ARE WE TERRORISTS TOO

“On 7th July 2005,four bomb blasts occurred in central London. Within a span of 50 seconds, bombs exploded on three tubes just outside the Liverpool Street, Edgware Road and Kings Cross stations at 0850 BST just as the morning rush hour drew to a close. After around one hour, another explosion ripped off a packed 30 double-decker bus in Tavistock Square.
Subsequent investigations revealed the involvement of four Britons who had led clean ordinary lives…………
Numerous are such deplorable acts of terror vehemently denounced by all nations and communities alike. Nothing can be as shameful as this wanton and wasteful loss of life.
But what about the lives of the so-called ‘terrorists’ who more often than not are the obscure victims of more heinous crimes committed by the state under the garb of pseudo justice.

DON’T THEY HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS?
The US defines terrorism as “the unlawful use or threat of violence against persons or property to further political objectives. It is usually intended to intimidate or coerce governments, individuals or groups to modify their behavior or politics. Terrorists often use terrorism as a weapon, because they believe that as a group they are too small to confront the ‘enemy’ in an open battle; so a planned, systematic, long term campaign of terror carried out by a small disciplined force could be more effective political weapon.”
The above definition alludes to the ineffectuality of the direct approach that could be an option exercised by the terrorists. However in most cases they choose not to exercise it for fear of direct extermination and failure of redressal of their grievances.
We shy away from the fact that even terrorists are human beings and equal contenders for human rights.
Human rights are natural rights which one gets by virtue of being human. They are equal rights irrespective of any distinctions of caste creed sex or simple parochial insularity.
One might say that my objectivity in this sphere is clinical due to non-involvement in any kind of personal loss.
Here I can easily digress from the main issue into narrow by lanes that will cloud my vision.
It’s easy to let your judgment be fogged by patriotic and human sentiment and a palpable sense of anger, helplessness directed at the hapless victims of the pseudo religious fanatic elements of our society.
Who is to decide the fate of these terrorists? Are there to be differential degrees of judgments for them depending on the kind of crime? Who assesses the nature of their crimes and accords punishment? What are the parameters for these convictions?
The police?
The state —Which is always on the lookout for scapegoats to consolidate their position in the play of politics?
Can Timothy Mcveigh and Abu Salem be compared to Jagdish Tytler or Sajjan Kumar?
Or is the government all too reluctant at opening up this Pandora’s box?
ARTICLE 5 of the UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS declaration-“no one should be put through torture, or any other treatment or punishment that is cruel or makes the person less than human”
ARTICLE 11-“if you are blamed for the crime, you should be thought of as innocent until proven guilty.”
Perfectly rational and logical points of view that uphold the principles of humanity we are so proud of.
But horrorstricken most will say that terrorists are NOT HUMAN ….how can they be? When they are responsible for killing innocent people and disrupting public life or even damaging state machinery?
Radicalists would say ‘death demands death’as justice, while upholders of human rights might advocate justice through constitutional methods as a sop to their conscience.
But the end result would inevitably be the same…
Are we ready to take responsibility for the more severe, more heinous, more barbaric deed of deliberately perpetrating the deaths of so many people who by virtue of their deeds have lost the right to being called human?
I use the word death deliberately because loss of human dignity is as much a death for an individual as much is the electric chair or lethal injection…only far more painful and demeaning.
In retrospect if terrorists are the INHUMAN people who use weapons of destruction ………what would you term those who produce those weapons?
Or those who use those same weapons in politically and militarily backed action?
Can we absolve ourselves of our role in this human carnage?
Will Guatenamo be buried under a pile of bureaucratic morass?
Are we terrorists too?