to organise resistance to US-led foreign forces primarily in eastern Afghanistan. Qari Sajjad, a spokesman for the new Taliban group, told that their fighters were active in the eastern Nangarhar province and other parts of Afghanistan. He explained that the group was named Tora Bora because it had old bases in the Tora Bora mountain range dating from the days of the Afghan “Jihad.”

According to western and ISI estimates the Mohmand Agency has come under the complete control of Umar Khalid after he eliminated another jihadi organisation operating in the area.

Khalid, a Safi tribesman who is commanding the Taliban in a very strategic tribal district, took greater control of Mohmand following a bloody campaign against the Shah Sahib militant group, whose chief and deputy chief were among eight killed recently. Umar Khalid is the strongest and most influential Taliban leader after Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Faqir.

People from the banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba had originally led the group of Khalid. Any group not showing allegiance to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is not tolerated in the Mohmand Agency. According to his close associates, Umar Khalid is a born jihadi, who has glorified the fight against infidels through his poetry. His poetry is all about jihad; Khalid worked for pro-jihad publications Zarb-e-Momin and the daily Islam in the 1990s before he joined the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people against Indian rule in Kashmir. His affiliation with the two publications also earned him membership of the Ghalanai Press Club, in Mohmand area.

Umar Khalid, (40), was the Harkatul Mujahideen chief in the Mohmand Agency before becoming a Taliban commander. According to his associates, his journey towards extremism began with a journey to Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He was in Muzaffarabad on personal business when Azad Jammu and Kashmir jihadis contacted him. Since then Khalid’s sole concern has been jihad.

The Khalid-led group usually engages American forces in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar. He closely co-ordinates with Maulvi Faqir, the Taliban chief of the neighbouring Bajaur tribal region. However, Khalid does not host foreign militants in Mohmand like Faqir does. Khalid claims that some 26,000 trained militants operate under his command. He is known to be a close associate of one Brig. Rashid Torikhel of the ISI’s Afghan Division. A report (20.7.08) emanating from Pakistani sources indicated that there was a serious clash between Khalid and Mehsud gangs in Mohmand area; Khlid was taken prisoner. Mehsud also described Khalid as a pro-government Taliban. These reports are unconfirmed.

As mentioned earlier over 3000 Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhnagvi, Lashkar-e-Islam and Lashkar-e.Mohammad etc Jiahdi groups have signed up with Baitullah and Maulana Fazlullah groups of Pakistani Talibans. This does not mean closer of the Jihadist shops by the Jamait-e-Islami, Markaz-ud-Dawa-ud-Islam, Binori Mosque, Lal Masjid, and the ISI managed training facilities which train mujahideens to carry out Jihadist assignments in India, Bangladesh and any other theatre chosen by the anti-Kemalist (Musharraf) military establishment.

If Daniel Marston, author of Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare is to be believed the hardcore Pushtun elements have been sidetracked by other elements mentioned above and elements which have been propped up by the ISI. Pakistan played an important role in the insurgency campaign, despite its governmental stance of support for US and NATO forces. Marston, who spent three years in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says the reality of the Pashtun belt is its long history of resistance to government control and its close relationships with Pashtun tribes on the Afghan side of the border. The ISI and several Army commanders are in direct touch with the Pakistani and Afghan Talibans and are engaged in encouraging the combined Taliban and al Qaeda forces to strengthen their stranglehold inside Afghanistan. In the process, they are indirectly creating a long belt in FATA and NWFP areas that are controlled by the armed Jihadis.

Some Pakistani journalists are of the opinion that Pakistan would, under no circumstances allow an Afghanistan under geopolitical control of the West and India. Once their Mission Afghanistan is completed and the NATO is forced to withdraw the ISI and Pak Army would divert people like Umar Khalid and Baitullah Mehsud to Indian J&K and other parts of India. The present strategy of causing few explosions inside India is aimed at strengthening the Mass Control on the Indian Muslims and bringing them under the orbit of Jihad International. India cannot stop periodic serial explosions in places like Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Hyderabad. This weapon is being used to establish and strengthen the Jihadi Hubs in India. The self-styled Indian Mujahideen is like a new umbrella name assigned by the ISI for several jihadi groups active in India.

These democracy loving media persons of Pakistan aver that “Kemalist” Musharraf’s days are numbered, as he failed to restrain the ISI and Jihadi army officers. In fact, the USA prefers leaders like blundering Saddam than a Kemal Pasha. It is time to watch if General Kiyani fits in the scheme of new policy shift of the USA.

Mark Mazzettti, writing in New York Times (July 20, 2008) poignantly commented, “…most C.I.A. veterans agree that no relationship between the spy agency and a foreign intelligence service is quite as byzantine, or as maddening, as that between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I. It is like a bad marriage in which both spouses have long stopped trusting each other, but would never think of breaking up because they have become so mutually dependent. Without the I.S.I.’s help, American spies in Pakistan would be incapable of carrying out their primary mission in the country: hunting Islamic militants, including top members of Al Qaeda. Without the millions of covert American dollars sent annually to Pakistan, the I.S.I. would have trouble competing with the spy service of its archrival, India.”

He further comments that, “One senior C.I.A. official, recently retired, said that of all the foreign spymasters the C.I.A. had dealt with, General Kayani was the most formidable and may have earned the most respect at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va. The soft-spoken general, he said, is a master manipulator.”

The million dollar question is: Is the USA contemplating to foist Kiyani (pragmatic) after dumping “Kemalist” Musharraf and the elected government? Even Jesus does not know what cooks in the Langley and the NSA.

In addition to the Taliban groups the al Qaeda is well entrenched on Pakistan side of the Pak-Afghan border along Nuristan, Nangarhar, Parachinar and Konar mountain regions. Though the NATO and Pakistan have not given out any concrete figures about the active fighting force under Jawahiri and Osama, Pakistani journalists estimate that they have about 7000 Arab, Uzbek, Pakistani and Afghan fighters with them. They often coordinate with the Pakistani and Afghani Taliban forces for striking against US targets and assigned Pakistani targets. Recent reports indicate that the ISI is engaged in a dialogue with the al Qaeda for shifting back to Omar controlled Afghanistan. However, it is also true that al Qaeda and Mehsud Taliban have established camps on the borders of POK and the Waziri tract. India has to be watchful of this new shift.

Besides Pakistani operations the NATO has also massed troops in Paktia, Paktaki and Nurestan areas. Accidental NATO firing on Pakistan territory has become a regular feature. However, Pakistan is unable either to effectively fight the Taliban and al Qaeda forces in its territory or face off the US, NATO and Afghan troops operating on its borders.

According Nazmuddian A Shaikh, former Foreign Secretary, Baitullah Mehsud wants merger of Afghan and Pakistan Pashtun areas and creation of a new homeland; an old demand of the Pashtun people. The Afghan Taliban is now money-flush having annual income from $ 35-45 million generated from Opium Cess, leakage from US cash dole to Karzai government, taxes imposed on provincial officials and others. Surprisingly money comes from the ISI as well, who want Omar and Haqqani etc groups to keep US/NATO busy in Afghanistan and distract them from happenings inside the country and its interference in two other countries of South Asia.

The overall picture inside Afghan War Zone is chaotic. This may be better illustrated by the cut-section of the map below in limited context. By no means, this represents the real war scene. However, nearly half of Afghanistan is now being controlled by the Taliban forces and the NATO forces along with whatever military props the Karzai government has occupy scattered penny pockets. They mostly depend on aerial fire power.

Afghan Taliban’s resurgent advances have started giving it back the illusory reputation that the Amir-ul-Mu’minin is back to protect Islam against the forces of jahil USA. In fact, in rural Afghanistan the Taliban is regarded as the protector and the USA as a foreign invader. Ironically the USSR has been replaced by another un-Islamic force represented by the West.

Besides the Taliban and al Qaeda there are other forces involved in the Afghan conundrum: 1) The regrouped Northern Forces plus the firm believers in democracy in which Pashtun, Hazara, Tajik, Uzbek and Turkmen tribes are well represented. 2) The US and allies, 3) Pakistan and 4) Geopolitically interested countries like India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran etc.

India has a vital stake in ensuring a stable democratic Pakistan under Western tutelage. Pakistan desperately wants India out of the Afghan orbit as its presence strengthens the bondages between pro-democratic Afghan forces, India-minded Pashtun population, the Baloch people and the people of Sind who seek better political status.

Pakistan’s main ally, China also wants India out of Afghanistan as its vast land and sea-route interests in Pakistan are essential for its increasing presence in the Persian Gulf area.

These complicated geostrategic issues endow on India the onerous responsibility of astutely combining development works in Afghanistan, military collaboration with the Afghan government and other clandestine operations to match Pakistan’s Proxy-War against India. In this scenario one or two major attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan should be taken on the strides and the political and military planers are required to study the ultimate requirement of Invisible Military Collaboration with the Afghan forces.

