| Summary/Abstract |
9/11 and the demolition of the World Trade Centre — the icon and emblem of
the liberal world — by Al Qaeda terrorists has been etched in the memories
of the world. Until then, the West did not think of terrorism as a significant
threat as they were barely dealing with it on their home turf. Countries like
India had suffered from cross border terrorism, extremism, and insurgency
from Pakistan based terrorists, engineered and nurtured by the Pakistani deep
state, for over two decades already. Geo politics was a convenient tool to
overlook the nexus of state and non-state actors, and they were selectively
used by big powers. This is well documented in the growth of the Mujahideen
and the Taliban. This nonchalance proved to be a disaster and demonic in
times to come. Only proforma concerns were expressed before 9/11, with
occasional intelligence exchanges with friendly countries. Terrorism, or the
fight against it, was a fashionable choice and not an existential problem. In
fact, many a time it was even justified on certain grounds, and implied goals
or a sympathetic view was taken. Zero tolerance of terrorism was an alien
concept — at least in practice.
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