#pulwamaattack — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #pulwamaattack, aggregated by home.social.
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Pulwama attack anniversary: Families remember CRPF martyrs as promises remain pending https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/pulwama-attack-anniversary-crpf-martyrs-ib1tww7v?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #PulwamaAttack #CRPF #Martyrs #IndiaNews #TerrorAttack
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Islamist Terrorism: The Enemy with a Theology, Not a Territory
Just yesterday, I got into an argument with a colleague about “who” or “what” exactly qualifies as a terrorist. Being an avid geopolitical observer and policy analyst, I couldn’t just let the confusion slide. Needless to say, the conversation went south. It mirrored a disturbing pattern I’ve seen across media, academia, and even public discourse: we’re increasingly intellectualizing terror, blurring its distinctions, and excusing its ideologies, and for what? To appear cool, modern, tolerant, and clever? It’s time to set this straight.
Between 1979 and April 2024, Islamist groups were responsible for 66,872 attacks and over 249,000 deaths worldwide (Fondapol). In 2024 alone, ISIS and its affiliates killed over 1,800 people across 22 countries. JNIM, Al-Shabaab, and TTP together accounted for another 2,400+ deaths (Global Terrorism Index 2025).
The vast majority of global terrorism today is perpetrated by Islamist groups.
Let’s begin with this: not all violence by non-state actors is equal. And not all groups we label as “terrorist” are the same.
- India – Naxals: Maoist ideology, tribal base, anti-state. Confined to Indian forests.
- Colombia – FARC: Marxist, fought for land reform. Signed peace accords in 2016.
- Sri Lanka – LTTE: Ethnonationalist. Wanted a Tamil homeland. Defeated in 2009.
- Spain – ETA: Basque separatists. Mostly domestic targets.
- Philippines – NPA: Communist insurgency. Confined within national borders.
Each of these groups had/have brutal records. But none justified mass murder through a global religious mandate. Comparing Islamist terrorism to regional political insurgencies isn’t just flawed, it’s dangerously misleading. Islamist terror is distinct in its theology, scale, ambition, and cruelty.
1. The Islamist Ideological Engine
Islamist terrorism is driven by a radical interpretation of Islam that views violence as divinely sanctioned. Groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Boko Haram believe that their war is sacred, a duty to impose Sharia, cleanse the world of non-believers, and restore a global Islamic caliphate. Their targets are chosen not for political pressure, but as acts of religious devotion.
This is fundamentally different from insurgents like India’s Naxalites, who are motivated by Marxist-Leninist ideology and fight to overthrow a class-based system. They don’t wage war to fulfill a religious prophecy. They fight for what they consider political justice.
2. Terrorism Without Borders
Islamist terror is transnational by nature. Al-Qaeda’s leadership may sit in Afghanistan, but its operatives strike in New York, Nairobi, and Paris. ISIS declared a caliphate that drew fighters from over 100 countries. Boko Haram operates in Nigeria but coordinates with ISIS in Iraq.
Contrast that with Naxalites, FARC (Colombia), or ETA (Spain). Their violence is brutal, yes, but geographically confined. They have local goals, limited to borders.
3. Who They Kill
According to the Global Terrorism Index (2023), over 85% of victims of Islamist terror attacks between 2007–2022 were civilians. Mass casualty events like the 2015 Paris attacks, 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, 2020 Kabul maternity ward attack, 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing (that killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel), the 2024 Reasi terror attack (where Hindu pilgrims were targeted in Jammu and Kashmir), and the 2025 Pahalgam massacre where 26 Hindus were asked their religion and recite the kalma before being gunned down, specifically targeted non-combatants and non-Muslims. Just coincidences? Hell, no.
Naxals, LTTE, or the New People’s Army (Philippines) have attacked civilians too, but most of their targets have been state actors, police forces, or specific class enemies. Their violence is selective, not total. Government of India reports indicate that over 70% of Naxal attack victims are uniformed personnel, not civilians.
4. The Theology of Permanence
You can negotiate with an insurgent. You cannot negotiate with an Islamic jihadist who’s led by a book.
Insurgent movements often have clear political demands, land rights, autonomy, wealth redistribution, and history shows they can be pacified or disarmed when those demands are addressed. The FARC in Colombia signed a peace accord in 2016 after decades of armed conflict. Even the LTTE, though militarily defeated, had a defined political goal of Tamil sovereignty.
Islamist terrorism, however, doesn’t negotiate for policy changes or political inclusion. It demands total submission to a theological order. Groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda don’t seek reforms. They seek religious domination. To them, peace with secular or pluralistic systems is heresy.
That’s what makes Islamist terrorism uniquely dangerous: its theological foundation sees war as a divine command, not a situational choice. You can offer a Maoist a constitution. But you can’t offer heaven to someone who thinks he’s earning it by killing you.
Media’s selective silence is no less than complicity
One of the most troubling aspects of this entire discourse is how mainstream media underplays Islamist terrorism, or worse, rationalizes it. From terminology like “militants” or “freedom fighters” to the disproportionate coverage of right-wing violence compared to global jihadist campaigns, there’s a deliberate editorial caution that borders on appeasement.
Why? Part of it stems from fear, fear of being labeled Islamophobic, fear of violent backlash, fear of offending identity politics. Another part is ideological alignment in liberal media spaces, where criticizing religiously driven violence, especially from non-Western actors, is seen as morally suspect.
The result? A sanitization of facts. A refusal to name Islamist terror for what it is. A reluctance to probe mosques, madrasas, or social media networks where radicalization brews. Meanwhile, the victims pile up.
