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International Terrorism: Historical Development

International terrorism is a greatest threat to democracy. It poses a great threat not just to human life, human rights, dignity and democratic values but it is steadily rising at an alarming rate. If the present trend continues, human civilization will be causality as international terrorism holds danger not only to international peace, order and stability but it is also endangering humankind itself. These dangers resulting from international terrorism can wreck the very fabric of all human societies.

It has to be said that international terrorism is involved when a terrorist group in one country receives financial and other resources from outside that country. An element of international terrorism comes into the picture when specific persons of one nation are designed as targets by the members of another group outside that nation. It is therefore, described as a “warfare without territory, waged without armies… It is warfare that is not limited territorially, sporadic battles may take place worldwide. It is warfare without neutrals and with few or no civilian bystanders”. Jenkins writes, “International terrorism comprises those incidents of terrorism that have clear international consequences: incidents in which terrorists go abroad to strike targets, select victims or targets, because of their connections to a foreign state (diplomats, executive of foreign corporation), attack airlines on international flights, or force airlines to fly to another country”. He further states that such terrorist activities may be perpetuated by non-governmental groups and by governments, their armies and secret police.[1]
The Internalization of terrorism is fast growing day-by-day. It is very aptly remarked that: “An operation may be planned in Germany by Palestinian Arabs, executed in Israel by terrorists recruited in Japan, with the weapons acquired in Italy but manufactured in Russia, supplied by an Algerian diplomat financed by Libyan money”. This may be only one example of international terrorism. There may be many more worldwide connections involving more than one state”.

Terrorism is as old as the civilization of mankind and has existed in all ages in one form or another, which might be identified with anarchists, revolutionaries, fundamentalists or dissidents against the established authority or even ruling tyrants having no tolerance for dissent. However, terrorism was not as widespread a phenomenon as it is today in the contemporary political system of the world.
In recent years, terrorism has posed a challenge not only to the state power but also to the international security on account of the intensive and extensive use of destructive weapons used by terrorist. There is hardly a day when a dozen or more innocent persons do not fall to the terrorists’ bullets or other terrorist acts. The innocent, including the elderly, women and children, are murdered, maimed, seriously wounded, kidnapped and/or made hostages, private and public property is looted or destroyed and so on. The slaughtering of the unrelated, innocent persons has become a regular global phenomenon. Moreover, terrorism manifests itself in the fiercest form in state terrorism carried on by states which had been created for providing ‘law and order’ and for ensuring peace for the people. Terrorism, as part of political opposition to the government, has also existed since long.[2]

International Terrorism is a global phenomenon easy to recognize but difficult to define. The obstacles to define international terrorism are compounded by differing perspectives, international values, ideologies and social systems. One may patently identify certain features which characterized international offences chiefly the gravity of acts under consideration and the fact that they harm fundamental interests of the whole international community but the presence of these traits by themselves does not denote that a specific act (such as act of terrorism) is an international offence. The practice of states and the conclusive determinant in the creation of international law including international criminal law and not the desirability of stamping out obnoxious patterns of human behaviour. Only an internationally codified definition (or as a subject of multilateral treaty) making it punishable offence would turn an act into an international offence.[3]

The essential components of more or less, a consensus definition of international terrorism is the systematic and purposeful use or threat of extraordinary and intolerable violence, individual acts, or a campaign of violence, designed primarily to terrorize or instill fear. International terrorists use or threaten to use violence, indiscriminately or selectivity against either enemies or allies to achieve political ends. International terrorism involves a consistent pattern of symbolic or representative selection of its physical victims or objects. International terrorism is deliberately intended to create a psychological or physical effect on specific group of people or victims in order to change political behaviour and attitude in a manner consonant with terrorists’ objectives and goals. International terrorism is aimed at the people watching more than the people being victimized. International terrorism contains an international element or is directed against an international target and has international consequences. International terrorists may include revolutionaries, political extremists, criminals professing political aims and even authentic lunatics. International terrorists may operate alone or may be members of a larger and well-organized groups or may even be governments. International terrorists’ motive may be personal gain, e.g. money, or revenge, or the destruction of all government or self rule for a particular ethnic group and so on.

