The victim syndrome drives them to faith, seeing themselves as its protectors. That is largely due to the effectiveness of our intelligence agencies. Given recent developments worldwide, with radical ideology spewing unabated on the Internet, even India’s intelligence agencies can’t have an accurate idea of the number of possible malcontents within the walls of walled city areas in northern and central India, or in villages in southern India. (Representional Image | AFP) Our intelligence agencies deserve some praise. It takes just one “lone wolf” to start a trend, almost  like a confidence-building exercise. The more intelligent and less obtrusive style of the lone wolf, using methods like driving trucks into crowds, has far lesser chances of early discovery as the electronic and digital footprint is far lower and stays under the radar much longer. If our intelligence agencies can learn all this faster than the potential “lone wolves”, we can hope this new trend in terrorism, like many others earlier, will bypass India. Society, therefore, must play a role, but there are just not enough moderates who wish to reach out, and if they exist, each negative political event pushes them further away from such a mission. Their need for any financial backing or technical expertise is virtually nonexistent.Politics in India also has a nasty habit of turning from a perfectly normal run to something completely outlandish, more so when elections are due. It’s not the news they report, but the way it’s put out that creates this.It’s quite possible, of course, that terrorist outfits targeting India could well be harboring innovative ideas and strategies to beat the effectiveness of the intelligence agencies.What’s the solution?
It all depends on good intelligence, as discussed earlier, but traditional intelligence and surveillance may not work as the potential “lone wolves” hardly leave a footprint behind them. ISIS’ new advisory that its followers should remain within their lands and launch attacks on its behalf may now be reinforced by the return of many fighters from Syria and Iraq. Even after a successful terror attack of this kind, investigation is more difficult as the trails are often nonexistent. Although ISIS efforts have led to over 100 youths going to Syria, this may not be a true reflection of the extent of influence it wields. Mehdi Biswas, an Indian in Bengaluru, was found to be the man behind it, and he managed to stay under the radar and spew out jihadist propaganda for years.It may also be a mistake to believe “lone wolves” will always operate on their own in future. What is really felt by young minds who have religious instruction courses imparted to them every day is not easily decipherable. It may be wise to recall the case of Shami Witness, one of the first Twitter handles working for ISIS. The quantum of antipathy which some television channels are spreading is mind-boggling. But that shouldn’t lull us into believing it will never happen. Foll-owing the social media makes it quite easy to glean how little depth is there in knowledge; but there is empowerment through expression. There’s a new television psyche evolving: a state of mind driven by channels; dangerous beyond repair. Pol-itics in India also has a nasty habit of turning from a perfectly normal run to something completely outlandish, more so when elections are due. The trend of suicide bombings by explosive vest-strapped youth, so common in our neighborhood from Afghanistan to Pakistan and even Sri Lanka, didn’t really enter India’s terror environment, except briefly in the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi and a few attacks in Srinagar. It’s quite possible, of course, that terrorist outfits targeting India could well be harboring innovative ideas and strategies to beat the effectiveness of the intelligence agencies. Europe has found it difficult to cope with a flood of recent attacks, and there have been marked terrorist successes with innovative strategies they adopted in the past two years or more. The large-scale movement of personnel, finances, explosives and weapons to execute an act of terror now appears passé.The notion that Indian youth weren’t considered real jihadi fighter material and thus used mainly for logistics shouldn’t give us a false sense of security.
However, it’s not all negative. What effect national trends have when mixed with local passions is hard to fathom. India has been at the receiving end of sponsored terror, or proxy war, for longer than we can remember, but the success rate by terror groups has been comparatively lower; particularly in areas away from conflict zones like Kashmir. There has been insufficient effort to document and record their successes, so this appreciation must be done by those aware of it..Why should we be concerned about “lone wolves” in India? First, serious efforts have already been made in some of our cities which are not fully in public knowledge. A readymade recipe is created for brooding individuals; and that’s where the scope for “lone wolves” begins.India could well be a “lone wolf” haven due to the fairly good Internet penetration into areas where people are reading without understanding too much about backgrounds; the dots, so to say, remain unjoined, leading to skewed ideas about history, victimisation and poor contextual capability. The transition worldwide from networked terror outfits with detailed logistics and financial support to self-sustaining, motivated and radicalised “lone wolves” has been faster than the trends indicate. Radical groups, particularly those with overseas sponsors, could well change tactics and instead of serial bombs, they could execute coordinated vehicle attacks or any other kinetic activity that leads to mass casualties. Although ISIS efforts have been on in many countries with sizeable Muslim populations, the degree of success in creating radicalised communities is not easily decipherable, except through statistics on the number of jihadi fighters who made their way to the “badlands” to fight on its behalf. The ISIS will F-Clamp find its message reverberating as never before if an Indian Muslim is found involved in a suicide bombing or any lone wolf attack. “Lone wolves” aren’t exactly known for their fighting prowess. They are just hugely radicalised people, brooders about imagined injustices, who ratchet up their antipathy against society through Internet chatrooms and self-motivation. They may be alone – even within their families – in feeling victimised. We have great faith in India’s syncretism, but “lone wolves” are never part of the majority opinion even within minority communities.