THE AFGHAN WAR ZONE

Figure 1 OMAR Areas

Taking into consideration the developments inside Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Frontier Areas the global observers have commented that sooner than later the Jihadi forces inside Pakistan would transcend the narrow objective of fighting jihad in Kashmir and spreading the poison of Jihad inside Indian heartland.

The history of Jihadist activities outside Kashmir is a clear pointer that the philosophy of Jihad International is going to affect India and Bangladesh seriously. Before we examine these issues I would request the readers to refer to a few dissertations published earlier in my web site: Can India Inc Fight Jihad International, Jihadi Modules and Cells and Footprints of Jihad etc.

However, the readers may like to have a glimpse of the War Zone in Pakistan before I try to explain the complicated Jihad conundrum haunting Pakistan. The two cut section-plates portray only parts of the War Zone reality:

PAKISTAN WAR ZONE I

This cut-section does not show recent massing of NATO forces in FATA area (Kohat-Bannu Road) and Nanghar-Warsak axis. The upper area between Mardan-Mirwas and Saidu Sharif and Muzaffarabad may look vacant. But there are reports that al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban forces are camped as near to India border at Miranshah (not marked). From that tract Indian Kashmir is two day’s march for veteran tribal warriors. Some Pakistani sources indicated that during 2007 February peace talks with Kakakhel, Turikhel and other tribes the Pakistan authorities had agreed to shift some elements of the al Qaeda and Baitullah Taliban to Miranshah area. There is no information that these jihadi settlements have been removed by Pakistan Army.

The War-Zone picture would not be completed without examining another cut-section of Pakistan:

PAKISTAN WAR ZONE-II

Readers may notice several inlay pins identifying different places of the war-zone. For lack of space these could not be superimposed in the present cut-section.

The situation inside is very confusing and no one really knows who wield the magic wand. But nothing in Pakistan gets recognisable contour without the ISI and the Army. The Army appears to be divided on the issue of Taliban and al Qaeda Jihad against US led forces. President Pervez Musharraf has very little control on the Army.

The Jihadi factions led by the generals like Director General ISPR Major General Rashid Querishi, and the beard-sporting fundamentalist Generals like Mohammaed Usmani and Mohammed Aziz and at least three other Pakistani generals have been publicly accused of having links with the al Qaeda. This is just the tip of the iceberg. More disturbing is the fact that the father of Pakistan’s Atom Bomb was sent into forced retirement due to his sympathies for the Taliban. Some members of Pakistan’s nuclear establishment and the ISI have maintained clandestine links with the Al Qaeda. This is an untold story of the ISI-Pakistan Military-al Qaeda nexus and the feasible probability of nuclear arsenal slipping into the hands of the Jihadis.

Taliban is a child of Pakistan and al Qaeda has been parented by the USA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Taliban cannot exist without this Pakistani lifeline. Taliban has hostile neighbours on all sides, except Pakistan. The Shia Iranian to their west hate the Sunni Taliban, the Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kazaks and Turkmens to the North of the Taliban have an anathema for the spread of Talibanist ideology into their ex-communist society; the Chinese have a silent but decisive hatred of Islamic fanaticism and they execute all Muslim terrorists without fanfare in Xinjiang. The Indians are threatened by the Taliban and al Qaeda. Far in the subcontinental east, Bangladesh has provided nestling holes to both Taliban and al Qaeda.

Many in Pakistan acknowledge that Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, chief of the LeT, ISI and Army commanders and their efforts are on to keep up pressure inside Pakistan by causing sporadic fidayeen attacks. In rural Punjab, NWFP, and the FATA areas jihad has become a way of life. This jihad is influenced by the ideology of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Pakistan. This reality is known to the CIA and other western countries. They are also aware that the ISI, Army elements of Pakistan are actively involved in gradually spreading the jihad virus to India and invigorate the loyal elements in Bangladesh. Their aim is to establish a chain of Islamic International Jihad all over the South Asia, which does not recognize the Durand Line and the lines drawn during partition.

This dissertation cannot be completed without an advance requiem for Pakistan and proximate evaluation of the prognosis for India and Bangladesh. Briefly speaking, over 500 Hubs and 1500 Cells of the Indian Jihadist groups represented by the SIMI, Indian branch of the HuJI, Ahl-e-Hadith, Lashkar-e-Toiba and over thirty other militant groups having close connectivity have been created in different parts of India (excluding Kashmir). For details of these organizations readers are requested to read the articles in my web site. I briefly project them in the map below.

Existence of these Hubs and Cells are increasing by the day. Even after Deoband and other saner elements have given call for opposition to “terrorism”, the senior nationalist Muslims feel that once Islamic Emirate is established in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, Balochistan and Balwaristan movements would gather strength and threaten Pakistan’s very existence.

In that event, Indian Muslims would become easier targets of the Taliban, al Qaeda and assorted Pakistani Tanzeems. That would be another tragic period of “probable confrontation between Islamic forces and the traditional Indian forces represented by the majority Hindus.”

As far as Bangladesh is concerned the HuJI, JMB, Allahar Dal, Ahl-e-Hadith, Bangla Bhai, Hizbut Tehrir, (nearly 30 of them) are inspired by Taliban and al Qaeda. Over 7000 former Afghan veterans are still active and they are running over 600 mosques and 70,000 madrasas. The present military backed interim regime has taken punitive actions against the JMB, Ahl-e-Hadith and some Allahar Dal members. However, no significant action has been taken against the Jamiat-e-Islami, Islamic Chhatra Shibir and Harkat ul Jihad al Islami. They are active inside Bangladesh and are operating inside India.

Bangladesh Can be examined in four operational areas. The areas west and north-west of Dhaka comprising Jessore, Dinajpur, Pabna, Satkhira and Bagura etc areas are dominated by the Ahl-e-Hadith, Chhatra Shibir, Bangla Bhai and HuJI. The DGFI had established two camps in Kushthia and areas of Pachgarian for transit facilities of the Pakistani jihadis in collaboration of the HuJI.

The DGFI is still actively supporting some of these jihadi forces for spreading the message of jihad in India and causing occasional explosions.

CUT-SECTION OF DHAKA CENTRAL HUB

The garlanding effect between the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi jihadist groups are growing by the day and the message of Deeni unity of the South Asian Ummah is getting firmly rooted. This trend is visible whenever some incidents take place but the underground flow remains unchecked as the volatile political situation and overall sidetracking of the issues of Internal Security are either treated as mere police problems or shuffled below the carpet in the name of “secularism.”

The Jihadi struggle in Afghanistan, Pakistan and its echo in Bangladesh is gradually seeping through the psyche of sections of Indian Muslims. These studies are not attended by the agencies concerned.
The main Dhaka and nearby hubs of the DGFI, ISI (located in a separate building in Gulshan area) have been well identified. For details of ISI and DGFI collaborative operations in India the interested readers may refer to my piece in the book North East on Flames, published by Penguin India. The details are too many and cannot be narrated in this dissertation. Tungibari, near Dkaka is the hub of Tablighi Jammat, which has emerged as the mother of several jihadi outfits.

CUT-SECTION MYMENSINGH AND SYLHET HUBS

The third segment covers Rangpur, greater Mymensingh, Sylhet and adjacent parts of Dhaka division. These areas are strongholds of JMB, HuJI, Hijbut Tehrir, Allahar Dal, Ahl-e-Hadith Bangladesh, and Markazi Taliban-e-Bangladesh (Bangladesher Taliban). Most of the outfits have connectivity with the al Qaeda, Taliban and ISI/DGFI promoted tanzeems.

The lower Bangladesh comprising Comilla, Barisal, Chattagram and the CHT are strongholds of Allahar Dal, JMB, HuJI and Tehrik-e-Taliban, Bangladesh.

However, under the present military backed interim government these out fits are generally desisting from violent actions inside Bangladesh. Nonetheless, independent observers have noticed spontaneous sprouting of mosques, madrasas and increased movements of the jihadists to Pakistan and, southern Thailand and countries of the Middle East. From Barisal to Satkhira and on to India has become a highway to India for the Bangla jihadists.

For reasons of brevity the aspects of Indian insurgent groups active inside Bangla have not been incorporated here.

In short, the future of jihad movements in Afghanistan and Pakistan is intricately connected with the attitude of Muslims in Bangladesh and the majority of the Indian tracts. The ideology of Taliban and al Qaeda brand jihad cannot remain confined within the national boundaries of these nations. These ideas have already crossed the borders and infected minds. As I have indicated, innumerable Modules and Cells have been established inside Indian states. Recent incidents in Jaipur, Bangalore and Surat and Ahmedabad should not be taken as Muslim ire against Hindus. These are parts of “war against India.” This is the preliminary war preparations for regaining the TAJ-e-HINDOOSTAN that once belonged to the Muslim rulers. Concerted uprising from defined territorial bases by the Indian jihadis cannot be expected at this stage. But such sporadic actions are likely to be a regular feature.