The ambition of terrorists may be limited or local, e.g. the overthrow of a particular regime, or may be global, e.g. simultaneous worldwide revolution. International terrorism is applied to all acts of violence: all ransom kidnappings, all hijackings and all thrill killings which may be intended by their perpetration. International terrorism may be a single incident or a campaign of violence waged outside the accepted rules and procedures of international diplomacy and war. International terrorism is often designed to attract worldwide attention to the existence and cause of the terrorists. The actual victims or victims of terrorist attacks and the target audience may not be the same; and the actual victims may be totally unrelated to the struggle. International terrorism is essentially criminal, illegal, ruthless and inhuman. International terrorism is politically motivated and any political group, convinced of the rightness of its cause, may resort to violent means to advance that cause. International terrorism transcends national boundaries, through the choice of a foreign victim and target, commission of the terrorist act in a foreign country or effort to influence the policies of a foreign government. International terrorists strike abroad, or at a diplomat or other foreigner at home, because they believe they can thereby exert the greatest possible pressure on him or her or another government or on world opinion. International terrorists may or may not wish to kill their victim, but they find occasions to kill their victims to enhance the credibility of their threats even though they do not wish to kill them. International terrorists are directed against a government or another group, class or party. International terrorists may seek to cause political, social or economic disruption and for this purpose, adopt all means at their disposal.[4]

UN General Assembly Debates On Terrorism
The debates at the UN General Assembly point to the intractability of any all-embracing concept of International terrorism. They reveal the dilemma of the international community not merely on questions whether there should be a general definition, or whether it should be enumerative or else whether it should be of a hybrid variety. They demonstrate that state attitudes are widely divergent on as many as few ramifications of crucial importance to any definition of international terrorism, namely;
(a) who all can be recognized as participants in a terrorist act?;
(b) what shall be the range of terrorist acts?;
(c) what is the international element in an act of international terrorism?;
(d) who are the victims or targets of a terrorist act? [5]

Indeed, each state has its own perception of international terrorism. It looks at it in terms of its own historical experience, sense of basic values, and priority of relations with other states.

Viewed in the light of all this, the contemporary debates betray a good deal of irony at different levels. First and foremost, the debates take place at a time when concepts take place at time when concepts like total war have become fashionable with the ware (‘Defense’) departments of big powers. In terms of the intensity and methods of violence used and incidence of devastation caused, wars have an unrivalled claim of superiority over the so-called terrorist acts; indeed, terrorism, despite the hair-raising undertones of that term, pales into insignificance in comparison with war. Second, even so, there is an intrinsic relationship between terrorism and modern war in that former is employed on a strategy of warfare whether between states or between a state and a non-state entity. Third, states are keen on evolving a legal regulation of international terrorism and now, apparently for, “the protection of the innocents”, world for the moment like to ignore certain uncomfortable facts about state terrorism.[6]

Fourth, terrorism is a phenomenon that transcends national boundaries. It is too simplistic, if not native to categorise acts of terrorism into two, namely, domestic and international. Such a categorisation is often irrelevant even assuming that many of the terrorist acts are prompted by domestic issues.[7]

Fifth, states that ask for an all embracing definition of international crimes just do not in their domestic law practice go in for an equally an all embracing definition of crimes to encompasses all kinds of crimes under one rule of thumb. On the contrary, the domestic legal system displays same, even it yet unsatisfactory, awareness of the relationship between a particular type of crime and ever charging realities of human life, the diverse social phenomena interacting within the society. It readily recognizes the need for defining what human acts should be prescribed or regulated from different vantage points. The same type of acts may at times be identified as common crimes, revenue offences and civil wrongs all at once, but for different proposes. There is in domestic law same co-relationship between a specific pattern of human conduct to be regulated and the functional and social relevance of a given set of regulation. In other words, the domestic law manifests a multi-dimensional approach to pattern of human conduct until a similar approach is evolved on the international plane, any attempt at defining a broad heterogeneous spectrum of acts in terms of a single catch all definition of international terrorism is neither scientific nor sociologically tenable.[8]

