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Suicide Terrorism in South Asia: From Promised Land to Presumed Land

In South Asia, three countries have been the principal victims of suicide terrorism: Sri Lanka, India ? in Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan. While Sri Lanka has been witnessing suicide attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ever since their first attack in 1987, attacks in Jammu and Kashmir have been post-Kargil, and in Pakistan, they are a post-September phenomenon. While these attacks have much in common, their dissimilarities, which is the focus of this article, are significant. (A disclaimer may be necessary at the outset. Though it might appear so, it is not the intent of this article either to justify or glorify the suicide attacks of the LTTE as a rational or secular endeavor.)

Firstly, the objective. While suicide attacks led by the LTTE are nationalistic and secular, the objectives behind attacks led by various jihadi organizations in Kashmir and Pakistan are religious and at times even sectarian. While the Black Tigers of the LTTE give up their life for Tamil Eelam, an independent Tamil homeland, the jihadis do likewise to establish an Islamic nation. Moreover, the jihadis fight for a particular stream of Islam, especially the Wahabi-Sunni faith.

The second dissimilarity is the targets of the suicide bombers. The LTTE's principal targets have always been political and military leaders; killing of innocents is perceived as collateral damage. The mandate for the Black Tiger is always a single person ? a leader, political or military, who was adversely associated with the LTTE. The list of LTTE suicide attacks reveals that it never used its Black Tigers against innocent bystanders. In other words, elimination of the target has a special focus and significance for the LTTE. Conversely, the victims of jihadi suicide attacks, whether in Kashmir or Pakistan, have not been specific leaders, but civilians who, to an extent, were in no way linked with the organization or actively involved against the perpetrators. Be it the attacks on the French engineers or those against the Shia and Christian communities, the targets were only symbolic.

The third major difference relates to the organizational cohesiveness of the suicide bombers. In the case of Sri Lanka, the suicide bombers belong to a single organization ? the LTTE ? and particularly a specialized unit called the Black Tigers. The suicide squad is part of the LTTE?s military command and executes the orders of the leadership. Jihadi suicide terrorists, on the other hand, are not part of any single organization, much less part of any specialized squads, and are scattered among different outfits including the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and other sectarian organizations. Despite their common religious orientation, they lack cohesiveness because of their distinct and diverse interpretations of the religion.

A study into the composition of the suicide squad highlights the fourth dissimilarity. Women constitute a majority in the LTTE?s suicide squad. In contrast, women participation in jihadi organizations is almost non-existent, although a couple of women jihadi organizations do exist on paper. Women participation also uncovers a corollary to the dissimilarity ? the society these organizations wish to establish. The LTTE cadres, irrespective of their sex, dream of a Tamil homeland that is egalitarian with equal rights for women. This is manifest in the ferocity and determination with which the cadres, including the Black Tigers, fight towards realization of their dream. On the other hand, exclusion of women from jihad, in effect, construes jihad as a male fight for a male dominated society.

Fifth, suicide attacks by the LTTE have been undertaken by Sri Lankans and limited to the geographical area of the conflict; the only exception was the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in Tamil Nadu, India. On the contrary, suicide attacks in Kashmir are carried out by non-Kashmiris; except for one instance in 2000 when a student from Srinagar drove a truck laden with explosives and crashed into the Badamibagh Cantonment gates, all suicide attacks have been carried out by jihadis from Pakistan belonging to either the Lashkar or the Jaish. Paradoxically, Hizbul Mujahideen, considered 'indigenous' among other militant organizations, has publicly denounced suicide attacks! Hizbul?s leader, Syed Salahudin, revealed in an interview that the outfit did not believe in such attacks. Kashmir is probably the only unique situation where suicide missions are executed by those not belonging to Kashmir but dying for a perceived Kashmiri cause. Arguably, suicide attacks in Kashmir are religious and not national.

Finally, the opinion that outfits harbor towards western culture and ethos is yet another discerning factor that differentiates the Black Tigers from the jihadis. The LTTE holds nothing against western culture and in fact shares the secular and egalitarian values of the west. Its struggle is against the Sri Lankan state for a separate homeland and not against Sinhalese culture. To that extent, suicide attacks are not directed against the Sinhala community. The jihadi suicide attacks on churches and the French engineers in Pakistan, in contrast, reveal an inherent animosity towards western culture and ethos. Anti-west, particularly Anti-American, sentiments predominates the motives behind jihadi suicide attacks. Unfortunately, this trend is likely to continue.