The economics of terror attacks

The Mumbai terror attacks will be forever etched on the minds of the Indians. The trauma lasted for more than 60 hours for the world and for a lifetime for many of us. A bunch of highly trained and motivated Kalashnikov wielding young men held the entire nation to ransom. The world community watched as the stick wielding policemen fought the suicide squad. Later the elite commandos took extreme precaution to minimize casualties before finishing off the terrorists. For the second time a suicide squad member (fidayeen) was caught alive, first time being during the attack on Ram temple in Ayodhya. The truth was laid bare; the neighboring country has been clearly linked to the attacks. The country’s “non-state actors” not only provided logistical support, but their ex-army officers trained the terrorists in commando warfare techniques.

 

It is estimated that the loss suffered due to Mumbai attacks will run into thousands of crores of rupees (billions of dollars). During the 4 days of the seize all the businesses, shops and offices were shut down. The loss due to this amounted to roughly Rs 4000 crores, as a single day of shut down results in a loss of Rs 1000 crores. Not to forget that the stock markets were closed on Thursday. Combined daily turnover of the BSE, NSE and the commodity exchanges is about Rs 33,000 crores. The loss suffered by the tourism and hospitality sector can not be estimated. Entertainment industry also suffered due to the attacks. The Mumbai based movie halls lost roughly Rs 10 crores due to the low turnout. The loss to life and property could not even be estimated.

 

The concept of a war has changed nowadays. The wars are no longer fought face to face and across the borders, its the proxy-war (invented by Zia-ul-Haq, who promised to bleed India to death through 1000 wounds) that will be fought in the future. The country needs to be prepared to fight more such attacks as these attacks are aimed at hampering the rapid economic growth taking place in this part of the world. Our neighboring countries have never been fortunate to experience true democracy and neither have they experienced the fruits of economic prosperity. It is their anachronistic belief that they tend to link India’s rise to their failure

 

The world community is taking note and this time the terrorists have made some deadly and powerful enemies by targeting Israelis, Americans, British, Australians and Europeans.  This is no longer a regional issue. Countries realizes that this monster needs to be tackled right now, otherwise it has the potential to engulf the larger region. The terror attacks also stirred the student community but the community handled it in a very matured manner. This issue was also discussed extensively in the open forum, “Bindas Bol”, organized by the student body.

 

P.S. 

1) It is not my intention to say that the economic loss supersedes the loss to human life. I realize that the human life is supreme. This was just an attempt to highlight that the modern day warfare is no longer fought at the country’s borders.

2) The views expressed above are my personal opinions and does not reflect those of ISB in any way.

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