Sixth, any definition to be valid and operational needs to be founded on an adequate perception of the essential characteristics of international legal process. The international legal process corresponds to a society of sovereign states. It is essentially an informal legal process, compared to the characteristic formalism of the domestic legal process. It is typified in the essentially decentralised character of the legislative, executive and judicial functions of the process functions which have received a high degree of institutionalisation in the domestic society. It does not authoritatively prescribe any particular mode of effecting a change in the international system. Participants in this system, be they states or non-state entities, attempt to effect the desired change in the system pressing into service strategies that they consider efficient. A revolution is as much as normal mode effecting a change in international system as any other mode, given indeed the absence of any formal central institution of authority.[9]

Seventh, the trend in international decision-making in the realm of international terrorism is towards identifying certain types of acts as international crimes for diverse purposes. Examples include war crimes, genocide hijacking and crimes against diplomatic persons.

Apart from these, there are two more fundamental considerations. There is no use stigmatising a particular act as crime, without helping to meet the basic claims to justice that lie at the root of the act. Focus should be directed on the disease rather than its symptoms. In any case, terrorism, in the ultimate analysis bears upon a complex of psychic dispositions of the diverse participants in the social process - the intentions and motives of the perpetrator, the effect it produces upon the victims or targets.[10]

It is surely necessary to deal with it, because it is necessary to evolve same mechanism to ensure the protection of innocent human beings, and to coordinate the efforts of states in bringing culprits to book. But attempting to evolve a push button definition is no way of doing it, for such a definition cannot strike any common denominator between the diverse contradictory claims involved in the phenomenon of international terrorism such as claims of exclusive interests of states and those of inclusive interests of the international community, claim of territorial integrity and those of self-determination, claims of status quo societal relations and those of change in search of a more just basis for them. For this is a task which virtually no definition can fulfill.[11]

The international concern about the terror of terrorism can be very well visualized in the resolution adopted on 9th December 1985 by the UN General Assembly through consensus. This resolution condemned, "all acts, methods and practices of terrorism whenever and by whomever committed; including those that jeopardize friendly relations among states and their security.[12]
This danger was signaled in the document prepared by the secretariat for the Sixth Committee of the UN. The document says, “The effort to eliminate those causes should be intense and continuous, as mankind, despite its intellectual power has not yet succeeded in creating social order free from misery, frustration, grievance and despair. In short, an order which will not cause or provoke violence. Yet terrorism threatens, endangers and destroys the lives and fundamental freedoms of the innocent, and it would be just to leave them to wait for protection until the causes have been remedied and the purposes and principles of the charter have been given full effect. There is an urgent need for measures of international cooperation to protect their rights as far as possible. At all times in history, mankind has recognized, the unavoidable necessity of repressing some forms of violence which otherwise would threaten the very existence of society as well as that of man war himself. There are some means of using force as in every form of human conflict, which must not be used even when the use of force is legally and morally justified, and regardless of the status of the perpetrator”.[13]

On 31st July 1966, the adhoc committee was divided into three sub-committees to deal with the definition, the major causes and measures for the prevention of international terrorism. The first committee was of the view that no proper definition of terrorism can be given. The second committee held a debate as to whether measures could be taken to combat terrorism parallel to efforts to deal with the important causes. Therefore, no general consensus or compromise was reached.[14] Similarly, the third sub-committee could not reach at a common point of compromise and consensus about the definition of terrorism. There were differences as to whether to aim for a general convention of terrorism or a series of conventions because each was related to different kind of act. There was also disagreement over whether act like abduction for ransom, kidnapping of diplomats or the sending of letter bombs should cover state terrorism. There was also disagreement over whether a new convention should be treated as an important issue or whether dialogue and treaties should be held at a special conference of the United Nations Organisation (UNO).[15] In spite of the immense inclination of the UN in the problem of terrorism, there has not been a very concrete agreement on its satisfactory definition.
It is not contending that by defining international terrorism in a comprehensive convention terrorism will be controlled. No formulations, no matter how detailed or precise can hope to eliminate disagreements over interpretation or application. I would, however make some contribution in solving the problem of international terrorism. For, if a significant number of states did in fact adhere to such a convention a very substantial number of geographic sanctuaries to which an offender could go might be eliminated. And, perhaps most important the effort to draft a convention and basically one of educating the international community as to the kinds of normative and moral judgments that should be formed regarding the forms of unconventional violence to be prohibited.[16]

