India the Holy Grail of South Asian jihadists

Terrorists are not customarily rooting for a particular religion ( as they believe in a 'civil uniform code' of eliminating humans) as their current target, though this time they are. All this is mentioned with much pomp in Dabiq. So, you ask what does it stand for!

It is neither one of those lavish magazines which you can flip through while leisurely sipping your cosmopolitan nor among those which you tend to follow while sharpening the barrel of your AK-47 or Kalashnikov, well maybe. Dabiq, a magazine with its glossy pages and state-of-the-art printing may with some oblivion be presumed to be a replica of Forbes, but it aims for the Islamist religious fanatics and not for the industry bigwigs.

The magazine recently interviewed Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, one of the wings of the Islamist militant fraternity, whom they hail as 'Khalifa's (Caliphate) soldiers in Bengal'. The group operates on both the sides of Bengal (India and Bangladesh) and one of the members of the group has asserted on their antagonistic feelings for the Hindus whom they believe as having no respect for either the Islamic religion or for that matter toward the Muslims. The 'soldier' further adds that the Bengali Hindus has a more implicit way to show their animosity towards the Islamic community while the Hindus of India as a whole have relegated them openly.

Still, one cannot separate this one incident out as a single thing as back in 2015, the militants took the effort to release an e-book in which they have cited PM Modi as a 'Hindu nationalist' who is in the process of 'preparing his people for a future war against their number one enemy – Muslims'. Above all, the Hinduism is described as a 'filthy, cow-worshiping religion'.
To add more spice to the aggression that has been waging in, PTI came up with a document – 'A Brief History of the Islamic State Caliphate, The Caliphate according to the Prophet' last year, one that has been already translated by a Harvard scholar. And the translated version mentions in one place, rather prominently – "attacking in India is the Holy Grail of South Asian jihadists".

Such instances will certainly instill fear in any rational mind and will expect their elective representatives to relieve the country from such atrocities. The solution to terrorism and religious extremism is rather complex – with the reasons being as varied and exhaustive as American Absolutism to unemployment and deeply entrenched social evils like Communalism and religious dogma.

Time can redeem the wounds and may as well subjugate such extremism, but ignorance and alienation of certain communities can very clearly stem the deep-rooted feelings of hostility once more. (Input from agencies)