The Hindu Business Line : Terror in the air

One major attempt at mass murder has been foiled by Britain's Scotland Yard and MI-5, but terror remains a clear and present danger to the world. Undoubtedly, the forces of evil are on the ascendance going by the audacity of the plot — to bomb over the Atlantic some 10 aircraft on the UK-US route that would have killed thousands of passengers. Even more worrisome is the sophistication of the instrument — liquid explosives carried in handbags defying detection by normal airport security procedures. The perpetrators may be fundamentalist and obscurantist but surely they are not wanting in technical knowhow or ingenuity. This will make their detection increasingly difficult. Air travel will become painfully cumbersome as the restrictions on hand-baggage get even more stringent. Passengers and airlines will have to put up with some more irritating procedures thought up by the rightly paranoid airport security set-ups world over, but especially in the US and the UK. Significant delays at airports are inevitable but hopefully, for the sake of the airline industry that is making a slow turnaround, will not be bad enough to put off travellers, particularly businessmen.

The terror plot, as is now accepted, has the signature of the Al-Qaeda; the organisation's Ramzi Yousef had planned a similar strike, called Operation Bojinka, over the Pacific, in the mid-1990s. Weakened it might be with much of its top leadership eliminated, behind bars, or on the run, but the Al-Qaeda is still powerful enough to hatch transnational plots. Of course, the Al-Qaeda is no more a mere organisation, but has become an idea that spawns terror outfits anywhere and everywhere. Only a small group — usually, disgruntled, unemployed youths — needs to be recruited in a country to have an out-of-proportion impact. One such terror nerve-centre is obviously Pakistan, which harbours terrorists and permits training camps. That Islamabad has come in for praise by the West for striking out at terrorist outfits, in general, and in the instant case, in particular, does not absolve it at all. For, its notorious Inter-Services Intelligence is known to support terror groups, such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, as India can surely vouch. For all its commitments to the world that it will not allow its territory to be used by terrorists, Pakistan has not been able to dismantle the jehadi groups.

Effectively striking at terror of the kind spawned by Al-Qaeda cannot be by merely declaring, as the US President, Mr George Bush, has, that the United States is "at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom." There is need for a world-wide initiative; it is not clear how seriously the US takes the pleas of a long terror-stalked country such as India for just this. Indeed, in the absence of cohesive efforts, the so-called war against terror does not have a keen enough edge.

More Stories on : Editorial | Terrorism | Airlines

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Terror in the air

Flying without frills over Europe

Courting trouble?

Revisiting the Eighties

The multi-layered pesticide mess!

"Very innocuous"?

Making the workplace safe

Can air travel security curbs work in India?

Efficient manager

Gasohol programme