Indian Defence Review

         The Indian Mujahideen (IM) has been quiet active ever since the banning of SIMI in 2001. Almost all the blasts, starting from Delhi in 2008 to Bodh Gaya recently, they have been attributed to the IM. An important judgement on Batla house is likely to be pronounced any day which will definitely prove as a watershed in our fight towards terrorism. On 19 Sep 2008 Batla house encounter took place in which Atif Amin was killed who was the main suspect of 13 Sep 2008 Delhi blasts that killed over 30 people. As the judgement day draws close, one is reminded of the politics that this incident generated in 2008. One senior politician openly claimed this to be a fake encounter, the time will only tell if these assumptions were purely politically driven or there is something more than the eyes can meet. There is also a section which believes that there is nothing such as IM. Probably IM is serving the purpose of both, the ISI and the NIA, the former gets an Indian facade to ISI engineered terror and the later gets to hide its incompetence by nabbing a few of these operatives thus missing the larger point.

Various analysts trace the roots of IM to Jamaat-e-Islami hind (JIH) which had an alliance with SIMI and later split after the radical members of SIMI opposed the visit of Yaseer Arafat to India in 1981. SIMI was banned on 27 Sep 2001 in the wake of 9/11 in the United States and post Godhra riots IM appears to have been formed with an initial strength of 200 volunteers. The Deobandi and Wahhabi ideology form a deadly cocktail of radical Islam which is the bed rock of Al-Qaeda, LeT, Jaish, HuJI and the IM. This is also a common strain that binds together almost all other Islamic terror outfits in the complete South Asian region. All these organisations are known to carry out deadly attacks at the nerve centres of a country’s governance, finance, religion, commerce and trade centres, unlike the IM which relies on low yield explosives many a times just resulting in superfluous damage. The question are many, is this a deliberate strategy on part of ISI or is it that the IM is not at all linked to these deadly organisations and is virtually independent or is IM is part of the infamous D company. The answers to these queries are yet to be answered since no intelligence agency in India can back its claim with any credible evidence.

In the words of former NSA, Mr MK Naranayan, the Al-Qaeda mind-set is more dangerous than the Al-Qaeda itself. If this be so than, to my understanding, the ISI is plotting a greater design by simply concentrating on spreading of Wahhabi ideology, “the Al-Qaeda mind set” through the network of madrasas run by the Deobandis across the country funded by the Saudi money. The ISI under the garb of IM is concurrently carrying out low level terrorist activities when compared to those of the Taliban or the Al-Qaeda and keep the Indian Intelligence apparatus busy looking the other way. A country, with the world’s largest Muslim population, if radicalised, well spell doom to this mighty nation of ours. We have to remember that the Wahhabis ideology dictates that a true Muslim owes allegiance to Islam first than towards any nation and believes in Islamic boundaries rather than the geographical ones.

The misnomer of IM being a home grown terrorist organisation needs to be dispelled at the earliest. Our Intelligence agencies need to look beyond the facade (IM) created to cover the terrorist activities of LeT, JeM or HUJI by the ISI. The Indian government machinery and the politicians should leave no stone unturned to defeat Pakistan in its design to radicalise the Indian Muslims before it is too late. The eagerly awaited Batla house verdict will strength the resolve of security establishment of India or demoralise the fight against terror is to be seen.