The geopolitical and geostrategic considerations of Indian’s Internal and External concerns are required to be addressed rising above the slogans of ‘secularism and “minorityism.” The intelligence and security edifices are neglected by the governments and in several cases the governments themselves attribute communal colour to jihadi attacks. With such lopsided attitude the political will wielders in the country are only strengthening the hands of the jihadists.

The Indian Armed Forces have deep commitment to both Internal and external security concerns. They cannot remain unconcerned. They have compulsive reasons to monitor these developments from the point of view of defense of the country. Today’s low key jihad is likely to create vast air pockets in the country, in which even the Armed Forces might be plagued with vicious turmoil. The total India Inc. including the Armed Forces are required to maintain sleepless vigil. Above all People’s vigil and awareness is the greatest security wall for any country. It is hoped that they would also wake up and besides “resilence” take active interest in saving the country from Jiahdist thrusts.

The Maoist Movement has not grown out of Charu Mazumdar’s Naxalbari in 1967. It has a long history, which is basically the history of India’s Agrarian unrest, uprising of the deprived, exploited and overlooked etcetera of the majority segments of the Peoples. Often their agitations assumed violent manifestations of the deprived and exploited rural populace grinded under the millstone of feudalist bosses, money lenders, political exploiters and plunderers of the national exchequer. These movements were identified with stamps of different isms, as the history rolled on.

In brief: The Ho, Munda, Kol, Santhal uprisings did not receive any stamp of any Ism, as there were none and the ruling classes described this as audacious rebellion by the tribals against the British Authority. The nametag was incorrect. These were classic uprisings of exploited tribal people of Bihar, Bengal and Chhotanagpur region who revolted against exploitation by the British, Indian zamindars, money lenders and general economic depravation. The British, in collaboration with the Hindu-Muslim zamindars had suppressed the revolts after application of great military effort. The names of Sido-Kanu, Birsa Bhagwan etc have become immortal in the folklores of the tribal people now inhabiting parts of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.

The Sannyasi Revolution in Bengal and parts of Bihar against the degraded Muslim rulers and the corrupt officials of the East India Company was initiated after the devastating famine of 1770. The event was immortalised by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhaya in his Devi Chowdhurani and Ananda Math, both nationalistic novels. These were strings of combined agrarian uprising of the rural proletariat, in which Hindu Sannyasis and Muslim Faqirs and agrarian folks had taken part. The religious tag assigned to the movement had finally motivated Bankim Chandra to sing the immortal song of patriotism: Bande Mataram.

The agrarian uprising in 19th century Bengal under Titumir and the Faraizi group were stamped as Wahhabi uprising against the British and the mostly Hindu landholders. The movement had affected parts of Bihar as well.

The Indigo revolt in Bihar and Bengal was also essentially an agrarian movement against forced cultivation of Indigo by the British planters. The event was immortalised in Neel Darpan, a fact based novel by Dinabandhu Mitra that had stirred up the national conscience and had contributed to the rise of Indian Nationalism.

The Telengana agrarian revolt and armed struggle first against the oppressive regime of the Nizam and later against the independent government of India and the Tebhaga Andolan of Bengal on the eve of the independence movement were spearheaded by the Communist Party of India. Your author’s father had also fought alongside legendary figures like Ila Mitra against the unjustified agrarian policy of the British. These historic movements were fought at the point of history when India was going through the convulsions of independence movement and sure certainty of partition of the country. The Communists of the day were inspired by the Russian Revolution that was cored around urban workers and not the peasantry. Nonetheless, it was given a stamp of Communist Revolutionary movement of the agrarian folks.

Besides these movements there were several agrarian uprisings in former Madras territory and in certain parts of the territory of the king of Travancore. The Moplah uprising in Kerala, though started as an agrarian movement and movement opposing British policy against the Khalifa of Turkey, had degenerated into a communal holocaust proving inexorably, that any socio-economic movement conducted in the name of religion was bound to degenerate into communal carnage, especially in a pluralistic society where tolerance is the first victim.

When Charu Mazumdar conceived of armed uprising of the agrarian proletariat he had very little sense of organisational planning, military expertise and sustaining capability. He had no command structure except some fringe mobilisation done by Jangal Santhal, Kanu sanyal and Khokan Majumdar. Charu was a theorist and not an expert field commander. He was fired by Maoist ideology and believed that application of Maoist ideology in a rural pocket would give rise to spontaneous uprising all over the country.

Charu was an angry person, very impatient and was limited by tunnel vision of a visionary who believed that his vision was the beginning and end of the journey to the goal of emancipation of the proletariat of India (Your author had the fortune of interacting with some fathers of the movement in 1965-67 at Naxalbari).

Charu’s movement, branded as Naxal Movement came to be stamped as a Maoist Movement. China supported it through electronic and print propaganda and termed it as ‘spring thunder’ of Maoist revolution in India. Charu’s successors, now presumably fighting agrarian guerrilla warfare with much more sophisticated weapons and organised command structure, are also described in generic terms of Naxals and Maoists. This dissertation is not the proper forum to examine how much of Maoism is involved in the present phase of the movement and how much it is conditioned by other issues. In short: We have a vast, sophisticated, agrarian, rural and ideological guerrilla warfare problem that has not been properly evaluated, diagnosed and treated. The historical legacy has now assumed threatening proportions giving rise to the existence of a vast conflict zone in the country that has arisen from the volcanic ashes of National Fault Lines of the past.

Most people admit that Charu’s experiment with Maoist methodology of upgrading the agrarian unrest with “mass elimination” of class enemies had added a new dimension to the movement. His experiments had evolved through several experimentations. The “mass elimination” tactic applied in greater Calcutta, Debra-Gopibllabhpur, Shrikakulam, Koraput tribal area, Mushahari uprising in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, several places in Punjab, Lakhimpur-Kheri in UP, Bihar, Wyanad in Kerala, and Birbhum uprising ultimately fizzled out in the face of resolute State action and in places action by organised upper caste armed forces. Charu’s “mass elimination” had temporarily inspired young students of elite colleges of Calcutta, Delhi and other places and they had carried out the mindless bloodbath believing that it was the right prescription to fight the class enemies. China had egged on the Charu-brand revolutionaries with a view to create soft internal bellies in India during and after India’s involvement in the liberation war of Bangladesh. As the urban and rural ‘mass elimination’ programme had no definite war-direction even a seasoned killer Maoist like Asim Chatterjee (my college acquaintance) was disillusioned. He felt tired of the mass killing pogrom prescribed by Charu.

Since the halcyon days of Charu’s original Communist Party (ML) the movement has undergone several changes, splits, unity efforts and de-regionalisation process. It has started assuming a composite character, a kind of united movement, despite existence of splinter groups, (nearly 30), organisational incompatibility and minor ideological differences. The unity of the Maoist forces in India means uniting forces that originated from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) as well as MCC(I) and others. The CPI (ML) was founded under the leadership of Charu Mazumdar in 1971. Following his death in 1972, the CPI (ML) splintered into many pieces. After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and the coup d’état carried out against his successors by Deng Xiaoping, the world communist movement fell into a great crisis. The Indian movement was divided into many factions. The Maoist parties and organizations had to defend Mao and Maoism and oppose Deng and also the dogmatic attacks on Mao launched by Enver Hoxha of Albania.

One of the parties descended from the original CPI (ML) which continues to uphold the banners of Mazumdar and Maoism is the CPI (ML-Naxalbari), like the Maoist Coordination Committee, a participating party of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), which is continuing to work for the unity of the Maoist revolutionaries in a single centre in India. The RIM is intricately connected to the KPD (Communist Party of Germany (ML), CPP (ML) Philippines, Sandero Luminiso (Peru), Communist Party of USA (USA) and Purva Banglar Communist Party (Jana Juddha).

The CPI (ML-Naxalbari) has been advancing especially in the states of Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Of particular importance among the other parties in this same category is the CPI (ML-People’s War), which has a long history of leading the masses in waging armed struggle. The CPI (ML-PW) has strongholds in broad rural areas in the states of Andhra, Maharashtra, and Orissa, as well as Bengal, Bihar and elsewhere. The CPI (ML-PW), along with the above-mentioned RIM participating parties and organizations, are members of CCOMPOSA (the Co-ordinating Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia).

A united revolutionary Maoist party has been a strong desire of the Maoist ideologues, since the setbacks suffered by the Naxalbari uprising and the splintering of the Maoist forces. The MCC (I) and CPI (ML-PW), CPI (ML-Naxalbari) etc groups have now considerably consolidated their position and battle-capability in several parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Kerala, which offer almost a contiguous territory to the armed Maoists. Never before these groups had such territorial consolidation and power to exercise Mass Control Mechanism (MCM) along with armed struggle. The Maoist movement has emerged as the single largest threat to India’s internal security situation. The developments have thrown up several challenges to the Indian State and its Systemic Tools, especially after success of the Maoist movement in Nepal. If Nepal is taken as a part of the unbroken map the reader would realise that there exist a dagger like thrust into the heart of India-from Nepal to deep southern India, rolling down steadily to the Western Ghats.

