Terrorism knows no boundaries. It doesn’t care who its target is and is only concerned with attaining its ends; needless to say however unjust they might be. And so while one might go on harping on about al-Qaeda and its ideological differences with the West, the truth remains that no culture, no civilization, no nation is beyond terrorism’s tentacles.

India is a living testimony to the fact that terrorism cannot be generalized into simple notions of Islam against the West. Even if Kashmir were to left out of discussion for the time being, examples and instances of terrorist activities remain rife and ubiquitous. Therefore, the latest findings of Worldwide Incidents Tracking System (WITS) of the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) should come as no surprise. These results put India at a respectable (?) 2nd position on the list of terrorism-related killings that have occurred in the last three years.

Contrary to the credence, India has lost more lives to terrorist incidents than the entire North America, South America, Europe and Eurasia collectively between January 2004 and March this year. While the whole West, together with Eurasia lost a total of 3,280 lives, on the other hand, India solitarily lost 3,674 lives over the same phase. Unsurprisingly, Iraq with 29,070 terrorist casualties, owing to the US’s ‘war on Iraq,’ is the only nation to exceed India in terrorist incidents since 2004.

Not only India suffered the highest number of deaths after Iraq, but also the highest figure of people wounded (8,430) and taken hostages (2,070) in over 3,000 terror-related incidents among all countries, yet again excluding volatile Iraq.

India has long been a soft target for terrorists or extremists who prey on innocent civilians at will and with alarming regularity. Terrorist attacks or incidents in India are usually related with cross-border terrorism due to the territorial dispute over India-controlled Kashmir with Pakistan. Kashmir-based terrorist violence has over the decades drawn international concerns and rightly so, as it has led a number of lethal terrorist attacks, including the explosions of a Mumbai commuter railway that killed 187 and injured over 700 in July 2006 and a fatal blast in Samjhauta Express (India-Pakistan train) killing 68 passengers and wounding 125 in February this year.

However, the woes don’t end here only for India. The vast nation with its diversities of ethnicity, culture, religion and language has been facing multi dimensional terrorism, more dangerous than the cross-border terrorism, within the borders. Increasing problems of national assimilation and integration, especially in the North and North Eastern States, have time and again given way to various separatist and insurgent movements, such as territorial dispute over Kashmir, Sikh separatist movement in Punjab and secessionist movement in the northeastern state of Assam, together with Naxalite movement in central India and Islamic extremists spreading its roots in southern India, threatening the peace and integrity of the country.

Adding fuel to the fire, the neighboring countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have been serving as breeding sanctuaries and training ground for Islamic militants, northeast separatist militants and Maoists respectively, facilitating illegal trans-border movements and smuggling of deadly weapons and explosives through permeable borders.

Diversity in India, once considered strength, with a large number of ethnic and religious minorities and growing difference in principles as well as economic status of people is turning into a curse for the nation. Nexus between crime, insurgency and politics, and exploitation of ethnic and religious minority status by unscrupulous political leaders for their petty goals are worsening the already fragile law and order machinery in India.

Despite India records the largest number of terrorist strikes and deaths due to terrorism in the world every year, there is no strong policy and even database of terror suspects to tackle domestic as well as trans-border terrorism. The regulations and intelligence services are as vulnerable as thousands of cases are pending in various courts. The lackadaisical approach or ‘deterrence through legal action against terrorists’ is defined by a South Asia Analysis Group report as ‘the weakest link of India’s counterterrorism capability.’

India is second in the world on two counts. While being second among the countries with quickest rate of growth is a cause for celebration, India is also second on another (terrorist casualties) list - one that it would do well to steer clear of. With India touching new economic and development horizons, it is in this scenario that law-enforcing agencies are required to operate efficiently to bring peace and stability in the nation. If India has to keep its growth rate going, policy makers in intelligence as well as law agencies will have to be responsive enough to succeed in the multi-dimensional environment of the nation.