Historical Development
The genesis of conflict and violence goes back to the history of civilization. The history of terrorism can be traced back from some important milestones which are as follows:
1. In ancient Greece, Phillip II of Macedonio, Father of Alexander, the Great, was assassinated in 336 BC. In 44 BC over 2000 political rivals fell to terror after the assassination of Julius Caesar in Rome.

2. American Indians were subjected to terror by European settlers before the Americans war of Independence and later by successive US Administrations. Then the widely feared Ku Klux Klan a racist terrorist organisation, founded after the American civil war inflicted killings, lynching and beatings on the Blacks. During the years known as the period of McCarthyism, people were terrorised to eliminate the influence of communism.

3. In France, there was terrorism by successive regimes during 1789 and in Russia anarchist group resorted to terrorist methods. Czar Alexander I falling victim to it. [17]

4. Terror by colonial power was manifest in India in Amritsar Massacre in which about 2000 unarmed men, women and children killed in Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 and hundreds wounded by brutal firing without prior warning.

5. Terror was used by the Irish nationalists and UK Government prior to the formation of the Irish free state in 1922 and by the IRA for the creation of the United Ireland till this outfit declared on July 28, 2005 that their campaign was over.

6. Systematic torture of the Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany resulted in the murder of half of millions of them in what is known as the Holocaust Terrorism continued during the Second World War in the occupied territories just as the Japanese indulged in acts of terrorism in the occupied areas of the for East.

7. Terrorism by both Arabs and Jews continues to take a heavy toll of innocent lives. Palestinians are resorting to terrorist methods in response to the occupation of their lands by Jews and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of them from their homes.

8. For about four decades after it was formed in 1959, the Basque separist group known as the ETA in Spain carried out terrorist campaigns killing hundreds of people, the most audacious act being the assassination of the Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carren Blanco.[18]

9. Politico-ideological divide between the US-led capitalist forces and Soviet-led communist forces created bi-polarisation of the global polity. These political developments had performed impact on the polity of the developing countries in the East Europe and Central America. These countries were used by the US and then Soviet Union to increase their respective areas of influence. Both the superpowers and their allies used violence and terror tactics in same form or other to achieve their respective foreign policy goals. During this period, i.e. 1960s and 1970s there was alarming growth of terrorism.

10. Terrorism in India:
(i) Terrorism by militants, especially following the, ‘Operation Blue star’, and the killing of Sikhs after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
(ii) Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir aided by Pakistan.
(iii) Naxalite terrorism;
(iv) Terrorism in the North-East.[19]

The most striking manifestation of terrorism in the post-war era was the wave of international terrorism that developed after the mid 1960s. International Terrorism of the 20th century made its debut in the seventies, particularly with the tragedy at the airport in Israel on 30th May 1972, when three terrorists killed 27 persons and injured 77 others in an operation carried out by the popular Front for Liberation of Palestine. Since then there has been an increase in international terrorism nearly all parts of the globe.[20]

Biggest ever act of International Terrorism in history was in New York and Washington on 11.09.2001. The world watched stunned as terrorists scarred forever the skyline of the greatest city the World Trade Centre, the most visible symbol of international trade in the heart of Manhattan, New York; and then Clash of commercial airlines into Pentagon, less than 15 minutes from the White House, the nerve centre of the US defense establishment in Washington. Countless are killed, striking fear in the heart of USA, the most imagined, nor felt in modern history. Within 18 minutes, two passengers aircrafts, one at 8.45 A.M. from Boston to Los Angeles, the other at 9.03 A.M. From Washington to Los Angeles, hijacked and slammed into World Trade Centre, its twin towers collapse.[21]

