Terrorism is just a word in English, but it is a hazard for mankind. India faces the problems of poverty, population, hunger and literacy. But spread of terrorism is the most frightening of all. Be it in the small countries like Ireland and Israel, or in the big ones life Russia and USA, terrorism has become the main challenge to most of the governments today.Terrorism has been described as ‘the use of international violence by group or individuals to achieve political goals’, by the experts in U.S.A. In simple words, it is the spread of terror. It has to be remembered that if destruction of people is taken by the behalf of an established government against another country, then it is known as war, not terrorism. It consists of a series of act planned to spread pressure, panic and destruction in a population.

Terrorism is not unthinking violence. Terrorist are very specific for what they want. Terrorist poses the greatest threats to mankind. They know no friends and recognize no rules. Although explosions and stray shooting are terrorist acts, flight hijacking has come to be their most preferred target of spreading terror among the masses of the countries. Previously it was assumed that terrorism in India would be limited to Kashmir only. But this belief has been proved baseless as terrorism has nearly spread all over India. There are many types of terrorist groups depending on what their objectives are.

Terrorism is usually of two kinds: political terrorism which creates panic on a large scale and criminal terrorism which deals in kidnapping to take ransom. Political terrorism is much more dangerous than criminal terrorism as they are well-trained and it’s become difficult for law enforcing agencies to arrest them in time. For example- hundreds of terrorist are being trained at the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK). And in Punjab, there is no doubt that the terrorist are receiving training and weapons from Pakistan. Assam has been the most unstable state in the last few decades. Assam remains the only state in the northeast where terrorism is a major issue. Terrorism is also spread at national level. But the Regional terrorism is the most violent of all. This is because the terrorist think that dying in a terrorist act is sacred and holy, so they are willing to do anything. All the terrorist groups are made with different purposes.

Terrorism is a world-wide problem. By now, the governments throughout the world are realizing that terrorism is a serious threat to dealt with. They believe in the power of bombs and guns over dialogue. Terrorist acts are well-planned. Every terrorist acts usually takes days and even months of preparation. Terrorist are usually young, but the brain behind them are old, seasoned politicians. Terrorists mostly recruit younger people in their group as it is easy to brainwash them. Freedom is the right to every individual. Our freedom is taken from us when terrorism strikes.

In the recent years, the most powerful country, the USA was shocked when Afghanistan-based based terrorist organizations attacked on it. On September 21, 2011 a disaster took place in the New York City when two hijacked planes were flown straight into the World Trade Centre. 6000 people were killed. The bombing of the World Trade Centre is one of the most deadly terrorist episodes in the world. This violent act of terrorism was mastermind by Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden. After this attack, many challenges took place in front of us. Like- the old security systems were replaced by new and more complicated (also costly) security systems in airports. And in India, government developed many security measures like making more strict laws (like POTA – Prevention of Terrorist activity Act), cracking down on their centres and keeping an eye from where terrorist receive money. POTA is an anti-terrorism legislation enacted by the Parliament of India in 2002. This act replaced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) of 2001. There measures hardy had any effect. These security measures had no effect on political terrorism but they had decreased criminal terrorism by ten percent. Due to these risks from terrorism, the security at various places like airports, railway stations and government offices are kept tightenen.

One of the deadliest terrorist attacks in India was the 1993 Bombay Bombings. It was a series of thirteen bombs that took place in Mumbai. The attacks were the most destructive bomb explosions in the history of India. It is believed that the explosions were in coordinate of Dawood Ibrahim, the leader of a terrorist group which stood in opposition of India.

It takes months and sometimes years for the government to demolish a terrorist group. The best example for this can be the operation Neptune Sphere. It took months of planning and investigation for the U.S.A. to kill Osama. Finally on May 2, 2011 at night in Pakistan he was dead shot. The plan of this operation was not shared with Pakistan’s government. The saddest thing is that India not only faces terrorism from outside but also from within. In many cases, the leader of a terrorist group was once in favour of that country. For example- Osama Bin Laden who was once promoted by the U.S.A. against Russia later became the greatest threat to the U.S.A. Terrorism is like a war, which is neither openly fought nor in a fair manner.

Terrorism has become a global threat and needs to be controlled from the grass root level to the international level. It is also called that ‘One person’s terrorist, another person’s freedom fighter’. This can be explained with the example of Osama Bin Laden. Terrorism cannot be controlled by the law enforcing agencies alone. The world has to unite in order to face this growing threat of terrorism. Let us hope that the world would be free from this hazard very soon. Without terrorism, the world would become a better place to live in.