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A retired Indian general writes (link in signature)
"The philosophy behind jihad is well explained by Brig SK Malik of Pakistan Army in his book, The Quranic Concept of War, penned under the tutelage of Gen Zia-ul-Haq, the Islamic ruler of Pakistan. Zia fell back on the concept of inflicting a ‘thousand cuts’ after Pakistan failed to defeat India on the battlefield. And, these ‘thousand cuts’ were to be delivered by jihadis through acts of terror.
What Brig Malik explains most forcefully is the role of ‘terror’ in the implementation of these ‘thousand cuts’. He says, “In war our main objective is the opponent’s heart or soul, our main weapon of offence against this objective is the strength of our own souls… Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it is the end itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponent’s heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved. It is the point where the means and the end meet and merge. Terror thus is not a means of imposing decision on the enemy; it is the decision we wish to impose on him.”
Describing the role of terror as a destroyer of faith, he explains, “To instill terror into the heart of the enemy, it is essential, in the ultimate analysis, to dislocate his faith…This faith can be religious, patriotic, values and cultural”."
and
"In this fight for our survival, collateral damage has to be accepted. Terrorists cannot function without local logistics, intelligence and moral support. This crucial help needs to be denied to them without letting the human rights activists bully the security mechanism. Strict and fool-proof legislative and judicial measures need to be taken.
Media plays an important role in this battle. Unfortunately, the present impression is that the media is a bystander, advocating an even-handed policy towards the victims and the murderers alike. The repeated showing of horror scenes give publicity to the terrorists and only adds to the terror effect.
Here I quote from an American journal, “In denying any terrorist successes, and by suppressing any knowledge or admission of terrorist success or of active planning in their operations — the US Federal Government has effectively mitigated and out rightly denied the primary goal of the Islamists and prevented the terrorising of the American population”.
In this fight, what is lacking is national will. Four points that need immediate implementation are vigilance, accountability of the law enforcement agencies, an effective legal regime, and a check on sources of terrorist funding."