The heinous attack on the twin towers of New York World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 killing some 3000 innocent people belonging to sixty different countries has been a record of sorts ‘achieved’, by international terrorism. Roundly condemned by the entire international community, this terrorist attack was perpetrated with no weapons. Two of the domestic airlines on their Trans American flights were hijacked soon after they took off from Boston airport, and the terrorist pilots on a suicide mission rammed the aircraft in full fury against the twin towers with the full fuel tanks performing the function of lethal explosives. The result was devastating Small Wander, the United States equated this to its Pearl Harbour experience, which had forced its headlong into the Second World War.[22] The US investigations were reported to have indicated that attack could be imputed to the Al Qaeda Terrorist Group of Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian renegade who was behind the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where it ran terrorist training camps on a regular basis and planned and operated several terrorist missions in many parts of the World. What hit the US most was the fact that both Osama and Taliban originally its own creation in aid of its anti-soviet campaign in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, had now become Frankenstein's and turned their guns against their own, “creator”, reflecting a Bhamasura syndrome.[23] The 11 September incident represented at once one of the worst crimes against humanity committed by international terrorism, it also brings home that terrorism is too dangerous an adage game to play even for the mightiest power on earth.­

Terrorists attack on the Parliament of India, New Delhi, on December 13, 2001 was another glaring example of international terrorism. Terrorists on December 13th, 2001 attacked the Parliament of India resulting in a 45 minutes gun battle in which 9 policemen and Parliament staff were killed. All the five terrorists were killed by the security forces and were identified as Pakistani nationals. The attack took place around 11.40 A.M. few minutes after both houses of Parliament adjourned for the day. The suspected terrorists dressed in commando entered Parliament in a car through VIP gate of the building. Displaying Parliament and House Ministry Security strictness, the vehicle entered the Parliament premises. The terrorists set off massive blasts and have used AK-47 rifles, explosives and grenades for the attack Senior Ministers and over 200 members of Parliament were inside the were inside the Central Hall of Parliament when the attack took place. Security personnel sealed the entire premises which saved many lives.[24]

On October 1, 2001, there was bomb blast at J & K Assembly Entrance, 38 killed, 50 hurt in Srinagar. A massive explosion near the main entrance of the Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly on Monday after-noon left 38 persons dead and 50 injured. Two militants firing from automatics later stormed the heavily guarded assembly complex. Those killed included five policemen, two central reserve police force jawans, a school girl and six state assembly employees. It was said that a suicide bomber drove a jeep laden with explosives up to the main entrance of the State Assembly. Shortly after the jeep explode into a massive ball of fire leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan based militant group claimed responsibility for the blast. The State Assembly was in session when the blast occurred.[25]

In the year 2003, terrorists struck at targets around the world, even as Iraq became a central front in the global war against terrorism and locus of so many deadly attacks against civilians Al Qaida and other terrorist groups made clear once again their relentless pursuit of evil in defiance of any law-human or divine. The year saw heinous crimes against the international community, humanitarian organizations and people dedicated to helping mankind.[26]

The Madrid train bombings were nearly simultaneous coordinated bombings against the Cerconias (commuter train) system of city of Madrid, Spain on the morning of 11 March 2004, three days before Spain's general elections. The explosions killed 191 people and wounded 1800. The official investigation by the Spanish judiciary determined the attacks were directed by the Al-Qaeda inspired terrorist cell, although no direct Al-Qaeda participation has been established.[27]

