Whether by accident or design, even as the second phase of elections was unfolding in Jammu& Kashmir (J&K) on September 24, 2002, two terrorists launched an attack in the Akshardham Temple ofthe Swaminarayan sect of Hindus, one of the most hallowed temples in the western Indian State of Gujarat. Theyfirst lobbed grenades and opened indiscriminate fire on the devotees in the crowded hour of the evening aarti(prayer), and then, as darkness fell, entered into a protracted exchange of fire with security forces thatlasted through the night. They were eventually killed at dawn by a crack team of the National Security Guard,but only after they had taken the lives of 32 persons, including 16 women and four children, and injured atleast another 74. With this outrage, militant Islamists opened up one more theatre of terrorism on Indiansoil.
There has been a certain inevitability about a terrorist attack in Gujarat for some time now. Theinternational pressure on Pakistan to curb cross border terrorism in J&K has mounted substantially since9/11 - and can be expected to increase further after the very credible election process in that State. Underthe circumstances, it had become necessary to extend the terrorist campaign to other theatres to maintain thecover of deniability, and to project the fiction that Islamist terrorism in this country is an 'indigenous'outcome of the frustrations and despair of the Muslim community.