Conditions in vast areas of the Indian countryside are considered to be mature for waging a People’s War by the Maoists. Criminal neglect of the rural economy, scorched earth policy in the rural agrarian sector with helps from the feudal lords, unemployment and pangs of hunger have not been mitigated during last 60 odd years. Government policy of offering doles, unemployment allowances, rural employment grant etc have made about 35% of the rural population to look up to the ruling deities as gods raining occasional manna. A class of permanent beggars are being created by this policy and very little has been to generate economic sinews for strengthening the bridge between the urban affluents, rural feudals and the chronically starving masses. Suicide by the farmers has added a shameful chapter in India’s economic failure.

The Maoists consider that weakening of the Indian State, splintering of political parties, rise of caste and region based parties and scorched-earth policy pursued by the governments in the rural areas offer them better opportunities to strengthen the movement and advance towards a successful armed revolution. The major ideologues also realise that the lack of a united Maoist party, a people’s army and revolutionary united front, the full revolutionary potential of the situation in India has not been fully realised.

Recent meetings of the major Maoist groups have stressed on this aspect of unity and combined movement against the Indian government machineries. Keeping these aspects in view a few structural peculiarities of the Maoist movement and their operation policies are required to be understood both by the State Machineries and the common people, who are the main fodders of the struggle that is now being waged by the State and the Maoists.

In a given Conflict Zone (as in Maoist affected areas) basically four groups of players are regular constants:

G= Conflict Territory; T= Armed Terrorists; P=Peoples; S=State

As the Conflict develops into a cancerous continuity, several other factors enter the arena with different objectives:

V= Vested Interests; M= Media; H=Human Rights Groups

Besides these elements there are additional inputs which are essential to keep the movement alive and kicking:

As the situation develops into regular armed conflict between the Maoists and the State the rebels start implementing “Mass Control Mechanism.” This well-researched technology of revolution has been widely chronicled by the scholars on terrorism studies and Conflict Management sciences.

In short: the Maoists start with destroying the State Control through propaganda, destruction of symbols of governance like schools, hospitals, tehsil offices, railway lines; assassination of government officials, members of elected local bodies, caste enemies, and raids on isolated police pickets. The Maoists try to isolate the targeted area and the peoples by destroying roads, bridges, blowing up busses and setting up their own defence systems. Peoples living in remote village clusters where there in no tangible presence of governance, any kind of developmental activities and are subjected to rampant corruption by the government officers and exploitation by the landlords and loan sharks gradually start looking up to the Maoists for protection and start living on hope that the changed system as promised by the Maoists would one day deliver the dream world that shine afar in the glittering cities and homes of the affluent. They rapidly lose confidence in the State and any coercive action implement by the State further alienates the People’s confidence in the governing tools and the State as an established entity.

Once the Mass Control Mechanism of the Maoists is in position the Mass Control capability of the government starts evaporating. It very fast loses control on public trust that the State can protect, feed, and assure their advancement. When the level of erosion achieves criticality, the Maoists start striking against big State Targets. From small skirmishes the conflict situation is upgraded to periodical “Big Engagement,” resulting in establishment of Liberated Zones. We have witnessed this in Nepal and we are passing through Stage II of the conflict; establishment of Mass Control and hitting the State hard in guerrilla engagement. Various phases of the conflict have been laid down by Mao and Che Guevara and General Giap. These are text-book realities being implemented by the present day Maoists.

The State has a statutory obligation to get involved. Its response is represented by application of force- police and para-military actions, developmental activities and incentives to assure people that the State is capable to defeat the forces of the guerrillas. As the government forces try to regain turf and minds of the people they exercise more force, not necessarily against the visible Maoists alone; force is applied against suspected and innocent villagers as well. In the absence of supplementing administrative, economic, and security reforms that mere application of force by isolated police actions alienate the people more, resulting more erosion of State’s Mass Control. This is the classic concept that was even exercised by Mahatma Gandhi-but through Satyagraha and non-cooperation. Even Gandhi could not restrain the Ahmedabad textile workers and Chauri Chera peasants from resorting to violence. Increased communal violence after he tried to control the Muslim masses through Khilafat movement testifies to the eternal revolutionary claim of Voltaire: Liberation can only be achieved through violence.

Between the Maoists and the State there remains another element in the Conflict Zone: The Peoples, who are not part of the Mass Controlled Area or who do not believe in the kind of revolution that the Maoists propagate. These Peoples have three options: Die as war zone fodder, Resist the Maoist on their own (very lean chance) and Resist the Maoists with the help of the State. The last option is not a new idea. It has been implemented by the British in Malyasia, General Giap in Vietnam and India in certain parts of the trouble-torn North East, and in the Punjab. People’s Defence against the Peoples who want change through violence is an internationally recognised War Zone policy.

I found it difficult to convince the Human Rights Activists that at certain point during a conflict situation, Indian law provides for the vital implement of Self-Defence. Once this aspect of defensive mechanism is upgraded to organised defence it takes the shape of VVF, Special Police Officer and the Salwa Judum. I have serious reservations about ways and means through which the Salwa Judum concept is being implemented by the Peoples and the State. In the present form, status of training, motivation and fighting capability the Salwa Judum is likely to be treated as clay pigeons by the Maoists shooters. That is a half-hearted and ill conceived and miserably executed operation-more for political mileage than for regaining Mass Control in the conflict zone.

I have illustrated infiltration of other parties in the conflict zone: Such as Vested interests (forest contractors, timber merchants, Tendu-leaf contractors, investors who invest Maoist money in legal market to generate revenue; arms suppliers, foreign supporters, caste forces, criminals etc. The government often overlook these aspects firstly because of the Vested Interest having control on the political bosses; the caste barons acting as vote-bank assets and other elements passing under the noses of the intelligence and police because these agencies are not efficient enough to keep track of them. Some one may call them inefficient.

This situation allows the Maoists to set up an elaborate political network. Over years the major Maoist groups have built up a tangible political structure, which has variables in different operational areas in the country. For a model the following diagram should represent the basic structure (no allusion to any particular Maoist group):

Since elaboration on each segment would take pages it would suffice to say that in Maoist movement the Central Committee is supreme. All other sub-formations are under strict control of the party centre. Deviations in operational matters are permitted but not in ideological programming.
On the other hand, the military formation is also formidable. It is not organised in the initial stage as Brigades and Battalions, but contain well coordinated, trained, ideologically brainwashed cadres and ancillary units. Induction of women soldiers and propaganda personnel add value to the movement and allows it easy access to the homes and hearts of the vulnerable people.

The graphics may offer impression that the Maoists are well entrenched and they have the capability of waging prolonged war against the State with well oriented, trained cadres, arms supplied from sources like Nepal Maoists, LTTE, Bangladesh and Nepal Based suppliers and Kashmir militants peddling weapons through different cut outs. It may be taken into account that the Maoists have developed connectivity with arms suppliers in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. While the LTTE is the prime suspected carrier it should not be forgotten that the Maoists command control of certain coastal areas in West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh through which weapons are smuggled in. Remoteness of the areas controlled by them and inadequacy of State response make the Maoists look bigger than life.

In the Amnesty International discussion I said that the State use of force was not counter-productive, it was inadequate and ineffective.

In the vast operational areas from Bihar to Andhra Pradesh with most active hubs in Orissa, Jharkahnd, Chattisgarh remote tribal areas the Central and State intelligence apparatus is appallingly inadequate. While they may have access to some surface political information they do not have access to hardcore operation information to storm the Maoist hideouts effectively. On the other hand, the Maoists have strings of informers to give them advance information about troop’s movement and State plans of operations.

The State (taken as a whole) has not deployed adequate force to isolate the Maoists from the peoples and to take them on as highly equipped guerrillas. A guerrilla force cannot be fought by conventional forces-police or military. Superior commando forces trained in guerrilla warfare are required in sufficient numbers, buttressed by normal police-operational forces to overwhelm the forest dwelling Maoist guerrillas. Several state governments have not yet trained special police guerrilla forces and depend on normal law & order police personnel. They try to dominate areas by setting up isolated pickets without adequate speedy-response-support troops, well equipped communication and fast moving conveyance. These police pickets are pregnant ducks.

Different state governments do not have coordination and moving guerrilla forces cannot be fought within the imaginary boundary lines of the intricately laid state boundaries. There is hardly any aerial surveillance, electronic monitoring mechanism to monitor communication network of the Maoists. Despite plethora of conferences, discussions and decisions on ground position of the State continue to be fragile. State response is inadequate. Inadequate application of force cannot break the magic-spell of Maoist Mass Control Their propaganda machinery is based on folklores woven around Sido-Kanu, Birsa Bhagwan etc. The name of Mao is often inserted in places of tribal heroes. Mao has started replacing Sido-Kanu and Birsa in various tribal strongholds of the Maoists. Their cultural groups work in unison with over ground cultural groups and spread the ideological spell. The State has very little weapon to counteract this propaganda barrage.

