In North East India, people have been living in unrest for more than half a century starting with Nagaland in the early 1950s. The Naga people’s unrest was followed by unrest in Mizoram in the mid 1960s. From that period onwards, peace had never really reigned in India’s NER with more and more militant groups springing up leading to more violence which has not spared civilians. If we are to say that the people in the NE Region are more inured to violence and terrorist acts than people in the rest of India, we would not be far wrong from the truth because every state in the region (excluding newly added Sikkim) has militant groups of their own who are far from restrained in committing violent terrorism acts and the NR people have become resigned to these acts happening at any instance.

The Khalistan movement in Punjab in the 1980s was the first taste that mainland India had of terrorist acts in post-independent India. Such was the concern shown by the Centre that the movement was put down within a few years, albeit at a heavy cost, including the loss of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Khalistan movement spawned more groups prone to violence and violence became the order of the day after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the foreign LTTE militants. Metropolises have become the main targets in India after religious fanatics copyrighted terrorism with people living in them being filled with revulsion and fear at the indiscriminate use of bombs which differentiates no one. Although every religion has its share of fanatics, Islamic extremists have been the main source of terrorist acts in India now and given the extreme prejudice and presence this religion’s fanatics have the world over, it would be safe to presume that terrorism is here to stay and that it would permeate all regions in the country eventually.

Speaking in context of the NE Region, the terrorism problem - if we can call it that because the militant groups say they are only fighting for their rights and that their movements are based on political ideologies - is still political which is much easier to cope with compared to religion-spawned terrorism. As a result of this, Indian leaders at the Centre are still hopeful of bringing to an end the violence in the NER through dialogues and conferences. However, with such close proximity to Bangladesh, an Islamic country, the NER has also felt tremors of violence committed by religious fanatics and in such a scenario, the familiar political-based violence could be overshadowed by religion-based terrorist acts although religious- and communal-based violence are nothing new to the region. Different Indian intelligence agencies have also become alarmed by the influx from Bangladesh because these migrants could include deeply religious fundamentalists who would not hesitate to kill and maim innocent villagers to spread their terror message.

Even in Mizoram where the people feel very secure because of the ‘oneness’ or unified status of the Mizo people brought about by a common language and facial features, the danger of terrorism permeating its society is not absent because the Muslim community there has grown quite alarmingly during the past few years. The status of being ‘an island of peace’ could be a disadvantage because a peaceful atmosphere always tends to bring about complacency in security consciousness. A worst-case scenario would be a bomb or rocket attack on a church or churches on a Sunday forenoon at which time churches are always filled to the capacity. If terrorists wanted to perform acts of terrorism for the sake of causing only terror, Mizoram is a land of opportunity because in terms of security against acts of terrorism, its peacefulness has given it a false sense of security. It could be only a matter of time before terrorists in India extend their sphere of operations to include Mizoram.

With terrorism spreading so fast in the world as well as in India, the State Governments in the region would do well to remain alert to terrorist threats in order to prevent such actions from taking place. 26/11 has jolted the Union Government rudely awake to the need for watchful and keen eyes to keep track of terror movements in the country and funds have been allocated plentifully to upgrade the police force in the states to deal with terrorism. What needs to be dealt with now is the rampant corrupt practice that plagues the Indian states so that the efforts to curb and stop terrorist acts are not defeated by corruption. Politicians in power should keep a vigilant eye on their officials and the people an eye on the politicians so that we do not suffer from terrorist acts through the greed of those in a position to practice corruption. I believe we all have learnt a very valuable lesson in the Centre’s attempt to modernize the police forces in the states where corrupt politicians and officials had either taken advantage of the funds for their own purposes or had not utilized it at all because of their fear that the modernization would put more burdens on the state’s financial position.

In essence, funds meant to equip the police with modern technology and weapons should not become prey to unscrupulous politicians and officials and it is the people’s responsibility to see that these politicians, bureaucrats and officials are kept in check. Those in power should also realise that as long as they feel the need to have their deep pockets filled with the people’s taxes, the new fight against terrorism would never get off the ground. If terrorism is to be combated on a war footing, a concerted effort needs to be put in place with the first moves coming from those in power to have the will to fight terrorism and corruption at the same time. The people have always been ready to back the government in any beneficial programmes and they are ever ready to give full support to any project that would prevent loss of lives and limbs of the civilian population, a population that is their main target and an easy prey to them.