Page 2 - ch 22

Terrorism Module - VI

Insurgency and
Characteristics of Terrorism
Terrorism
 Has a political aim;
 Violent - bomb blast, suicide bombers;

 Targets civilians and army;

 Non state actors are involved;
Note
 Religious and idealogical fanatics form groups to terrorise the population

Have you heard of the word Non State Actor?
Non-state actor is an individual or organization that has significant political influence
and may have support from particular country or state.Non-state actor is defined as
an organised group that has a command structure (Leader, Deputy leader etc), and
does not belong to any state or nation. They operate outside the state and use weapons
and ammunition to achieve their aim. Example of some of the terrorist organisations
are,Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohhamad, Hizbul Mujahidin etc. All
these organisations use extremism to perpetuate Terrorism. These groups use extremism
to motivate and enlish people is their fields.

Separatists. Terrorists call themselves as separatist or freedom fighters because their
aim is to separate from the established government of the country. There is a popular
saying that says, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"
Suicide Bomber Young people who are trained and indoctrirated to blow themselves
up and be used as human bombs. They are told to go to a public place like railway
station, malls etc to explode the bomb. Such people are called suicide bombers. The
first orgnisation to have used a suicide bomber are the LTTE of Sri Lanka.

22.2 History of Terrorism

st
Interestingly terrorism started in 1 Century A.D. A group of people in Judea killed
those who were friendly to the Roman rule. They were against Roman rule in Judea.
Such examples can be found during the French Revolution. However, the first organisation
which used modern techniques was the Irish Republican Brotherhood founded in 1858.
This group carried out attacks in England. They used modern, timed explosives with the
express aim of sowing fear in the very heart of metropolitan Britain, in order to achieve
political gains. Another early terrorist group was Narodnaya Volya founded in Russia in
1878. The group developed ideas-such as targeted killing of the 'leaders of oppression'.
Terrorism has also been classified into different types. These are:-

 Political Terrorism
Violent criminal behaviour designed primarily to generate fear in the community,
or substantial segment of it, for political purposes. E.g is of LTTE in Sri Lanka
which was using terrorism to get a separate Tamil state.

89
MILITARY HISTORY 89