I had informed the Human Rights group that in my opinion India does not require any armed struggle to repair the lapses of the government during last 60 odd years.

The repair work to improve the conditions of the cultivators, rural artisans, landless peoples, rural unemployed and anarchic rule by the big land owners, caste barons, money lenders and Forest Plunderers can be achieved through improved administrative corrections, Societal changes, containment of corruption and better economic packages for the neglected rural and tribal areas.
Revolutions in the name of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism cannot be allowed to destroy the democratic core of the country. I have personal sympathies and connectivity with many Maoist leaders of the past and present, but I differ in these vital areas of national concern.

We have enough worries from other sectors which threaten the integrity of the country. Threats from the Islamists, ethnic rebels and proxy-war from neighbours are yet to be contained. Maoism is the last thing that would suit the civilisational genius of the people of India. The very ideology has failed in Russia, failing in China and last vestiges of Marxism and Maoism cannot survive in the form of Castroism and India Marxism-Maoism. Marx and Mao are great, but their Isms are dead. The history has turned leaves towards another confrontation-between the energy hungry west and the masses of Islamic countries. India is precariously located between the two fighting giants with a huge Muslim population having sympathy for their coreligionists and hatred for the west.

Recent developments around Amarnath land grant and Nuclear deal with the USA have proved beyond doubt that vast sections of Indian Muslims continue to be haunted by the spectre of Pan-Islamic Ummah and the intestinal feeling for separation from the majority Hindu community that was voiced over hundred year ago by Shah Waliullah, Sir Sayyid Ahmad, Mohammad Iqbal, Chaudhry Rahmat Ali and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Repeated historic blunders by the Congress and Caste-based parties and the so-called Indian Left to segregate the Muslims from the mainstream India in the name of Sachar Commission findings and other vote-bank gimmicks have pushed the Muslim psyche back to 1935. Now India has to actuate it’s nuclear and foreign policy keeping in view the Muslim opinion, which is wedded to the idea of separatism. The mistake committed by Gandhi in dragging the Congress to the Khilafat Movement in 1920 was the first encomium for perpetuation of communal politics in India,
What should, therefore, be the State response?

The first responsibility is to regain Mass Control from the Maoists through application of superior targeted force. This should be accompanied by the National Repair Works (not doles to national beggars), to fill in the fault lines of last 60 odd years caused by the independent government of India and its provincial governments. Without repairing the fault lines immediately followed by determined and superior force application, the situation cannot be retrieved. We would be fighting hopelessly half-witted game against the determined Maoists, who are inching towards unity and are trying to assume massive striking power following the success of the Maoist movement in Nepal.

That the government resolve for force application is half-hearted or inadequate or ill conceived and executed is illustrate by the latest gruesome incident at Balimela Reservoir in Orissa. Balimela ravine area in Malkangiri district is a parrot beak like area of Orissa jutting into Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

The combined Orissa police and Andhra Pradesh Grey Hound specialist force had gone to search the forested hills overlooking the reservoir which feeds pipeline to nearby Dumduma powerhouse nearly 4 kilometres away. The forces received information that the Central Military Council of the Maoist group was having a meeting in the area. The information could have been correct or a decoy. The grave mistake was committed when only a water bourn patrol was sent and no territorial force was deployed on the flanking hills dominating the water body. There was no static watch-post also. The planning was faulty and execution was half hearted; half the policemen did not know how to swim.
In contrast planning of the Maoists appeared to be exceptionally well:

Note:
1. Police Party had no support Vessel. It had no On-shore static or mobile positions and Mounted Heavy Guns. It was a lone venture and a near-ready kill. Planning had no deep tactical understanding of the terrain and support mechanism.
2. Locations indicated are approximate and do not represent the exact ground position.

My intention is not to dig hole. The State must apply force, when it is required to apply, in adequate quantity and superior quality. The haunting problems of lack of concrete steps by the central government, inadequate preparations of the state governments and insufficiency of cutting-edge intelligence is likely to add woos to the country’s agonies.

Along with determined force application the vast areas of state responsibilities towards the people have to be attended without seasonal and cynic political gimmicks. The vast countryside is getting isolated from the urban centres, urban prosperity is not reaching the vast rural areas and the neglected hill tribals are getting more disillusioned. Only superior military application by the State cannot stop the Maoist upsurge. The political and bureaucratic class are required to be in war-preparedness to tackle the situation by taking both determined military actions and honest development and socio-economic reforms. The Urban India should look towards Rural India and Aranyak Bharat (forested India) and exclusively the glitter of Globalised economy.

The Maoist guerrilla warfare should not be treated at par with ethnic or regional conflicts. The ideological guerrilla warfare has earned the historic recognition of success through fault lines of the State. Let us be aware of these fault lines and employ all possible State resources to repair the gaps.

I hope these basics of understanding the guerrilla warfare and early stages of jihad related terror are taught with great care even today. These are the grassroots functional bases of all terror groups-the Red Brigade, Sandero Luminiso, FARC, IRA and obviously the present day jihadi tanzeems.

The concept of Guerrilla warfare and use of Cells and Modules are parts of unconventional warfare directed at key-assassinations, targeted sabotage and subversion, gradual Mass Control (capturing public mind) and to spring surprise on the presumed enemy. In recent times Lawrence of Arabia, Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro are venerated as successful Guerrilla warfare leaders. In our own country Chhatrapati Shivaji used similar tactics against the Mughals, Balwant Rao Phadke against the British and of course the Bengal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh revolutionaries against the British regime during independence struggle. Most of our historians have elaborately recorded the exploits of Mahatma Gandhi type mass revolution but very little reading material are available on the revolutionary struggle by the Indian youth during the 19th and 20th century. This stream of indigenous warfare has not been developed to suit Indian conditions. However, the Armed Forces and certain specialised forces have taken to this science more seriously.

The Russian Communist strategy of Guerrilla warfare adopted by the rebels in Malaysia, Greece, Cuban rebels, the Telengana rebels and the Sandinista etc were further modified by later revolutionaries.

The communist strategy of cell-module operations to prepare grounds for a bigger warfare is illustrated from the three basic steps taught by Mao Zedong: Establishment of cells and modules in target areas, Guerrilla cells start converting people to their ideology, earn public sympathy (generate Mass Control), escalates frequent targeted attack with support from local cell members and after prolonged cell-module based attacks initiated frontal mass action-both civil an military.

In fact, in post Mao era this refined strategy was given shiny polish by Che Guevara, which was published in his book of 1960-Guerrilla Warfare. These storehouses of strategic and tactical methodologies were adopted by the modern urban and rural guerrilla groups in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Latin American countries and obviously the Muslim resistance groups that initiated terror and jihad campaign against Israel and other western targets. The Abu Nidal group, PLO and Hamas etc followed the same principle. The obverse side of the same tactics were adopted by the early Jewish guerrilla fighters who initially fought the British and later the Muslims Palestinians. Nearer our home in Vietnam General Vo Nguyen Giap tried the classical cell and module based guerrilla warfare against the American occupation forces. His Ant-columns were more successful in module and cell based warfare that led to the final frontal attacks.

In India, we had witnessed cell and module based insurgency in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Punjab and still experiencing the same in Jammu and Kashmir. Having served in most of these conflict areas for nearly two decades, I realised that the concepts of cells enunciated by Mao, Guevara and other practitioners and scholars are not always strictly followed by the grassroots practitioners.

To briefly narrate: A Naga insurgent cell could coalesce around a lowly Rajapeyu (district level chief operative) or a Midanpeyu (regional governor). He mostly planted one to five people in each village to recruit soldiers, collect taxes, and indoctrinate villagers and to organise ambush parties. Success of the Indian intelligence corps and the operational forces depended on identification of village level cells and destroying them either through civil or military actions or combination of the both. This is a vast area of operational technology and cannot be covered in this essay.

However, the physical, tactical and philosophical contents of guerrilla warfare underwent drastic changes when the CIA in collaboration with the ISI and Royal Saudi Intelligence mounted orchestrated guerrilla actions against the Soviet Russia in Afghanistan. Besides training the recruited personnel and volunteer jihadis etc in cell and module based action squads, training was imparted for organised group attacks, what Mao had described as “Escalation of attack” leading to “Conventional attack.”

These trainings by the CIA (some in US based camps), ISI and Royal Saudi Intelligence had created a new breed of Faith-Warriors- Jihadis. Mao’s and Guevara’s ideological tactics were replaced by religious fervour and faith which instilled the theory of inevitability of success of jihad against the jahil, kafir and Dar-ul-Harb enemies. Religion had infused more intense commitment to the presumed cause than a communist guerrilla was inspired by motivation instilled in him by the Mss Control methodologies of the revolutionaries.

