The lessons of this tragedy

The Prime Minister has announced two days of national mourning in honour of the 22 victims mercilessly murdered by a terrorist attack on a restaurant in Gulshan. The brutality of the killings and the long wait to see the end of the hostage crisis has left the nation shattered and with a sense of extreme unease.

But as we try to cope with the horror of this attack and show our commiseration for all those families who have lost their loved ones we must also wake up to the ramifications of this tragedy. This attack presents a whole new aspect of terrorism for us. So far we have been confronted with mainly lone targets, with the attackers singling out an individual who, in their minds, fit a certain profile and then carrying out the assassination. This attack focused on a larger target with the goal of causing maximum casualties. The methods employed and the savagery with which the killings were carried out are hallmarks of international terrorist outfits like ISIS and Al Qaida. This is clear. What is not clear is whether, after such overwhelming evidence of their presence, the official line will be one of denial?

It is high time we moved away from debates over whether the terrorists were homegrown or affiliates of ISIS or Al Qaida. We must acknowledge the ground realities that there are groups ideologically linked with such international outfits, the mandate of which is to kill innocents in the name of religion. We must combat this evil not just with more efficient, sophisticated security measures. We must fight this terror ideologically by finding ways to stop our young people from being radicalised and lured into the distorted path of murder and suicide, both acts categorically condemned by the religion they profess to be defending.