The
world witnessed one of the most dastardly and cowardice act of terrorists
on 11th September 2001. By crashing down two planes on the two 110-storied
buildings of the World Trade Centre in New York between 6.10 p.m.
and 6.30 p.m. (Indian Standard Time), the terrorists killed thousands
of innocent people. Around the same time, the terrorists also attacked
the high security Pentagon building in Washington, from where the
American Defense office operates. Bombing on/in these buildings is
also not ruled out. This calculated attack, executed to its ultimate
perfection has shaken the world. The needle of suspicion points towards
the international terrorist Osama Bin Laden and Lashkar-e-Tayiba,
one of the most powerful and extremist Islamic groups fighting a war
against India in Jammu and Kashmir. When many countries have condemned
this most heinous crime against humanity and expressed their solidarity
to defeat the terrorism, people in few countries like Lebanon celebrated
this horrendous act. India immediately condemned this act and extended
its support to US to fight terrorism. Apart from condoling the death
of thousands of innocent people, the Home Minister Advani appropriately
responded to the situation by saying, "India has always been against
international terrorism". Iraq has reportedly said that US is paying
the price for all its previous acts. Many Americans have also expressed
this sentiment.
It is surprising that the most-secured Pentagon was attacked about
which CIA did not even have any clue. This shows how well this was
executed. As the officials of US suspect, this crime should have been
carried out by the terrorists trained in flying. Under no amount of
coercion and intimidation the official pilots would have succumbed
and crashed the flights on WTC and Pentagon. This means that the terrorists
should have gone in to the cockpit and operated the flight. It is
surprising as to how the cockpits are not closed and was accessible
for the terrorists. At least after this terrible attack, the rules
should be strictly implemented and apart from pilots nobody should
have access to the cockpit. 
We should unequivocally condemn terrorism
in whichever form it attacks human society. Terrorism is
terrorism and it does not matter who it affected. Henceforth, the
world should observe September 11 as the Anti-Terrorism Day. In the
aftermath of this terrorist attack, India should take initiative and
campaign for setting up an International Forum against Terrorism (IFAT).
This forum should function under the supervision of the United Nations.
A"Consortium Against Terrorism (CAT)" should also be set up and it
should be financed through the contributions from the world countries
that want to defeat the terrorism. This consortium should financially
support a country that is tormented by the terrorist attack, both
for recovery and also for fighting against the terrorists. The causes
of the terrorism such as fundamentalism, racism, jingoism should be
identified and the causes should be eliminated or at the least contained.
It is easy to resolve a dispute if it is fought on a civilized basis.
The terrorist activities are always guerilla-type. It needs greater
wisdom and a bigger strategy to arrest such activities. A country
like India is always disturbed by such terrorism, more so because
of the external support. It is high time that world countries unite
on fighting terrorism, as otherwise WTO agreements would not have
any meaning. In order to transact business, world has to exist. Without
any guarantee for our existence there is no meaning in having big
conventions to sort out trade related issues. It is amply proved when
the gold and oil prices shoot up within minutes after this disaster.
Let the world countries meet and chalk out strategies to defeat terrorism.
Big powers like United States should come down heavily on drug-trafficking
and illegal sale of arsenal. Even the legal sale of arsenal needs
to be questioned. These trades support the terrorists directly or
indirectly. Simply because US economy is linked to sale of arsenal
and drug trafficking, it should not fall prey to them. The consequences
would endanger the human species on the earth and what happened on
11th September 2001 is one of those initial signals. Let us not ignore
it.
