A professor once asked a class: What is terrorism?
The entire class of over 70 sociology majors spent the next 15 minutes debating what their perception of terrorism was. The professor did not interject in their debate but heard them all keenly.
Finally he said: “Terrorism is the act of inciting terror; inciting fear in people so deep that it impairs their reasoning and makes it difficult for them to either think straight or live peacefully.â€
Terrorism has grown to become the biggest global phenomenon that is unique across countries irrespective of their geopolitical condition.
Though it is a faceless, religion-less, conscience-less monster whose sole purpose is inciting fear in people and dividing people, it has succeeded in striking the basic human instinct of survival and existing without fear.
It hides behind the veil of religion and geopolitical instability of nations and conforms to terrain and society to become a termite that successfully eats through the society from within while becoming increasingly escapist.
In a recent list of high-risk terror targets released by Verisk Maplecroft, it has been identified that Imphal and Srinagar in India are one of the high-priority targets of terrorists.
The list, which is bifurcated into high-risk, medium-risk and low-risk cities, indicates that 64 cities globally are at the top of every terrorists list.
The list, which has been compiled based on the frequency and intensity of attacks in the last 12 months across 1,300 cities and is led by Baghdad.
Imphal is ranked at 32 and Srinagar at 49 among the 64 cities at “extreme risk” of terror strikes. Meanwhile, Chennai faces “medium risk” and is ranked at 176.
Delhi and Mumbai, the usual targets for high-profile terror attacks, have been ranked lower compared to other Indian cities such as Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata.
Arvind Ramakrishnan, head of Maplecroft India told a leading Indian English daily that when it comes to Imphal and Srinagar, terrorist attacks aren’t on commercial targets as much as against the security forces. He reiterated that in most of the other metropolitan cities, the targets are both to cause mass casualty and cripple its commercial hubs. Public transport networks in India are also prime targets.
Other cities in Iraq such as Mosul, Al Ramadi, Ba’qubah, Kirkuk and Al Hillah, many of which have fallen to the Islamic State, make the top six on the list.
Among the capital cities that figure on the extreme terror risk are Afghanistan’s Kabul at 13, Somalia’s Mogadishu at 14, Yemen’s Sana’a at 19, Pakistan’s Islamabad at 44, and Libya’s Tripoli at 48.
Paris saw the steepest jump from 201 to 97 on the list, and is considered at “high risk” following the attack on Charlie Hebdo earlier this year.
However, Belfast tops the list among European nations at the 91st position, while London has been ranked at 400.