Pakistani jihadi tanzeems organised by the Jamait-e-Islami, Makarz-ud-Dawa-ul-Islam, Deoband, Ahl-e-Hadith and Tablighi Jammat etc congregations had recruited youths educated in madrasas and maqtabs, especially from the poorer sections of the society. Gradually educated youths and professionals were drawn to the “Jihad Philosophy” by manifold propaganda like Islam in danger, Hindustan is yet to be liberated for Islam through jihad and regaining the Taj-e-Hind lost to the British and misappropriated by the Hindus. Those who have some experience of “taqrirs” (speeches) in the fanatic dini (religious) madrasas and some of the mosques controlled by extremist groups in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh would know that these are few of the basic lessons that are imparted to the recruits by the Maulanas to control their minds and to turn them to fidayeens and shahids.

Sympathetic counterparts of the Pakistani, Bangladeshi tanzeems and those who get converted through electronic media and other sources of propaganda by friend, acquaintances, Arab associates and are driven by a romantic sense of commitment to the Ummah are gradually dragged into the network of the Maulanas, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Directorate of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) operatives and used as nucleus of Cells and Modules.

There are multiple Muslim religious schools and Jamaits who control different segments of the Muslims through their respective mosques, madrasas and other frontal organisations. In fact, the intelligence community in India are not aware of these layers of sects, madrasas, maqtabs and mosques affiliated to each congregation and innumerable front organisations operated by them. The mainframe organisations in public domain, like the Milli Council, Muslim India, Personal Law Board etc do not seed jihad grounds. They carry out ideological propaganda highlighting the aspects of separatism, voicing real and imaginary problems of the Muslim community and trying to work as substitutes for political interface with the governments and other political parties. Their activities imitate the role once played by the Aligarh institution that acted as the renaissance platform for separate Muslim nationalism and the Muslim League. They aid the historical separatist hangover still haunting certain sections of the Indian Muslim. In their language: there is Muslim India and not Indian Muslim.

The jihad seeds are broadcast by two sources: The internal relics of the separatist past which had acted for creation of a separate Muslim country. The External forces comprise of geopolitically nearer forces rooted in Pakistan and Bangladesh and Pan-Islamic forces rooted in the Middle East and of course the Muslim Diaspora, especially in UK, Germany, USA and other countries. The broadcast materials have ideological content and physical content in the form of deputation of jihadi tanzeems, weapons, explosives and financial resources. The Diaspora mainly helps through financial assistance and through electronic propaganda which have easy access to homes and shelters of educated and even professional elements of the society.

The jihad movement jointly started by the ISI, RSI and the CIA to defeat Cold War adversary has now infected Pakistan and Bangladesh in our neighbourhood and regional countries like Afghanistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines. The jihad infection has spread in other Asian, African and European countries as well.

However, what we experience in India is not “terrorism.” There is nothing like “terrorism” as other ism based political and revolutionary organisations are categorised by the specialists. Terror is a weapon, used by most ideological and religious groups who want to expand, occupy and appropriate territories and peoples in the name of an ideology or religion. India had experienced ideologically inspired rebellion during Telengana uprising, Tebhaga Andolan and the recent growth of armed Maoist revolution.

The periodical bomb blasts in several parts of the country are attributed to the groups of people, tanzeems and paramilitary bodies created by religious congregations in Pakistan and Bangladesh and the official intelligence agencies of these countries. They have cloned several such jihadi entities amongst the vulnerable sections of the Indian Muslims, who swear by the slogans of separatism.

The itinerary jihadis deputed from neighbouring countries cannot function in isolation. They require nestling facilities, ideologically supportive groups, local assistance from the members of the like minded religious fanatic separatists and Ansras (helpers) recruited by them. They are assisted by the unidentified fronts, madrasas, mosques and groups which are parts of the Pan-Islamic garland that span over the three neighbouring countries and the Ummah in General.

The network is complicated, often interconnected and often separated by invisible walls of tanzeem incompatibility. It may be noted that different tanzeems normally do not collaborate with each other and very often the selection of the tanzeems and personnel in India are done by the ISI and the DGFI. They in turn, task the Pakistani and Bangladeshi tanzeems to establish cell/cells/modules amongst the identified location with helps from already subverted people. The word “Module” is used as a self contained functional unit of which one or more “Cell” may form part. Module is the larger component and the Cell is a smaller entity. A Module may have more that four/five Cells. The Cells are created in collaboration with the India-based tanzeems after detailed studies. This job is done by the holed-in operatives of the ISI/DGFI in collaboration with local associates.

Let us examine two separate diagrams of a Peculiar Cell and a Module:

Mostly Located in Muslim Dominated Clusters
Communication through Personal Contact
Functions: Receive and Spread Jihadi Ideology
Arrange Safe House for Foreign Visitors
Recruit Volunteers for Helping Visitors
Help Locating Target for Attack
Help in Surveillance
Help Spotting Location
Help Procurement of Raw Material and Fabrication
At Least Four Layer Scouting Before Planters Go for Action Preparation

The Modules are more complicated. The Module Boss is normally the designated operations chief of the India-based tanzeems. Besides controlling the core of the Module (may be 2/3 members) he personally and through other Module members remain touch with the Cells and Cell Members through Hub members. A Module may have 3/5 Hubs and each Hub may have 3/5 Cells. However, the temporary Ansars are not allowed to get closer to the Module bosses. They are created and activated by the Cell chief. In a peculiar Cell there can be a single member or maximum 3/5 members depending on circumstances and requirements. In a multi-event strike; say Mumbai train blasts and Jaipur blasts the Modules must have had 10 members and the cells minimum five members and another 10/15 Ansars. One such operation requires minimum 20 people. Let us examine a peculiar Module.

How does it operate? A pictorial depiction would help better understanding.

The pictures of three places in Mumbai and Delhi are illustrative and have no proven connection with real jihadist attacks or existence of Modules and Cells.

The population and institutional locations near Kalkaji Temple (South Delhi) may have had harboured some cells in the slum clusters behind the temple which had taken place in 2005 Diwali eve multiple bomb blasts at highly congested locations. The possibility of one such cell located in nearby Gobindpuri population clusters taking part in planting a bomb in a passenger bus could not be ruled out. The illustrative Kalkaji Cell was not a Module, which might have operated from another location in Delhi. This will be illustrated in another pictorial analysis.

As an illustrative study let us presume existence of a Master Module somewhere near the Jahnagirpuri institution. The areas covered by Silampur, Jahangirpuri, Babarpur, Sunlight Colony etc are predominantly inhabited by the Muslim community. The Presumed Module Boss/Bosses might be located in one of the labyrinthine inaccessible lanes, commanding two to four Hubs, which, in turn, command one or more Cell under their assigned area. The task allotted to individual cells has been outlined above. The Module Boss/Bosses remain in charge of communication with foreign bases, receiving instructions, arranging safe houses in religiously compatible or mixed population areas, activate the cells and arrange acclimatisation process for the visiting tanzeems collaborator. The Module is also responsible for “Cooling Period” for the guest jihadis after an incident and for arranging their exit from the country with helps from compatible Modules in other parts of the country.

It is important to note that Module owing allegiance to one particular tanzeems is not normally exposed to another tanzeems unless parent bodies like the SIMI assign such collaboration. A Module trained and positioned by the Lashkar-e-Toiba may collaborate with HuJI activist if the task is collaborative in nature. For example, as per informed sources, the HuJI activists from Bangladesh responsible for carrying out Benaras multiple blasts were initially nestled in an Ahl-e-Hadith mosque near the Cantonment station.

Let us move to Mumbai:

The Locations indicated in the map are illustrative and have no connection with any known jihadi attack incident. The probability of existence of one or more Module in heavily populated areas near about the marked locations could have worked as Hubs for carrying out multiple train bomb blasts could not be ruled out by investigating agencies.

For combinations of reasons it is not possible for the intelligence and police agencies to identify in advance location of such Modules, Hubs and Cells. To study this minuscule and macro subject of Cell and Module functioning, the agencies would be required to understand the historical functioning of such Modules and Cells amongst the early indigenous and foreign revolutionary/fanatic religious groups and obviously the methodologies adopted by the communist revolutionaries. This part of intricately mixed sciences of social studies, guerrilla warfare methodologies and Mass Control mechanism forms the basic science of counter-terrorism and counter-jihad operations. In short, Mass Control means controlling minds of the people, destroying their faith and trust in the established State and promulgating the suzerainty of the revolutionary through armed struggle and ideological warfare.

There are reasons to believe that the Armed Forces and some specialised police forces are seriously studying these aspects. It is imperative for the all the intelligence agencies to muster expertise in the science art of the tradecraft absolutely necessary to combat terrorism, insurgency and jihadist attacks.

I propose to write separately on this science of counter-terrorism and counter-jihad aspects of State responsibility and responsibilities of the People, who form an integral part of the Mass Control technology.

