Terrorism

The June 28 attack on Ataturk airport, as also the Zaventem attack in Brussels, have highlighted the security lacunae in all airports, which do not monitor the arrival terminals.

Terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba are increasingly taking to social media to further widen their outreach. By integrating social media with self-developed android apps, Lashkar is also turning from mere technology user into a product developer.

Notwithstanding the relatively lower death toll, the January 14 attack has caused alarm in the region given that it came as proof of the claim made by the IS in 2014 about intensifying its activities across Southeast Asia.

If the IS has been able to successfully recruit Indians for the war in Syria and provide technical support for their travel, it is a matter of time before they find recruits willing to employ violence in India itself.

The international community should strengthen the hands of the Sheikh Hasina government. It has a proven track record of working against extremists and terrorists.

To argue that the IS carried out the attacks because it has visceral hatred for Western values is to miss the central point. IS has that hatred, but essentially 13/11 was an act of vengeance against France and others who have been bombing the IS.

It is difficult to figure out the basic motivation of US policy. It might be sheer inability to decide or it might be the desire to lend support to the progressive realization of the 1982 Yinon plan.

Stakeholder regional countries threatened by Islamic militancy need to get together under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and fight a joint war to end the menace.