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Moscow & Delhi
Fighting Together
There is little evidence
that the wave of terrorism that is presently sweeping across much of the
globe will diminish in the proximate future. If anything, there is reason
to expect a significant escalation in the near term, particularly in view
of the mismanagement of the situation in Iraq, the increasing disarray
in the ‘global coalition against terror’ and a strengthening perception
among Islamist extremist planners that the contemporary world’s ‘sole
hyperpower’ is deeply vulnerable to the methods of terrorism and irregular
warfare, notwithstanding it great financial, military and technological
strength. A natural corollary to this perception is that other, relatively
weaker, nation states currently targeted by terrorism would naturally
be even more susceptible to this method of warfare.
India and Russia are prominent among
such targeted countries, and both have suffered immensely as a result
of Islamist extremist terrorism over the past decade. The potential
of this campaign of attrition has, moreover, escalated enormously within
Asia’s rapidly transforming geopolitical dynamic, giving a new urgency
to traditional Indo-Russian ties. It is abundantly clear, now, that
the ‘unipolar’ world structure that appeared to have crystallized over
the last decade of the 20th Century was, at best, an imperfect
transitional construct, and that the world will suffer the consequences
of rising instability – manifested particularly in terrorism – for years
to come, until a more stable multipolar configuration is crafted out
of the current disorders.
During his visit to New Delhi in December
2002, President Putin had clearly stated, "We believe a transfer
of the center of international terrorism to this region has taken place,
and we intend to coordinate the efforts of all agencies...to combat
international terror." Earlier, in his address to the Indian Parliament
in October 2000, he noted, "the same individuals, the same terrorist
and extremist organizations are involved in terrorist acts from the
Philippines to Kosovo, including in Jammu & Kashmir, Afghanistan
and Chechnya."
The control centers of this international
web of terrorism lie in Pakistan, the country that supports terrorism
in the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), as in other parts
of the country; Paikstan’s patronage – indeed, domination – of the Taliban
forces and regime in Afghanistan before 9/11 is common knowledge. What
is less well known is the Pakistani role in fomenting Islamist extremism
in Chechnya, Dagestan, and the Central Asian Republics (CARs) where
the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has actively mobilized fundamentalist
forces for over a decade; has directly trained and supported terrorist
cadres; and given sanctuary to their leadership. Most of the members
of the Chechen Cabinet are known to have been trained in Pakistan, and
as far back as in July 1995, senior Russian counter-terrorism officials
had indicated that Chechen commander Shamil Basayev was among the terrorists
trained in Pakistani camps. Salman Raduyev, another Chechen who had
led a raid in Kizlyar, Dagestan, in January 1996, taking over 2,000
Russians hostage, also received training from the Harkat-ul-Mujahiddeen
(HuM)
in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The HuM was an ISI creation, and came into
being in 1985, originally to participate in the Jehad against
Soviet Forces in Afghanistan. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
in 1989, the group substantially turned its attention to J&K, though
its influence and its cadres go well beyond. The HuM has been particularly
active in training Islamist terrorists in countries including the Philippines,
Myanmar, the Central Asian Republics (CARs), Chechnya, Dagestan and
the Xinjiang province of China.
The Pakistani intervention in Chechnya
is part of a larger game plan, drawn out during the tenure of Lt. Gen.
Javed Nasir as the Director General of the ISI, to dominate the CARs.
Nasir was also an ‘advisor’ to the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), which was used
extensively in this process, backed by liberal funding from Saudi Arabia.
The TJ extensively preached an extremist Wahabi form of Islam in the
CARs, as well as in Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia, and in the Xinjiang
province of China, mobilizing recruits, who were brought to Pakistan
and Afghanistan for ‘religious studies’ and for arms training in camps
run by the HuM and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Uzbekistan has accused
three Pakistani organizations – the Mezb-e-Harkat-e-Jihad (MHJ), Devas-Ul-Ershad
(DUE) and the Islamic Ulema Society (IUS) – of clandestinely training
hundreds of Central Asians at various centers in Pakistan to carry out
terrorist attacks. A large number of mercenaries and volunteers from
Pakistan have also participated in terrorist operations in Chechnya
and Dagestan. An international Islamist ‘charitable’ organization, Al
Haramein Islamic Foundation, created to support the anti-Soviet movement
in Afghanistan in the 1980s was also known to have subsequently widened
its activities to support Islamist terrorist organizations worldwide,
and established a network of offices in Albania, Macedonia, Croatia,
Kosovo, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Somalia, Georgia and Azerbaijan,
and was active in Chechnya as well. The Foundation is headquartered
at Riyadh, and provides support to Wahabi extremist groups in Dagestan
and Chechnya. Al Haramein’s operations in Pakistan have been used to
arrange the acquisition of heavy weaponry, a range of armaments, and
the recruitment of experienced Pakistani mercenaries for the Chechen
terrorists. The Chechen rebels had also established strong links with
the Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as well as with a number of Pakistan based
extremist groups, including the HuM, the LeT, the Jamaat-e-Islami and
the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam.
Both Delhi and Moscow see a widening
arc of Islamist terror sweeping across Eastern Europe, Central, South
and South East Asia. Under the circumstances, effectives counter-terrorism
cooperation between the target countries has become an urgent imperative.
Joint Working Groups have been set up between India and Russia, and
there has been significant forward movement at the diplomatic levels.
There is, however, a long way to go before such cooperation can be translated
into an effective operational response to the patterns of terrorism
that affect both countries, and to the regional geopolitical context
that impinges on their strategic interests. Both countries, moreover,
have extensive and varied experience in countering terrorism, and there
is much that they can learn from one another in terms of the effectiveness
or otherwise of tactical, technological, administrative and structural
responses to terrorism.
(Edited version
published in New Theme: On Russian - Indian Affairs, Volume VII, Issue
No. 3, July-September 2004.)
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