The outcome of terrorism - EDITORIAL

10 June 2014 06:30 pm - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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he attack on the Pakistan’s biggest airport, the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Sunday that killed more than 20 people would have caused to flash the memories of the attack on the Bandaranaike International Airport by the LTTE on July 24, 2001 across the minds of many Sri Lankans.

As a country that suffered from the savagery of terrorism for more than three decades, Sri Lankans would be in the forefront to sympathise with the people of Pakistan who are still destined to go through this kind of trials occasionally.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack in revenge for their late leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in November. This too would remind us of many a claims made by the LTTE after attacks on innocent people during its heyday.

It is surprising to note that even after thousands of this kind of isolated attacks on civilian targets by rebel groups around the world for decades many such groups have not yet realised the futility of them.

Not a single government in the world has given up or at least reduced its resolve to fight against terrorism or “militancy” owing to any of the attacks on civilian target by terrorists or militants. In a military point of view, in fact these attacks are not only futile, but also counterproductive.
Sri Lanka has produced hundreds of cases in point.

Each and every attack by the LTTE on isolated targets, military or civilian, had pinpointed the weak points in the defence structure of the armed forces and after each such attack the forces took corrective measures.

The culminating outcome of thirty years was a defence establishment with well trained, battlehardened and totally vigilant three armed forces and a Police that had swollen in number and improved in sophistication of their military hardware.

After thousands of this kind of attacks around the world, the question still remains as to why these terrorist groups target the innocent, ordinary people among whom there might be even the people who the attackers are said to fight for or the apologists of them.

For instance, Sri Lankans who had seen hundreds of attacks similar to the Karachi Airport attack also had seen Tamils too were victims of the bombs planted in buses and trains by the LTTE who claimed to fight for the Tamil people.

Also during the early days of the war in Sri Lanka, hundreds of Tamils perished during the reprisal attacks by the armed forces and there is a school of thought that the LTTE intentionally mounted attacks on isolated targets with civilian vicinity with a view to invite reprisals against the ordinary Tamils, which they could sell in the international market later.

Taliban is said to fight in the name of the religion of its members, Islam.

However, despite the distorted picture of Islam that has been given by the Western media, any fairminded student of world religions would vouch that Islam has sanctioned only defensive attacks and even in such approved armed conflicts Islam seriously warns against harming non-combatants and weaker sections of the society.

However, the groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are responsible for the killing of many innocent people in many places around the globe and thereby equally responsible for the tarnishing of their own religion and giving ammunition to a section of the Western politicians and media who are craving to discredit Islam as a part of a larger political programme.

It is high time for them to ponder as to what they have gained by the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001.

The only outcomes were that they were hunted all over the world, their enemy strengthened his defence apparatuses several folds and gained substantial amount of evidence to demonise the religion of the Al-Qaeda.

Religions are means of peace. But what we are witnessing locally and internationally is that if anyone or a group overstepped the bounds of peace even in the name of religion that would harm the image of the very religion of the person or the group.

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The outcome of terrorism - EDITORIAL

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