Terrorism and SAARC

Abstract

The menace of terrorism which is uppermost on the agenda of several governments of the world these days has rightly been characterised as wars that need not require violation of national frontiers. The allusion here of course is to international terrorism. But the border line demarcating “national” and international terrorism is itself so blurred that it would indeed be unrealistic to distinguish one from another. Thanks to the growing complexities of the international system, coupled with an unprecedented technological revolution, the tremour of terroristic activities are often felt thousands of miles away from their epicentres. The concept of a global village seems to be expressing itself with a vengeance.

According to a report submitted by a United States' Government counter-terrorism expert in February 1987, terrorist incidents worldwide in 1986 were as many as about eight hundred.² This writer is not sure whether this figure included the ones in India. Even if it did, probably the list was not complete, for the incidents in India itself would have accounted for about half of them. Moreover, it is not clear either as to what kind of incidents have been viewed as terroristic in nature. This leads to the crux of the problem: How to define terrorism?