KASAB & SHAHZAD: THE COMMON LINK

Last week Ajmal Amir Kasab was finally handed over the capital punishment as expected. In the same week Faisal Shahzad, who attempted to detonate a bomb in Times Square was arrested from JFK airport in New York. US officials’ claim that Shahzad has confessed that he indeed did try to blow up a bomb kept inside a car at Time Square to kill and terrorize people.

On the face of it Kasab & Shahzad have nothing in common except the fact that they both hail from Pakistan and both were trained by the same terror establishment which is based in Pakistan. Otherwise both of them have pretty distinct backgrounds. Kasab was born in a poor

family from a remote village in Punjab, largely illiterate and unemployed, who briefly worked as a labourer in Lahore before he joined the training camp of LeT. While on the other hand Shahzad had a privileged upbringing in a decent family. His father was in the armed forces and he mainly stayed in the big cities of Pakistan and received good education. He moved to the US in 1999 where he got his degree in computer engineering and also worked in various companies.

For many it has come as a shock that given Shahzad’s background and education he still chose the fundamentalist approach. But there is one ‘root’ cause that actually underlines a similarity between Kasab & Shahzad. Both the men were going through financial problems at different levels. Kasab in his confession stated on camera that his trainers had promised 1, 50,000 rupees for his family if he did his job well. Incidentally, according to the initial reports that are emerging with regards to Shahzad suggest that even he was a victim of the financial crisis that had engulfed United States last year.

The Islamic fundamentalist groups have exploited this situation faced by young Muslims across income levels to the fullest. Though, this is not the only factor that must have influenced the minds of these two individuals but was definitely a vital factor. These examples clearly demonstrate that the Islamic fundamentalist groups have a streamlined propaganda and indoctrination process in place. The pattern and the approach vary depending on the background of the individual. For example Kasab in his confession stated that he first got introduced to LeT through a pamphlet which was been distributed in his village by LeT members. The pamphlet asked young village boys to join their training camps. The case of Shahzad is not an isolated one involving a young, educated Muslim been swayed by an Islamic terror group. The involvement of Ahmad brothers in the failed terrorist attack that was attempted at the Glasgow airport & London in 2007 also illustrates the sophisticated approach that has been adopted by these groups to indoctrinate these educated men.

Till now poverty has been considered the root cause for violence-whether its naxal based terrorism or even religious based terrorism to an extent, but now this new form of ‘urban financial crisis’ that has emerged in the recent years is another dangerous phenomenon. Hopefully this won’t become another catalyst that would give birth to urban based right wing terrorism.