why did professionals like doctors or engineers take the path of terrorism?

Important lessons from the Delhi car bomb incident: The car bomb blast near the Red Fort in Delhi on Monday evening was a terrorist incident, it has been officially confirmed. In this tragedy, 12 people were killed and more than 20 were injured. The car that exploded was torn apart, and more than a dozen other vehicles were also badly damaged. According to media reports, the car was being driven by a person named Umar from the Pulwama district of the Kashmir Valley. He is said to be a doctor by profession.

He was a member of the same gang of medical professionals that was busted by the police forces of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana on Monday, and claimed that more than three thousand kilograms of explosives and chemicals, electrical components used to operate bombs, Kalashnikov (AK) rifles, revolvers, pistols, and other dangerous equipment were recovered from the members of this gang. In this regard, it was also confirmed that 7 people, including two Kashmiri doctors working in Faridabad and Saharanpur districts, were arrested. Government sources have informed that the above arrests and recoveries are linked to the Delhi blast,s and cases have been registered under laws like ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act’ and ‘NSA’ in this regard.

It has also come to light that some other Kashmiri doctors and their assistants have also been detained for questioning. Union Home Minister Amit Shah says that many new sensational facts are likely to come to light during the next stages of the investigation. The recovery of explosive materials and weapons capable of causing widespread destruction and the connection of the terrorists involved in the car bomb blast with the Pakistan-based terror group ‘JeS-e-Mohammed’ (JeM) has been claimed on the basis of posters recovered from the arrested accused.

Jaish is the organisation whose headquarters in Bahawalpur was destroyed by the Indian forces during Operation Sindhur. However, the supplies of the recovered material, except for the Kalashnikov rifles, appear to have been sourced locally. It does not give the impression of being sent by Jaish. It seems from various media reports that Umar, who worked in the same hospital in Faridabad from where the arrest of a doctor named Muzammil made the entire gang exposed, resorted to the car bomb blast out of fear or anger at the same incident.

Since this act of terror took place in the national capital, it is natural for the opposition parties to target Union Home Minister Amit Shah. This is an unfortunate trend, but Amit Shah himself and the Bharatiya Janata Party are also responsible for it. He is not a Congress or UPA member. The terrorist incidents that took place during the tenure of the governments have often been mentioned during election or non-election rallies/meetings and with reference to them, the BJP or NDA government has been making regular claims of breaking the back of terrorism. They should not forget that terrorism cannot be eradicated with swords. The role of governments or rulers in the growth and spread of misguided thinking among the youth is often more than that of the followers of this thinking.

In fact, the excesses of governments and the ignorance of public sentiments often create fertile ground for the growth and spread of misguided thinking. Therefore, our policymakers or government leaders need to first seriously and honestly consider this question: why did professionals like doctors or engineers take the path of terrorism? Or what frustration or pain made them followers of jihadist thinking? As has often happened, when any terrorist incident is linked to jihadi elements, our media, especially the electronic media, goes berserk. The coverage of the car bomb incident has also suffered from the same condition.

This is creating a bad impression, as if all Kashmiris are terrorists. Such coverage reminds Punjabis, especially Sikhs, of the dark days of Punjab when the national media was bent on portraying every Sikh as a separatist and a terrorist. It is the duty of the champions of media freedom to encourage the entire media, including the electronic one, to use restrained and reserved language. The Delhi bomb incident is like a reminder to our rulers that the war against terrorism can be won not through harsh rhetoric but through vigilance, compassion, humility, and patience. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and their followers desperately need to develop all the above elements within themselves.