The feminine hand of terror

Who can forget Manisha Koirala’s role as a terrorist in Maniratnam’s Dil Se? It was an act which earned her accolades in the world of cinema. But besides that the movie also went ahead of its time and elaborated on the role of women in terror outfits.

We all are very familiar with the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination story. It was a girl trained by LTTE who executed the whole act. Not only her, the pack which led to the loss of the country had three more females.

The recent investigations by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the serial blasts which rocked Patna has revealed that a 24 year old girl funded the whole operation for the Indian Mujahideen terrorists involved in it.

The girl is said to be a resident of the Ormanjhi locality in Ranchi. She is a college student enrolled, interestingly, in a Bokaro college.

As reported by Mid Day, the girl used to collect “donations” from different sources at the behest of Uzair and Hyder – the IM operatives – to help the IM’s Ranchi module.

While Uzair was arrested by the NIA from Delhi three days after the Patna blasts for his association with the IM and the SIMI, Hyder still remains at large.

On the basis of the call records of Uzair’s cell phone, it was established that the girl was funding the operation. Allegedly, Uzair introduced the girl to Hyder and Tehseen Akhtar — the alleged masterminds of both Gaya and Patna blasts in Bihar.

The investigations have revealed that in the wake of Yasin Bhatkal’s arrest, Akhtar was handed over the responsibility of the IM module which succeeded in luring many youth in the state for their work. These young minds are mostly in college and have, reportedly, no precedence of crime.

It has also come to light that the IM operative had paid up to Rs 10,000 to some students to plant explosives at different locations around Gandhi Maidan — the blast place in Patna.

The investigations have put to light to the fact that the much spoken feminine hand in terrorism is on rise. We may remember the recent Westgate Mall attacks in Kenya where there was a female among the terrorists who was actually leading the pack.

The NIA investigations also show that there is a need to pay attention on the student renting facilities where, despite the law, nobody cares about the identification part. The lackadaisical attitude is also to blame here.

Infiltrating the youth will be the biggest win that the terrorists will achieve. Although the social fabric and inequality is largely to blame for this, but there is also a need to enhance the police-government-youth contact which will ensure that their problems is addressed time to time and the youth remain free from the clutches of the terror outfits.