we condemn
   Date :23-Apr-2019

 
 
WE join the world in condemning the terrorist attacks on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on the Easter Day, killing 290 innocent people, either engaged in prayers or in other leisurely Sunday activities. We join the world in prayers for the departed souls whose only fault was to have been present at the spots selected beforehand by the terrorists. We join the world in going beyond just condemnation and prayers and seek an action that would declare a good human resolve to fight terror as a global threat. And therefore, we join the world to appeal world governments to come together for a common action that may even get branded as going to war by some vested interests.
 
 
The Lankan authorities have moved swiftly to arrest a few suspects. In some time, the actual terror links would be established, and subsequent action would be initiated. Even as all this happens, we also join the world in expressing apprehensions that the bomb blasts in Sri Lanka could be a reaction to the wanton shooting that killed scores of people in a mosque in Christchurch in New Zealand a few weeks ago. The selection of Easter Sunday for the bomb blasts in churches (and luxury hotels) was most brutal, and most terrible. Obviously, the particular day was chosen with a lot of cruel thought, with a view to making a political statement, which nobody will ever miss.
 
 
The world will also never miss the religious angle involved in the cruel attacks. In the past quarter of a century, the world has seen countless such attacks having claimed countless thousands of people in dozens of countries around the world. There has been a political pattern to all the attacks that often fetched retaliation in some or the other form by the larger human society. This reign of hatred, this reign of criminality, this reign of religion-based politics is the unholy gift of a particular religious ideology that gave rise to several terrorist groups.
 
 
The world knows that all those groups have had funding and resources of some Rogue States whose political theory it has been to intimidate the innocent world population through violence of the worst order. The world, too, reacted as part of its revenge. And unfortunately, some part of that vengeance took ugly forms. The biggest challenge before the world was not just to avenge terror, but also to do it in a manner that would not cross the confines of human goodness. Most unfortunately and most realistically, the world could never achieve success in such a tall order.
 
 
The overall picture, therefore, is one of a fully reactionary violence that went to the extent of demolition of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, and also of some bitterly fought wars involving Islamic countries. Unfortunately, much of the nuclear weapons race, too, got pushed and promoted by political Islamic quest and zest for intimidating the rest of the world by any means possible. The entire terror scenario is defined by these dimensions. The eight bomb blasts in Sri Lanka claiming 290 lives and injuring hundreds of other innocent civilians is one more unfortunate event in the train of terrorist activity that has threatened peace and order around the world in the past quarter of a century. After Sri Lankan authorities were able to quell the terrorism unleashed by the Tamil militants a few years ago, Sri Lanka was proving to be an international destination for tourists. Not only had it restored internal peace but also had shown the world how things could be handled. But the Easter Sunday blasts shattered all that good work achieved so painstakingly. There is little doubt about involvement of international forces in the Lankan mayhem. It is time global powers treated this as a point of turning things around as a fresh step against the malaise.