Although there has been a 25 per cent drop in the number of those killed in terror strikes in India last year, the country remains subject to violent terrorist attacks with persistent targeting from the likes of lashkar-e-Tayyeba, says a US State Department report on terrorism worldwide.
It points to leT and its leader Hafiz Saeed’s continuing calls for violent attacks against India even while New Delhi and Islamabad have attempted to lower tensions in their bilateral relationship through dialogue, reduced trade restrictions and some visa relaxations.
“Continued allegations of violations of the line of Control between India and Pakistan (the border along Jammu & Kashmir), however, and Indian concerns about Pakistani-based terrorist groups remained impediments to normalising relations,” says the report, put together by the department’s Office of Counter-Terrorism.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 805 people were killed in terrorist attacks in India in 2012. The figure includes 364 deaths attributed to left-wing extremism, mostly Naxalite violence.
Commenting on the slow progress in the trial of Mumbai attack suspects in Pakistan, the report says the proposed second visit to India by a Pakistan Judicial Commission to cross-examine witnesses for the prosecutions must be approved by the courts in both countries.
On the US-India cooperation in counter-terrorism measures, it speaks of increased capacity building efforts, with Indians participating in several courses provided by the Department of State’s Anti-terrorism Assistance programme.
At the same time, the report comments that the Government of India’s efforts to establish a National Counter terrorism Centre have remained stalled with several Chief Ministers raising objections on the grounds that the set-up would infringed upon the States’ constitutional rights and responsibilities to maintain law and order.
It also comments that the 2009 initiatives to establish a National Intelligence Grid, a platform for information-sharing between law enforcement, intelligence services, and other government agencies, and a national crime record database had not been implemented by year’s end, though some progress has been reported.
“The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems will create a nation-wide environment for the real-time sharing of crime and criminal information,” it says.