Why ISIS may spare unleashing horror upon India
The most significant thing in the Paris terror attacks, and the most worrying one, is the fact that the Islamic State (ISIS) has successfully launched its first major strike overseas. It constitutes the ISIS' very own 9/11. After all, it takes a lot of expertise, organisational skills, manpower and technical prowess to wreak havoc in a Western capital, and that too of a P5 country.
The message: Move over al-Qaeda, ISIS is now the confirmed deadliest terror outfit on planet Earth. The international concern over the ISIS' meteoric rise from a regional band of baddies to a sophisticated and bloodthirsty global terror outfit would be dominating discussions at the G20 summit which began its two-day meeting in Turkey on Sunday.
For the last two years or so, since the ISIS came into existence, eclipsing the al-Qaeda as the world's number one terror outfit, it has been causing mayhem, but has been limited to the Middle East only. Its area of operation remained largely confined to its strongholds like Syria, Iraq, Tunisia and Egypt.
The Paris attacks have shown for the first time that ISIS terrorists have fanned out overseas and struck brutally in a wave of Mumbai-like attacks in the heart of western Europe. French authorities have confirmed that the Paris terror operation was carried out by ISIS cadres who had divided themselves into three teams with just one mission: Kill as many people as possible.
The chilling message from the Paris attacks is that more such attacks are highly probable not only in France but the whole of Europe. This is because at least one of the eight perpetrators, if not more, landed in Europe from Syria just last month, disguised as a migrant.
Close to 6,00,000 migrants have already entered several Europe in the past few months. Ironically, it puts Germany at a big risk of Paris-type attacks as German Chancellor Angela Merkel took the lead in allowing entry to migrants on humanitarian grounds.
But the Paris attacks have a message for India too. The ISIS has been knocking on India's doors for the past few months. The outfit has carved out pockets of influence in many parts of Pakistan, including the lawless Afghanistan-Pakistan (AfPak) border region. Besides, since last month the ISIS has made inroads into Bangladesh also, the country with which India shares its longest border of over 4,100 kilometres.
Obviously, India cannot be unaffected with the spread of the ISIS in its contiguous neighbourhood. The threat becomes all the more potent considering that at least 26 Indian youths have already slipped out of the country and are fighting on behalf of the jihadi organisation, though the number is extremely small given India's population of 1.25 billion.
Nonetheless, there is a flip side to this which should make India breathe easy, though it cannot afford to lower its guard one bit.
Now that the West has experienced its own Mumbai moment, plain logic says that the West will go all out in exterminating the ISIS pests. This should keep the ISIS tied down to the West.
For this reason alone, India may be spared the ISIS horror even though it has reached India's doorsteps. This was the same reason al Qaeda could never strike in India despite many anti-India declarations by Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda having a strong presence in Pakistan, courtesy the Taliban and elements in the Pakistani military establishment.