I am not a hater of anything except immoral social behavior and anything that challenge integrity of my country. They happily forget that soon after serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in 2007, I was one Hindu who dared to assist the Deoband luminaries and organise a congregation of all their Ulamas at the Parliament Annex Hall in August 2007, bring the leaders in touch with several opinion makers and important personalities. The Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister had addressed that session. Regretfully, except one representative from All India Muslim Personal Law Board, no other Islamic theo-religious and theopolitical organisation agreed to associate with the initiative of the Darul Uloom Deoband.

The Deoband School had again taken the lead in February 25, 2008 when the Seminary issued a fatwa against “all acts of terrorism.” Saud Alam Qasmi, dean of Theology at the Aligarh Muslim University welcomed the fatwa. Maulana Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui, a senior Islamic theologist said, “The fatwa should be welcomed by the entire Islamic world,” adding that revenge killing of innocent people was unambiguously prohibited by the Holy Quran.

Again on April 27, 2008 when Deoband’s fatwa department head Mufti Habibur said that the Shariat disallowed anything against law: “Cow slaughter, therefore, was “najayaz” even though Islam allows beef-eating,” the fatwa said. It said any act which brought bad name to the community or evoked possibility of imprisonment was “haram” and should be avoided.

Predictably there was counter reaction from Pakistan. The head of Darul Ifta wa Al-Qazzath of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (Parent body of Lashkar-e-Taiba) Pakistan, Mufti Abdul Rehman Al Rehmani, said that the “fatwa” should be withdrawn immediately. He justified that, “the fatwa encourages Hindu beliefs.” The Ahl-e-Hadith Pakistan also issued a similar fatwa. See www.jamtuddawa.org.
The Bangladesh Jamait-e-Islami, Ahl-e-Hadith and Deoband seminary (Dhaka) also condemned the Indian cleric’s fatwa. Prothom Alo May 3, 2008.

In spite of such deviant statements from neighbouring country’s ultra organisations the influential Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband on May 31, 2008 issued another “fatwa” denouncing terrorism. It stated that in Islam’s view: “spreading mischief, rioting, breach of peace, bloodshed, killing of innocent persons and plundering are the most inhuman crimes.” The fatwa came during an anti-terror conference organised by the Jamiat-Ulema-E-Hind and Darul Uloom in Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds. The fatwa, signed by Darul chief Riyasat Ali Bijnori, has been endorsed by representatives of some Muslim sects in India, especially a faction of the Barelwi, Khankahi and some minor Sufis sects. The fatwa assumes significance because of the Deoband (UP)-based Darul’s wide influence across the Muslim world. After the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Darul is the most important centre of Islamic theology.

Unfortunately, the fatwa was not signed by Firangi Mahall and Nadwatul Islam of Lucknow and most dominating faction of the Ahl-e-Hadith, Jamiya al Salafiya, All India Muslim Personal Board, All India Milli Council and obviously the Jamiat-e-Islami and Tablighi Jammat. Therefore, the fatwa does not encompass entire Muslim theological and theopolitical shades.

The Deoband declaration said, ‘Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism’. However, the next paragraphs stated that the Darul Uloom’s idea of terrorism was different to common understanding. It was not attacks by Jihadis and Islamist fidayeens on the jahil kafirs that the Deoband was worried about. They were concerned more about branding of Muslims as terrorists whenever any jihadi terror attacks took place and subsequent attacks on Muslims by the infidels. I quote some parts of the fatwa… “The Conference expresses its deep concern and agony on the present global and national alarming conditions in which most of the nations are adopting such an attitude against their citizens, especially Muslims, to appease the tyrant and colonial master of the West . . . the conference strongly demands the Indian Government to curb those maligning the madrassas and Muslims.”

I do not regret taking initiative in prodding the Deoband school of India to create an atmosphere of cordiality and faith in the Indian system that our nations has been able to and is capable of protecting and promoting Muslim interest. I would continue my efforts but would decline to close my mind and crania. The truth cannot be covered up by diplomatic and political rhetoric. Being a friend of the Muslims does not mean closing eyes to the March of Jihad and feigning deafness to its foot thumping.

However, those of you visited Deoband in UP would not miss that this old seminary is anything but a fountainhead of modern Islam. Do not believe me. Read what Tavleen Singh a celebrated columnist has to say, “The scariest religious institution I have ever been to is the Darul Uloom in Deoband. In the hour I spent wandering about its grounds on my single uninvited visit a couple of years ago I understood why it had inspired the Taliban. It is an institution that remains frozen in seventh century Arabia, a time when men were primitive and women got a primitive deal.” Reading between the lines of Deoband fatwa, Tavleen Singh, Indian Express, March 02, 2008.

I am not biased by her views. But my visits to that seminary impressed me that Islam in its purest form was taught there and hundreds of students from all over the world study there and borrow the fundamentals of Islam from its Indian fountainhead.

Not too long ago I had the opportunity of visiting Binnori mosque of Karachi and the Deoband establishment in Dhaka. In both the places I noticed that the Islamic theology and other aspects of education dated back to pre-Wahhabi (Arab) and pre-Salafi (Egypt) days. Whatever they might teach about the religion propagated by Prophet Mohammad, one could not miss the tone and tenor of ‘hatred and religious compulsion against the jahil kafirs.’ The Binnori mosque and madrasa had been the breeding pool of jihadis fighting in Afghanistan and later the Taliban force. The Deoband, Jamait-e-Islami etc had conceived Harkat-ul-Ansar and Harkat-ul-Jiahd-al-Isami. These theological and theopolitical outfits in Pakistan and Bangladesh have emerged as powerful as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Salafiya groups and al Qaeda are in most Muslim countries and in global parameter.

The question boils down to the core issue: does the Deoband control minds of Indian Muslims and do they follow their fatwas as inviolable edicts? I am afraid, they do not. Though considered as important as Al Azhar of Egypt the Deoband Seminary is not the only religious school that had sprouted out of the revivalist, Wahhabi and Salafi movement initiated by Shah Waliullah of Delhi and his descendants. The fall of the Great Mughals had marked the end of Muslim political power (virtual caliphate) in India and rise of Islamic puritanist movement starting from Aurangzeb to the lineage of Waliullah.

History is witness to the emergence of other Islamist educational, theological and theopolitical and ethno-theo-political schools. In short these are: Indian segment of Saudi based Rabita-al-Alam-al Islami (preaching global Islamic connectivity), Tablighi Jammat (more Salafist), Jamma’a al Islamiya, Jamma’a al Salafiya, Ahl-e-Hadith, Nadwatul Islam, Firangi Mahall (French residency at Lucknow donated by Aurangzeb to an Islamic scholar), Jamiat Ahl-e-Sunnat & Manzar-i-Islam (Barelwi sect, more Wahhabi), the Ahmadiya, the Ahrar, Khaksar and several sub-sects of the Shia’a community. While the Ahrar and Khaksrs survive in some form in Pakistan the rest are active in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

It is a fact of life that the Deoband India and its political wing the Jamait-ul-Ulema-e-Hind have stuck to fundamentals of Islam, which do not permit bid’a (heresy), dahriyat (atheism), and change in Islamic fiqh (jurisprudence), ijtihad (independent reasoning) etc tendencies displayed by deviant followers of Islam. Most South Asian Islamic theocratic, theopolitical and theo-extremist organisations follow these tenets.

In recent times (1978 onwards) the Deobandi Schools in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Jamait-e-Islami and Tablighi Jammat etc besides the other institutions named above have joined the bandwagon of more radical version of Wahhabism and Salafism (al Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden are Salafists). These very organizations and tanzeems were used by Zia-ul-Haq, the ISI and the CIA to float several jihadist tanzeems to fight their geostrategic wars in Afghanistan. Simultaneously these tanzeems were also trained and pushed into Indian Kashmir to wage another phase of jihad.

From 1988 onwards this experimental jihad in Kashmir was broadened to the northern hinterland of India and after 1993 the ISI, in tandem with the DGFI of Bangladesh and the tanzeems like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul Ansar, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, Al Badr, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Jamait ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, SIMI, Islamic Chhatra Shibir etc carried out sustained jihadi propaganda through the institutions listed above, through madrasas controlled by them and through roving ulamas and Tablighi Jammat proselytisers. Jamait-e-Islami provides the steady ground for recruitment of fresh rukuns (primary members) who are brain washed and sent to Bangladesh and Pakistan for ideological and military training. The JeI connection was emphasized by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisel Saleh Hayat, “All of the activists and terrorists who have been apprehended in recent months have had links to the Jamaat-e-Islami, whether we have arrested them in Lahore or here or Karachi….They have been harboring them.” Al Qaida Pakistan Ties Deepen, The Christian Science Monitor, 03.06.2003.