London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in London on 7 July 2005 which targeted civilians using the public transport system during the morning rush hour. On the morning of Thursday, 7 July 2005, four Islamist home-grown terrorists detonated four bombs, three in quick succession aboard London underground trains across the city and later a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tailstock square. Fifty-two civilians and four bombers were killed over and 700 were injured in the attacks. The attack took place on the day after the city was selected to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.[28]
The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Capital. The bombs were set off in pressure cookers on train plying the Western line of the Suburban Railway network. 209 people were killed and 700 were injured. According to Mumbai police, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Students Islamic Movement of India.[29]

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 was another clear instance of terrorism. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto occurred on 27 December, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto as elected twice Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988-1990; 1993-1993) and she was also a leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party. She had been campaigning a head of elections due in January 2008. Shots were fired at her after a political rally at Liaquat National Bagh and a suicide bomb was detonated immediately following the shooting. Benazir Bhutto and twenty four other people were killed by this terrorist attack.[30]

Ten Pakistani men board inflatable dinghies and travel under the cover of darkness into the port of Colaba. On November 26, 2008, at 8.P.M. in Mumbai, armed with grenades and assault rifles, they slip into Mumbai undetected, determined to unleash a wave of carnage on the Indian people. However, the Mumbai attackers wield something for more powerful train military weaponry technology. Through news and possibly social networking sites like Twitter, the terrorists monitor international reaction and keep abreast of the local police counter measures. The gunmen use these resources to dodge the soldiers sent to stop them, and they paralyze the streets of Mumbai in a three-day shooting and bombing spree that leaves more than 174 peoples dead and 300 injured.[31]

The Sri Lankan Cricket team was attacked on 3 March 2009, when a bus carrying Sri Lankan Cricketers, part of a larger convoy was fired upon by 12 gunmen, near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. The cricketers were on their way to play the third day of the second test against the Pakistani Cricket Team. Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team injured, six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed. This attack was believed to have been carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi the outlawed militant groups with close links to Al-Qaeda.[32]

Blasts occurred in Varanasi on December 7, 2010 that killed immediately a toddler and set off a stampede in which 20 people including four foreigners were injured. The responsibility of the attack was claimed by the Islamist militant group Indian Mujahideen.[33]

The 2011 Mumbai bombings were a series of three coordinated bomb explosions at different locations in Mumbai, India on 13th July 2011. The blasts occurred at operation, Zaiveri Bazar killed 26 persons and 130 persons were injured.[34]

The terrorist attack took place in the city of Benghazi in Libya on September11, 2012. It took the lives of Mr. Christopher Stevens, U.S. Ambassador to Tripoli and three other members of the staff. This terrorist action had targeted the U.S. Ambassador and also targeted the security and stability of Libya, as well as the Libyan people’s aspiration for peace and tranquility.[35]

Kenya defence forces swoop Garissa on 20 November 2012, in a military operation, KDF soldiers subsequently burn down the local market and shoot at a crowd of protestors killing a woman and injuring 10 people. 35 residents were also assaulted by the soldiers including a chief and two pupils. Group of MPs led by Farah Maalim accuse Kenya officers of formenting violence raping woman and shooting at students, and threaten to the take the matter to the international court of justice (ICJ) if the perpetrators were not brought to justice.[36]

On 10 January 2013, several bombings took place in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta the capital of Balochistan Province, killing a total of 126 people and injuring at least 270. The Quetta bombings led to protests by the city's Shia Muslim Hazaracommunity; Prime Minister of Pakistan Raja Pervez Ashraf responded by dismissing the Chief Minister of Baluchistan, Aslam Raisani, and replacing him with Zulfikar Ali Magsi. A bombing at a crowded market in Quetta killed 12 and injured 47 in an attack claimed by a Balochistan separatist group. Later, twin blasts took place in quick succession at as nooker hall. A total of 92 people were killed in these attacks, including 9 policemen, 25 rescue workers and 3 journalists who perished in the second one. In addition, an explosion at a Tableeghi Jamaat seminary in the Swat Valley, outside ofSaidu Sharif, killed 22 people and wounded 60.[37]

