Terrorism continues to take a heavy toll on South Asia. Hardly a day passes without the news of a terror strike in that part of the world. On Friday, a car bomb went off in Peshawar in Pakistan killing at least a dozen people and injuring many others. It is most likely that the perpetrators of that barbaric crime, too, will get away with it, given the well established terrorist network in the region that has evolved into a quasi parallel state without borders.

It is the collective failure of democratic nations that has enabled and emboldened satanic elements flaunting various causes to hold global democracy to ransom. However, nowhere else is the incidence of terrorist attacks as high as in South Asia save the West Asia and some countries in Africa. Why?

Al Qaeda will attack the US or Britain, given half a chance. It is believed to be working overtime to mount spectacular terrorist attacks to unsettle the democratic world by humbling the sole super power and its allies so that the lesser states will fall in line. However that outfit has, of late, found its work cut out because of the tough anti-terror laws and their proper implementation in the Occident. They are not promoting terrorism against each other. They may be fighting bitter trade wars and busy building their nuclear arsenals. And they may be sponsoring terrorism in faraway lands either overtly or covertly. But, as regional groupings or neighbours, they co-operate and act as one in battling terrorism.

But, in South Asia the promotion of terrorism has almost become an integral part of the foreign policy of some countries. India and Pakistan do not give a damn about each other's security or the regional stability. They have become havens for savages and their accomplices responsible for naked terrorism.

The knee-jerk reaction of India to the Mumbai attacks was to lay the blame at the doorstep of Pakistan and demand that those responsible be handed over immediately. Whether Pakistan was behind the Mumbai disaster has yet to be proved but it is clear that if both countries begin to extradite the masterminds of terrorist attacks, most members of their intelligence services will find themselves behind bars!

India is still reeling from the Mumbai terror which exposed how poorly equipped it is to deal with an emergency. India took about ten hours to deploy commandoes! During that inordinate delay, terrorists could have massacred thousands of more people, had they so desired. The fact that terrorists managed to hold out for three days augurs ill for India's national security. Terrorists are now aware that they are in a position to unleash hell on any Indian city with the help of a handful of brainwashed killers––absit omen!

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh considered a suave dove has let the hawk in him do the talking. He has promised stern action against India's terrorists.

India ought to practise what it preaches to the world. If it wants others to stop sponsoring its terrorists, it must first of all desist from aiding and abetting terrorism in the neighbouring lands on flimsy pretexts. Its foreign policy replete with hypocrisy and arrogance has turned out to be a magical formula which turns friends into foes!

The central government of India, which has come under severe criticism for the pathetic manner in which the Mumbai incidents were handled, seems to have thrown in its lot with the DMK in Tamil Nadu. It is using Sri Lanka's conflict as a fig leaf to cover its nudity.

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi is on record having said Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee will visit Colombo shortly to discuss a ceasefire between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE. That will be nothing but interference with Sri Lanka's internal affairs in support of a terrorist outfit which is ironically banned in India. That India is doing so out of its concern for the plight of the Vanni civilians is hogwash, to say the least. If it has an iota of compassion for those hapless people, it can achieve that objective without using the civilians' cause as an excuse to give oxygen to the sinking Tigers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could solicit the intervention of his Tamil Nadu friends including Karunanidhi to free civilians from the clutches of the LTTE.

It was only last August that Prime Minister Singh held hands with other SAARC leaders for the TV cameras after adopting a resolution to fight terrorism, as we pointed out the other day. Four months on, he has joined forces with the LTTE proxies to undermine Sri Lanka's sovereignty.

This India does while promising stern action against terrorism. With such enemies, it may be said, terrorists need no friends!

All it takes for terrorism to flourish is for some of the rogue states in the democratic world to sponsor savages consumed with hatred. Terrorism has become as dangerous as Black Death and those who are using it as a bludgeon against their enemies are making a terrible mistake. For, it affects the perpetrator and the victim both as could be seen from terror strikes in New Delhi/Mumbai, Islamabad, New York, London etc.

Meanwhile, if India were really desirous of helping the LTTE out, it should at least have the courage to do so openly without running with the hare and hunting with the hounds; it would be less demeaning for India to act the way it did in 1987, when it violated Sri Lanka's air space and removed Prabhakaran to safety.