Between 1989 and 2008 the ISI and the DGFI have set up camps, charted out routes and established supply depots for these rained Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi jihadis to create modules and cells all over India. The mission is nearly complete.

Let us briefly examine a few routes, areas of cells-modules and pockets of established presence of these jihadi elements. The ISI, DGFI backed tanzeems have set up bases in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Jharkhand.

Innumerable cells and modules have been established in collaboration with the ‘believers’, paid agents and trained cadres. For lack of space the details cannot be explained in this column. In simple words these cells exist in the northeastern and eastern part of northern India. Most of the named institutions, mosques, madrasas managed by them are used by the home-grown and foreign jihadis. It has not been possible for the intelligence and security agencies to penetrate these hubs. (The map above referred).

As far as northern and western part of India the picture is more frightening. It would not be possible to add annotation on each hub or cluster of hubs in this flank. But the discerning readers can make out sense out of this broad vision and explore the possibilities of delving deep into the subject. To briefly state there are innumerable hubs, modules and cells in Punjab, parts of Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and certain areas of Madhya Pradesh. We should remember that the Ahl-e-Hadith sect was started at Bhopal and it has now become a worldwide hinge of the extremist Islamists. (The map below referred).

To illustrate I wish to present another article on cellular modules, cells, sub-cells and Ansar (helper) groups in a particular hub. This is a scientifically proven methodology originally adopted by the Communist Parties, called apparatuses. The experts in setting up such tech-apparatus action cells) were called apparatchiks. This pattern was followed by some of the Indian revolutionary groups during independence struggle. Obviously, during the phase of urban guerrilla warfare in Europe (Red Brigade), Red Army Faction) etc the same formula was adopted in minuscule manner.

Jihad never insisted on cell making and positioning modules in foreign countries to wage jihad with a view to converting Dar-ul-Harb to Dar-ul-Islam; in India context regaining the Taj-e-Hind. The module and cell formation is a war technique taught to the Arabs, Afghans, Pakistani and other foreign jihadis by the CIA and the ISI while training the volunteers for Afghan jihad, i.e. War to end the Cold War, Pakistan further taught the technique to the jihadis of Harkat-ul-Ansar, Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami and scores of the other Tanzeems it trained to operate in India. Same kind of training was imparted to the Indian insurgent groups like the NSCN (IM), ULFA, United National Liberation Front and the Bodos by China, Pakistan and DGFI of Bangladesh,

The pattern of setting up hubs is done on the following principle:
• Religious compatibility
• Tanzeem compatibility
• Availability of safe route, safe house and vulnerable operational targets
• Indoctrinated Technical hands and logistical supply
• Availability of adequate Ansars and safe exit routes.
• Safe communication facilities.

I have written in an earlier column about hidden enemies in the southern parts of the country. An illustrative map may enlighten the readers more than mere words. It would have been a pleasure to elaborate certain hubs, modules and cells in various parts of the country. In short the hubs in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and areas of Maharashtra adjoining Karnataka and Andhra are most vulnerable. Space is a constraint. Inquisitive readers may like to read my book: Fulcrum of Evil: ISI, CIA, al Qaeda Nexus. I juxtapose an illustrative map for easy understanding:

This capsule presentation should evoke thinking and awareness and not fear. Fear stalks us, the jihadis are within us, and they are coming in steady streams from Pakistan and Bangladesh. We have to live with periodical Jaipur, Mumbai, Hyderabad etc and look up to a God called Government which does not deliver.

The attacks are not of the nature of horsemen galloping and tanks rolling down to capture India. The evil winds are blowing in poisonous gasses to vitiate minds of vulnerable Islamic individuals and groups. Real or imaginative acts of discrimination against the Muslims elsewhere in the world are being ventilated through organised violence in the name of jihad. This phenomenon is being mixed up with the pre-partition Muslim separatism that resulted in partition.

Several clusters of Muslims in India are still living together separately with the rest of the Indians. They derive pleasure by attributing this sense of alienation to neglect of the community by majority Hindus. Such feelings nursed for over 160 years since 1857, cannot be washed away by a Sachar Commission Report. It requires serious introspection by the enlightened Muslims and religious congregations like the Darul Uloom Deoband. Without introspection and faith in Indian national identity no amount of reservation and financial package can bring them up to modern global standard. Starting from Morley-Minto reforms (1909) to Congress-Muslim League Lucknow Pact (1916) to Khilafat bonhomie to partition we have treaded vast grounds. Our Muslim brothers have no reason to live together separately under the same roof. Our roof should be our common heart.

I would like to elaborate on certain illustrated jihadi modules and cells in the next column. In the meantime, like governments and agencies do not go to slumber. This country is ours and we have to protect it together-irrespective of our professed religious proclivities.

During last decade and a half the electronic and print media have attained the stature of national ombudsmen. They have reached every nook and corner of national, regional and international activities. Their sweep covers mundane to marvelous happenings.

Sensationalisation of news and events beyond all proportions without any respect and regards for space, privacy and secrecy required by national intelligence agencies increase TRP of the channels. However, in the process, either by adding wailings of the relatives of the claimed spy, they generate mass hysteria and force the governments to move tactically, diplomatically and often foolishly to satisfy the voters.

However, while highlighting the plights of “Indian Spies” detained in Pakistan and utter neglect by the government of India, in case they are lucky enough to escape the gallows and black-death behind dark prison walls, the media focus emphasis on humanitarian aspects and inevitably suggest that some institutional, if not constitutional, safeguards should be devised for the patriotic spies.

I am afraid such hypes, though laudable as humanitarian concern, are based on certain misperceptions. Espionage is a part of Statecraft, extended diplomacy and elongated efforts for war and peace. War and Peace are integral parts of a nation’s philosophy of existence and survival. There cannot be any Ramrajya where there would not be any war and there would not be any need for espionage. Such chimera exists in the souls of saints and philosophers who are not trained to think in terms of cultural, ethnic and geopolitical nationhood. Absence of these very ingredients in ancient India had led to fragmented clan and dynastic nationalities. The Europe and many parts of Asia have gone through this process and the concept of ‘Nationhood’ is rather a gift of new human identity achieved during fifteenth and sixteenth century. In India the concept had started emerging after the British conquest of India, spread of modern education and the spark of Renaissance. The unintended attitude of treating Bharat as a Ramrajya by the Nehru government had pushed India into the throes of a humiliating military and diplomatic defeat in the hands of China. India is still unable to emerge out of that ghostly shadow of Ramrajya experiment.

Our examination of the trade of Espionage cannot be complete without falling back to the Arthashashtra of Kautilya.

Espionage is the assigned Trade of the spy agencies. They use Tradecrafts to hone their professional approaches to the task of creation of Human Intelligence Assets (HumInt). This is a complicated subject and would require a few volumes to explain the details.

This concept is as old as the organised human society is. Interested readers may like to glance through chapter eleven, section seven, eight, nine onwards of Kautilyan Arthasastra by M. B. Chande (Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi). Kautilya had compiled his treatise on various aspects of espionage as it suited the kings of his days. However, the eternal aspects of human fallibility have been explained by him, by exploiting which the trained intelligence generators create their agents. This is called Tradecraft, techniques of the trade of espionage.

The concept has remained unchanged: at the end of the day a curious housewife wants to what is cooked in her neighbour’s pot what and who sleeps with her rival neighbour under her sheets. Enlarge the inquisitive individual. This simple information is vital for “chaupal” gossip and important for social cohesiveness. Enlarge this orbit. A modern nation state cannot survive without having prior warning about its neighbour’s intentions. Whenever some stupid state scions like to indulge in the luxury of indulgent ignorance or philosophical utopianism we get surprised by broken China of Hindi-Chini Bahi Bahi and Kargil. Unfortunately, in India such slumbering philosophers are treated as national heroes and blundering officers are crowned with governor’s laurels.

It is not my intention to drag you through the minefields of intelligence generation tools. This is a vast subject and cannot be narrated in a column. My intention is to narrate certain developments involving national crisis reactions in the public and the media, which have exposed the raw sides of weakness and unpreparedness of our governing tools and vulnerability of our media and members of the public.

Hijacking of IC 814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar is a glaring example of intelligence and security failure of the governments of India and Nepal. This single incident had created several chain reactions-creation of new jihadi tanzeems called Jais-e-Mohammad, killing of Daniel Pearl, a grand kidnapping for ransom in Kolkata, transfer of part of the ransom money to Mohammad Atta by the ISI and utilization of that fund in the 9/11 attacks on Twin Towers and the Indian Parliament. The chain reaction continues even today, the USA behaving like a Nation State and India reacting as a lump of clay. The USA had brought in Homeland Security Act; India enacted and abolished POTA to prove that it is a better secular country and more democratic than the USA. Long live Bharat!

Besides these monumental cascading consequences I would like to draw attention of the readers to the video footages of demonstration by family members and workers of certain secular political parties, beating chest and wailing and forcing a government to free the hijacked passengers and the plain at great national humiliation and cost. The