Targeted Assassination may sound a negative word but it is very effective to avoid a full-fledged war or terror attack which would cost scores of lives and destruction of economies of countries. The biggest example was Adolf Hitler the Führer who escaped assassination and later Hitler was responsible to start world war II which created widespread havoc in world and cost millions of lives around the world. world war 2 could have been avoided if Adolf Hitler was assassinated.

The current NSA(National security Advisor) Ajit Doval had put forth the idea of “Defensive Offense” which talks about eliminating the problem from the point of its source and we saw 2 such big action taken by Indian armed forces in 2016 and 2019 where Indian armed forces went inside Pak occupied Kashmir and inside Pakistan respectively to eliminate the terror sprouting camps.

But the question is even though we are now going inside enemy territory to eliminate the terror camps, is it enough ?

We are still perusing the reactionary tactics though our intensity to hit back has become more lethal and productive. But be it 2016 surgical strike in POK or 2019 airstrike in Balakot(pakistan) , both were reactive and not preemptive.

Here we can learn so much from Israel who is a small country in middle-east surrounded by many enemy countries, has held it’s head high for decades with pre-emptive and quick decisions. In 1967 war between Israel and neighboring Arab countries it was Israel who took quick proactive decision to destroy fighter jets of Egypt which gave Israel edge to win the war. Although the number game was against Israel but the smart play of Israel ensured its victory. In 1981 under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, it was building nuclear reactor to make nuclear bomb,and Israel sent its special airforce fighter jets to destroy the nuclear plant before it was fully operational and able to enrich nuclear fissile material. Similar case happened in 2007 when Syria was trying to build a nuclear reactor with the help of North-Korea was destroyed by Israel swiftly before it caused any threat to Israel. Later the top military officer of Syria was assassinated by “KIDON” , a special assassination unit within MOSSAD of Israel, to avert future misadventure of Syria to build another nuclear reactor.

The latest example of Israel’s targeted assassination is Mohsen Fakhrizadeh who was chief scientist of Iran to develop nuclear bomb who was recently assassinated which is widely believed to be by Israel. Even though USA and Iran signed the Peace deal in 2015 under Obama administration, Iran was still enriching nuclear materials covertly which was revealed by Israel in 2018. subsequently Iran kept its nuclear reactors operational under Mohsen Fakhrizadeh leadership. Now after the assassination Mohsen Fakhrizadeh its believed that the nuclear plan of Iran has been postponed to many years.

Now coming to the Indian context Mashood Azhar who was released in exchange for freeing the hostages of IC814 place which was hijacked in 1999 by the terrorists, is responsible for numerous heinous attacks on India after his release including 2001 Indian Parliament attack, 2008 Mumbai attacks, 2016 Pathankot attack, 2019 Pulwama attack, etc. India could have averted these attacks if Mashood Azhar was assassinated in Pakistan as Pakistan sheltering Mashood Azhar and many such terror groups inside Pakistan. Similarly, India could have avoided 1993 Bombay serial Blasts if Dawood Ibrahim was nabbed or assassinated but instead we have seen how Dawood Ibrahim had a close connection in Bollywood in 1990s.

The other such names are Hafeez Saeed and Sayeed Salahudeen who have masterminded many terror attacks in India including Jammu Kashmir and elsewhere.

India has to understand that we have to snatch our justice from world rather than asking for it. Otherwise India had proposed a draft document in 1996 on Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) at the United Nations to define who is a terrorist which would be accepted globally as terrorist but India’s draft is still pending since then and hasn’t been accepted yet. Even in Mashood Azhar case India’s bid to declare Mashood as a global terrorist was stopped by China repetitively until it was finally done in 2019 after Pulawama attack on India.

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