Just saw this really interesting piece of news from early March 2009 on what looks like an illegal rendition (ala the CIA and Mossad) of an accused terrorist associated with the Bangalore blasts [July 2008]:

“In a top secret mission, a team of the Research and Analysis Wing tracked down an absconding accused in the Bangalore serial blasts case in Muscat, and sneaked him out of Oman, since India doesn’t have an extradition treaty with that country.

Sarfaraz Nawaz, 32, who allegedly played a major role in financing the Bangalore blasts, had sought refuge in Muscat.

Investigating officials told rediff.com that a RAW team managed to track down Nawaz in Muscat. They added that Nawaz was ‘smuggled into’ Bangalore on a chartered aircraft.

The entire operation was so secretive that even the Air Traffic Control was taken aback when they received a message to help the chartered aircraft land at the Bengaluru [Images] International Airport.

After landing at the airport, officials of the RAW and the Intelligence Bureau called top Central Industrial Security Force officials and directed them to escort the passengers in the aircraft.

The officials handed over Nawaz to the Bangalore police, who are currently questioning him.

Abdul Sattar, the prime accused in the case, had revealed Nawaz’s role in the serial blasts during his interrogation.

Nawaz was reportedly close to Riyaz Bhatkal, a key Lashkar-e-Tayiba [Images] operative, who later took over the charge of the Indian Mujahideen [Images].

With Nawaz’s arrest, the Bangalore police are hopeful of tracking down the remaining suspects, who might have fled the country after the Bangalore blasts.”

More here at Rediff.com

My Comment:

Here’s a piece I did a few years ago on jihad in India, specifically, in Bangalore,  Jihad and Cyberworld.

And here’s a perspective from the Indian left, by Pankaj Mishra.

I’m generally sympathetic to the view presented by Mishra’s pieces, but there are some angles that strike me as off-base.

What I agree with

As I wrote in another piece on the subject  (“Operation Romeo: Lessons On Terror Laws In Indian Country”), terror laws in India haven’t worked very well. It’s unlikely that adopting CIA/Mossad-type renditions (what next? assassinations?) will do better. Whatever immediate successes Indians might hope to gain from them will be marginal and fleeting next to the precedent renditions set for more secrecy, coverts ops and violation of international and national laws.  There’s just too much scope for abuse of power.

What I disagree with is a passage like this one

Mishra:

“Apparently, no inconvenient truths are allowed to mar what Foreign Affairs, the foreign policy journal of America’s elite, has declared a “roaring capitalist success story”. Add Bollywood’s singing and dancing stars, beauty queens and Booker prize-winning writers to the Tatas, the Mittals and the IT tycoons, and the picture of Indian confidence, vigour and felicity is complete.

The passive consumer of this image, already puzzled by recurring reports of explosions in Indian cities, may be startled to learn from the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC) in Washington that the death toll from terrorist attacks in India between January 2004 and March 2007 was 3,674, second only to that in Iraq. (In the same period, 1,000 died as a result of such attacks in Pakistan, the “most dangerous place on earth” according to the Economist, Newsweek and other vendors of geopolitical insight.)”

Here’s my caveat:

Comparing India’s death toll from terrorism between 2004-2007 (3,674) to the death toll from terrorists in Pakistan (1000) and in Iraq is disingenuous, given the vast difference in the population and size of the three countries.

Per wiki:

India:                  Area  3,287,240 sq. k.    Population 1,147,995,904   (2008 estimate)

Pakistan:           Area     803,940 sq. k.    Population    165,900,000  (2008 estimate)

Even if Mishra’s death numbers are right, India is only about four times the size of Pakistan, but it’s roughly seven times as populous. Indian deaths from terrorism, however, are only about four times as many as Pakistani deaths. That is,  the number of deaths from terrorism is a bit over half of what it is in Pakistan.

That’s quite a bit of a difference.  India’s far from being free of terrorist violence as “India Shining” advocates would have you believe.

But it’s also not as riven with violence as Pakistan. And,  for whatever reasons, terrorists do in fact find safe harbor and training grounds in Pakistan.