When journalists obfuscate and commentators relativize, they don’t protect pluralism, they enable violence. We must call out not just the terrorists, but the narrative engineers who whitewash their crimes.
Clarity Is Not Bigotry
We can’t fight what we don’t define properly. And we definitely can’t win if we’re more worried about sounding ‘tolerant’ than telling the truth.
Islamist terrorism is unique. It is not just another form of political violence. It is theological totalitarianism cloaked in faith, global in ambition, and apocalyptic in vision.
Islamist Terrorism Is a global war. Let’s start calling it out, clearly, honestly, and without being apologetic.
#AlQaeda #counterterrorismNarrative #ETA #FARC #globalJihad #globalTerrorThreats #globalTerrorismStats #ISISAttacks #IslamicExtremism #IslamistTerrorism #IslamistViolence #jihadVsInsurgency #jihadistIdeology #LTTE #MaoistInsurgency #mediaBiasTerrorism #NaxalInsurgency #PahalgamMassacre #PulwamaAttack #radicalIslam #ReasiTerror #religiousTerrorism #Taliban #terrorIdeology #terrorismComparison #terrorismOpinionPiece #theologicalTerrorism
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Lessons unheeded
Keen to display a strongman image by making swift and decisive moves, a political leader with an eye on electoral benefits can ratchet up tensions and fuel escalation dynamics, writes Sushant Singh.
#IndoPakRelations #NarendraModi #elections2024 #PulwamaAttack #CRPF #2019elections #kashmir #balakot #IAF #india #pakistan #diplomacy #geopolitics #security #defence
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On the Pulwama terror attack, India deserves answers – and the truth
From intelligence failure to the haze over the request for air transport for CRPF troops, several questions remain unanswered.
#kashmir #pulwama #jammu #PulwamaAttack #CRPF #JEM #terrorism #security #NIA #pakistan #india
https://scroll.in/article/1048497/on-the-pulwama-terror-attack-india-deserves-answers-and-the-truth
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Stunned into silence? No prime-time debate on Satyapal Malik’s explosive Pulwama claims
Almost a week since former Jammu & Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik’s explosive interview with senior journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire, no mainstream TV news channel has yet managed to host a debate on the charges brought by Malik against the Modi government in connection with the Pulwama attack.
#kashmir #pulwama #PulwamaAttack #CRPF #SatyaPalSingh #NarendraModi #media #television #BJP #governors #terrorism #JEM #HinduNationalism #pakistan #india
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Pulwama attack: Families of two CRPF jawans from Bengal seek truth
The families of the two CRPF jawans from Bengal who died in the February 2019 Pulwama attack want to know the “truth”, agitated by then Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik’s comments in a recent interview.
Malik has alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had shut him up when he blamed the Centre’s lapses for the deaths, and highlighted the Union home ministry’s refusal of aircraft that had forced the convoy to travel by road.
#kashmir #pulwama #PulwamaAttack #NarendraModi #terrorism #CRPF #intelligence #UnionGovt #SatyaPalSingh #governors #BJP #elections #pakistan #JEM #hindutva #militarisation #india
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Disturbing Similarities in Modi's Journey from Godhra, 2002 to Pulwama, 2019
His calculated neglect of the threat to the CRPF has the same origins as his government’s abysmal failure in virtually every department.
#NarendraModi #GujaratPogrom #GujaratRiots #PulwamaAttack #CRPF #terrorism #hindutva #communalusm #BJP #modi #pulwama #elections #kashmir #india
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General Shankar Roychowdhury pulls no punches on Pulwama attack
Such a large convoy — 78 vehicles carrying over 2,500 personnel — shouldn’t have taken a highway that lies so close to the Pakistan border, the former army chief said.
#kashmir #PulwamaAttack #pulwama #terrorism #intelligence #CRPF #NSA #pakistan #IndianArmy #GenShankarRoychowdhury #KaranThapar #SatyaPalSingh #BJP #NarendraModi #india
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Eleven intelligence inputs warning of Pulwama attack were ignored
Frontline’s investigation reveals that 11 intelligence inputs warning of the Pulwama terrorist attack of February 14, 2019, were ignored. Who was responsible for the “oversight”, which resulted in the death of 40 CRPF personnel, the Balakot surgical strike, and ultimately the thumping electoral victory of the BJP?
#archives #kashmir #pulwama #PulwamaAttack #BJP #CRPF #balakot #pakistan #india #elections #intelligence #JEM #terrorism #RSS #NarendraModi
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2019 Pulwama attack: Why were CRPF personnel denied aircraft, Congress asks Centre
It is the government's responsibility to answer questions raised by the opposition, says Jairam Ramesh.
#kashmir #PulwamaAttack #SatyaPalSingh #CRPF #terrorism #pulwama #UnionGovt #governors #BJP #NarendraModi #modi #KaranThapar #JairamRamesh #INC #india
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'Modi Silenced Me on Lapses Leading to Pulwama, Is Ignorant on J&K, Has No Problem with Corruption'
In an explosive interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Satya Pal Malik, the Modi government’s former Jammu and Kashmir governor, paints a damning picture of the prime minister and his closest advisors.
#kashmir #pulwama #SatyaPalMalik #interview #NarendraModi #BJP #governors #terrorism #PulwamaAttack #CRPF #corruption #modi #adani #GautamAdani #MehboobaMufti #democracy #muslims #BBC #RahulGandhi #KaranThapar #india
https://thewire.in/government/watch-karan-thapar-satya-pal-malik-narendra-modi