Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001 - India

India was itself a target of terrorism throughout the year but unstintingly endorsed the US military response to the September 11 attack and offered to provide the US with logistic support and staging areas. To address internal threats, the Indian cabinet approved in October an ordinance granting sweeping powers to security forces to suppress terrorism. Since then, at least 25 groups have been put on the Indian Government's list of "terrorist organizations" and declared "unlawful." The Union Home Ministry asked all other ministries to create a centralized point for sorting Government mail after a powder-laced letter was discovered in late October at the office of the Home Minister. The Ministry also deployed additional security forces to guard important installations following a suicide attack in October on an Indian Air Force base in the Kashmir Valley. The security posture was significantly upgraded, including large-scale mobilization of Indian Armed Forces, following the attack in December on India's Parliament.

Security problems associated with various insurgencies, particularly in Kashmir, persisted through 2001 in India. On 1 October, 31 persons were killed and at least 60 others were injured when militants detonated a bomb at the main entrance of the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly building in Srinagar. The Kashmiri terrorist group Jaish e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack. On 13 December an armed group attacked India's Parliament in New Delhi. The incident resulted in the death of 13 terrorists and security personnel. India has blamed FTOs Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish e-Mohammed for the attack and demanded that the Government of Pakistan deal immediately with terrorist groups operating from Pakistan or Pakistan-controlled territory. India also faced continued violence associated with several separatist movements based in the northeast. (On 22 January 2002, armed gunmen fired on a group of police outside the American Center in Kolkata, (Calcutta), killing four and wounding at least nine. The investigation of this attack is ongoing. Although no US citizens were injured, Indian police have indicated that the American Center was deliberately chosen. One US contract guard was injured in the assault.)

The Indian Government continued cooperative bilateral efforts with the United States against terrorism, including extensive cooperation between US and Indian law-enforcement agencies. The US-India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group – founded in November 1999 – met in June 2001 in Washington and January 2002 in New Delhi and included contacts between interagency partners from both governments. The group agreed to pursue even closer cooperation on shared counterterrorism goals and will reconvene in Washington in summer 2002.