2014 Peshawar school massacre: Seven gunmen with ties to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan dressed in military uniforms scaled the walls to the Army Public School opening fire on students and teachers and planting bombings in classrooms. One hundred and forty-five were killed, including one hundred and thirty-two children nad 114 were injured.[38]

Six to ten gunmen associated with the Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab open fired at the Garissa University in Kenya. Christians were their main target of the attack, with theIslamic extremists separating the Muslims from Christians before executing them. Up to three hundred students are unaccounted for. One hundred and forty-seven students were reported killed, with fears the toll will rise, along with seventy-nine wounded. Four gunmen were killed by security forces.[39]

Islamic State militants attacked the neighbourhoods of Begayliya and Ayash in Deir ez-Zor, killing dozens of people in execution style murder. Fatality estimates variates between 135 and over 300. International sources reported that the attack was against Syrian Army personal and killed 85 Syrian soldiers along with 50 civilians while Syrian sources said over 300 people were killed, most of whom were children and women. The Islamic State organization claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed suicide bombers were used.[40]

24 civilians were killed and more than 150 others were injured when a van ran over pedestrians in La Rambla of Barcelona. Two of the attackers were arrested and another, who fled, stabbed to death a civilian then stole his car in Barcelona and also ran the car into three Catalan police officers in Avinguda Diagonal of Barcelona injuring one. A woman was killed and six others injured in Cambrils attack when a car tried to run into pedestrians and later attackers stabbed people with knives, axes and machetes. Sixteen people were injured in Alcanar bombings, that police believe were intended for a Barcelona attack. In the two bombings, two terrorists were also killed. The van driver was shot dead in Subirats, a village in the south of Barcelona by Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police. According to the police, the terrorists were preparing much stronger attacks than 2004 Madrid Bombings.[41]

In this terrorist attack 103 people were killed and 235 others injured when a Taliban suicide bomber exploded an ambulance laden with explosives near Sidarat Square in central Kabul where several government offices are located.[42]

Conclusion
All these important events of terrorism from early times till the present day is intended to stress the point that it occurred from time to time in one form or the other only its dynamics has changed after the Second World War. The methodology of terrorism has also undergone changes and its ferocity of sophisticated weapons. Some of the well known methods employed by terrorists are hijacking, kidnapping, assassination, bombing, maiming, sabotage, subversion, robbery, expropriation, etc. all of which appear to be senseless, irrational and arbitrary. Hijacking, kidnapping and hostage taking are the most dramatic techniques of international terrorism and are popular among the various terrorist groups. These techniques have considerably contributed to the internalization of terrorism. International terrorism needs collective measures at international level. For the suppression of international terrorism, concerted globalization, political determination and effective legal measures should be taken as it more deadly threat to human civilization. Unitedly states have to make sincere efforts to curb this menace. States must believe unitedly they will stand dividedly they will fall.

