Political Terrorism Essay

A terrorist is a person who creates fear panic among the organization to which he belongs. Terrorism usually is of two kinds. There is political terrorism which seeks to achieve its political end by creating fear and panic on a large scale. There is also criminal terrorism which indulges in kidnappings in order to extort huge amounts by way of ransom.

Political terrorism is much more dangerous and its consequences can be disastrous. Political terrorists are well organized and well-trained and it often becomes difficult for the law enforcing agencies to arrest them in time. They indulge in senseless violence on a large scale in order to intimidate the people and the government. Hijacking of aero planes, arson, robberies, murder of eminent personalities,

Using this per¬spective to terrorism in India, the number of people killed and kidnapped in Bihar in one year is much more than the killings and kidnappings in Punjab or Kashmir.

When a terrorist takes a life in the name of social justice, he faces a problem of social accounting at one level and moral constraint at another. One might also speak of the results of the use of terror to overthrow state authority. Suppose we accept the temporary dis¬ruption of the normal administrative activities of politico-social systems, do we not face the same results whenever we are faced with any social or natural calamity?

Does the killing of one or two, or even a few important political leaders by the terrorists change the structure of politics? By and large, the nature of political process in the society is not interfered with, nor it is interrupted by these killings. Quantitatively, thus, the killings by terrorists may not be significant but they do involve the qualitative