In light of a growing transnational terrorist threat to India and South Asia, Delhi has to move beyond its Pakistan-oriented counter terrorism approach. With the arrest of ISIL operatives in India and the recent hacking of an Indian government’s website by AQIS, India needs to adopt a more nuanced approach in sync with the increasing complexity of the threat.

India is situated in a volatile and violent neighbourhood which has experienced insurgencies and terrorism for decades. It has been attacked by terrorist networks that it alleges have long been harboured and funded by neighbouring Pakistan. It has been in constant battles with a variety of radical militants who seek to destabilise it.

Prior to 11 September the Kashmiri militants and jihadi groups were the vanguard of the terrorist attacks, alongside Maoists and northeast tribal separatists. With the advent of the Al Qaeda era post-2001, though India’s focus remained on battling threats emanating from across the border and internally, the extent of the jihadi threat increased manifold, especially in Kashmir. For decades terrorist groups based in Pakistan, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizbut Mujahideen (HM), which India alleges were sponsored by its regional nemesis, dominated India’s terrorism landscape.

… Akanksha Narain is a Research Analyst with the Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Vikram Rajakumar is a Senior Analyst at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) at RSIS.