End-Notes
* Assistant Professor, Department of Laws, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
[1] Panna Kaji Amatya, “International Terrorism : Threat to Global Security”, in Verinder Grover (ed.), Encyclopedia of International Terrorism, Terrorism : History and Development, Vol. 1, p. 320.
[2] Panna Kaji Amatya, “International Terrorism : Threat to Global Security”, in Verinder Grover (ed.), Encyclopedia of International Terrorism, Terrorism : History and Development, Vol. 1, p. 321.
[3] Roda Muskat, “Technical Impediments on the way to a Universal Definition of International Terrorism”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 14-36 at p.30.
[4] Panna Kaji Amatya, “International Terrorism: Threat to Global Security”, Terrorism - The Global Perspective, 2001 pp.155-157.
[5] M.K. Nawaz and Gurdip Singh, “Legal controls of International Terrorism”, IJIL, Vol. 17, 1977, p. 70.
[6] V.S. Mani, “International Terrorism - Is a Definition Possible”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism; Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 65-70 at p. 69.
[7] V.S. Mani, “International Terrorism - Is a Definition Possible”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism; Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 65-70 at p. 69.
[8] V.S. Mani, “International Terrorism - Is a Definition Possible”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism; Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 65-70 at p. 69.
[9] V.S. Mani, “International Terrorism - Is a Definition Possible”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism; Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 65-70 at p. 69.
[10] V.S. Mani, “International Terrorism - Is a Definition Possible”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism; Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 65-70 at p. 70.
[11] V.S. Mani, “International Terrorism - Is a Definition Possible”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism; Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 65-70 at p. 70.
[12] R.G. Sawhney, “International Terrorism Focus on Western Europe”, Strategic Analysis, Vol. 11, No. 10, January 1987, p. 1159.
[13] Seymour Maxwell Finger, “International Terrorism and the United Nations”, in Youah Allexander (ed.) pp. 330-31.
[14] Seymour Maxwell Finger, “International Terrorism and the United Nations”, in Youah Allexander (ed.) pp. 330-31.
[15] United Nations General Assembly, Report of the Sixth Committee Agenda Item 85, 21 November, 1972, pp. 41-72.
[16] Roda Muskat, “Technical Impediments on the way to a Universal Definition of International Terrorism”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 14-36 at p.33.
[17] B.N. Arora, “State Terrorism or State Sponsored Terrorism and its Deleterious Consequence”, Mainstream, Vol. 44, No. 46, November 2006, pp. 5-9 at p.5.
[18] Roda Muskat, “Technical Impediments on the way to a Universal Definition of International Terrorism”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 14-36 at p.33.
[19] Roda Muskat, “Technical Impediments on the way to a Universal Definition of International Terrorism”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism: History and Development, 2002, pp. 14-36 at p.33.
[20] Verinder Grover, “The Ugly Face of Terrorism”, in Verinder Grover (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Terrorism, Terrorism : History and Development, Vol. 1, p. 340, 2002, Deep and Deep Publications, New Delhi.
[21] Verinder Grover, “Encyclopedia of International Terrorism, Terrorism in World Countries”, Vol. 2, p. 1, 2002, Deep and Deep Publications, New Delhi.
[22] V.S. Mani, “Future Strategies in the War against Terrorism and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Indian Perception”, An Indian Society of International Law, Vol. 44, No. 2, June, 2004, pp. 221-256, at p. 224.
[23] According to Hindu mythology, Bhasmasura, the demon performed a terrible penance to please Lord Shiva, the Lord of Destruction, and succeeded in obtaining a been whereby he could reduce to ashes any person he touched. Having killed many of his enemies, he finally turned to touch Shiva himself. Shiva eventually saved by Vishnu, the protector who tricked Bhasmasura into touching his own forehead and killing himself.
[24] Verinder Grover, “Encyclopedia of International Terrorism, Terrorism in World Countries”, Vol. 2, p. 3, 2002, Deep and Deep Publications, New Delhi.
[25] Verinder Grover, “Encyclopedia of International Terrorism, Terrorism in World Countries”, Vol. 2, p. 4, 2002, Deep and Deep Publications, New Delhi.
[26] pdf.www.state.gov/documents/organization/31912 visited on 19.3.19.
[27] en. wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Madrid_train_bombings. visited on 18.3.18.
[28] en. wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_London_bombings. visited on 19.2.18.
[29] en. wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Mumbai_train_bombings visited on 14.4.18.
[30] en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Benazir_Bhutto. visited on 14.4.18.
[31] Caitlin T. Street, “Streaming the International Silver Platter Doctrine: Coordinating Transnational Law Enforcement in the Age of Global Terrorism and Technology”, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 2011, pp. 413-414.
[32] en. wikipedia.org/…/2009. attack on the Sri Lanka National Cricket. visited on 10.4.218
[33] en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Terrorism_in_India visited on 19.2.18.
[34] en. wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Mumbai_bombings visited on 20.2.18.
[35] www.mfa.gov.tr/no_215_12_September visited on 10.4.18.
[36] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_terrorist_attacks_in_kenya. visited on 15.4.2018
[37] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Terrorist_Incident visited on 14.04.2018
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