Where do Terrorists get their strength from? – Part 2

In the previous blog ‘Where do Terrorists get their strength from – Part 1? – PolyBlogger.com’, we saw how terrorists get support from the local people where they live and where they operate. Clearly, without the support of the locals, it is nearly impossible to manoeuvre in the region and operate terror activities, training, etc.

I would say, like local supporters, without the support of any one or more governments, terrorism cannot operate and cannot survive. Ultimately, it is the government that provides all facilities to foster terrorism.

There are multiple reasons why the government take the terrorists’ help and why they allow terrorist activities like training and recruitment in their country and attacks on another country. We will discuss the same in another blog.

Here we will discuss how the government gives strength to the terrorists and terror organizations.

Government Support

Provision of space, arms and munitions

The terrorist organisation needs space to establish itself. It requires space to establish headquarters, offices (which don’t necessarily mean a corporate or government-like office, but rather a space to hide and store items), training centres, a hiding camp, accommodation, and more.

Who do you think can provide it? Locals? No, Locals cannot, because the government has an intelligence agency that quickly informs them about any suspicious activities and terrorist activities. If not 100% of the time, but most of the time. So, it is not possible that terrorists operate for long without the government knowing it.

That means either for a short time, such a terrorist organization works without the government’s action, OR the government itself supports terrorists and provides the space. Only then will it exist and flourish.

Funding

As I mentioned above, a terrorist organisation cannot get space without the government’s help and support, in the same way the government provides funding to such organisations. To build the terror infrastructure, it needs money.

When you start a business, you need funding. Either you start with owned but limited funds, or you obtain financing from relatives and friends, or a bank.

However, when they invest in you, they expect returns. If not the interest, at least they expect a principal return.

But when a terror organisation starts, no one funds them legally. They obtain funds from drug trafficking, money laundering, dacoity, NGO funding, foreign government funding, or funding from a well-established business or the government itself.

All the sources above can provide money only once or for a short time until their aim is fulfilled. Only one source consistently provides funding, the government.

Drug and dacoity also provide funding, but again, without government support, even these activities are not possible.

Just think about it once, if you are the president of a country and know that terrorist activities are going on in the country, what would you do?

1. If you answer that you will nail it down, then that proves governments are capable of treating the terrorist organisation well.
2. But if you are using the terror organization for your selfish motives, then that proves that no terror organization can stand without the support of the government.

So, somewhere governments give birth to terrorism and feed and breed them.

Training

When the above two activities are not possible without the government’s support, then even providing the training is not possible without the support of the government.

The government has specially trained personnel from the army, navy, and air force. Such training is provided by various governments, which follow the same training protocols for combat operations.

No terrorist organization can obtain highly secretive and top-level combat practices from a foreign country. That means either governments intervene and ask foreign governments to provide such training, either by disguising terrorists as government security personnel, or the government receives such training. Then their army offers the training to terrorists.

Support to infiltrate

Obviously, no country feeds the terrorists to attack their own country. They are trained to target specific countries. Now, to attack the target country, the terrorists need to get into the country. How can they get in the target country, especially when the borders are sealed?

That’s where the intelligence agency, the army/navy and the radicalised local agents from the target country work together.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, terrorist acts cannot survive long if there is no local support. It becomes challenging for terrorists to operate in the target areas.

1. Once all the settings are complete, the army assists the terrorist in infiltrating the target country.
2. This infiltration occurs at night, when visibility is nearly zero.
3. Security personnel and terrorists build an underground tunnel to enter the target territory. Or they give covering fire to engage the target’s security personnel so that the terrorists get a safe escape zone to infiltrate.
4. Sometimes the Navy itself catches the target country’s civilian ships and sends terrorists into the country. This way, no one even thinks about such infiltration. This incident happened when the 26/11 Mumbai Terror attack occurred. The Pakistani navy captured a civilian fisherman’s ship from Gujrat, and the terrorists, along with fishermen, came near Mumbai using their ship. No one questioned them as they looked at the Indian Flag on the ship. They killed all the fishermen and threw them into the sea in Mumbai. Using the training to run the ship, the terrorists came to Mumbai, and the rest is history.
5. Sometimes the terrorists themselves just walk into the target country. Here, nature supports them. The dense forests, foggy or rainy weather, icefalls, hurricanes, or storms, and extreme terrain that conceal almost everything help them reach their destination.

Now, the question is, why does the government support terrorism?

Please continue reading to learn about the objectives and the bitter truth.

Religious reasons (like Jihad or conversion)

Religion is the most crucial reason for terrorism to exist. When a community wants to expand its territories, crush other religions, and capture the wealth of other nations or their areas where they are in the minority, and when the country wants to impose religious laws in either their own country or different nations.

For example, Iran was previously known as ‘Parshia’. The community was the Parsi people. Parsi people, being secular and helpful, allowed Muslims to stay in the country. Slowly, the population began rising. A time came; Muslims took over the whole country. Radicalised the entire nation. Parsi people ran away and settled in India and other parts of the world.

Now, we can see the religious law in Iran: radicalisation, hatred for Western countries, and hatred for other religions.

The same is the case with Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Kashmir region of India and nowadays the West Bengal state of India. The radicalisation is at its peak. Hatred for Hinduism is at its peak. Some communities openly kill Hindus. They are snatching their homes, as well as their women, children, and wealth. You can see the movies ‘Article 370’ and ‘Kashmir Files’, based on reality. You can also see the news on Murshidabad, a city in West Bengal, India. None of the words I wrote above are incorrect, false or a misrepresentation of the fact. However, I don’t mean to demean any particular community. The world is silently clever enough to understand the scenario and its meaning.

State governments are neither opposed to it nor stopping it. Does that mean they are the sponsors of terrorism? I don’t know; it’s a separate topic to discuss.

Double Standard States

Suppose a country is strong enough to be attacked. In that case, the country that wants to attack starts to play proxy wars, terrorism, defamation games, small guerrilla-type attacks on the army, army bases, innocent people, etc.

The best example is Pakistan.

It initially attacked India in 1948 and captured nearly 38% of the Jammu and Kashmir state in India. But the army retaliated, and since then, Pakistan has illegally occupied the Indian territory.

Later, they fought the war in 1965 and realised that India was much more advanced in the war. It will be challenging to conquer and occupy India. Since then, they have been using such terrorism techniques to destabilize India politically and to play the ‘minority and human rights victim card’ on an international platform.

On four occasions other than 1948 (in 1965, 1971, 1998 and now in 2025), Pakistan tried to attack India, all the times it received humiliation and defeat. Pakistan could not win any war, and that’s the reason it chose the terrorist way. Of course, that is not the only reason why Pakistan chose terrorism.

Religious extremism, lack of an educational system, and the desire to capture Kashmir, lack of business developments in the country, blasphemy-type laws (separation of head from the body in case of blasphemy), political failure, army rule in the country, and most importantly, the desire to defeat India has made Pakistan chose terror route.

The second-best example is China.

1. China is militarily, monetarily, politically and in many aspects stronger than India.
2. However, it cannot directly attack India, as it may face severe sanctions from all over the world.
3. It fears losing the business to India.
4. It also fears losing the battle, despite having won one battle against India in 1962. However, China now understands that attacking India in the modern world will put China at a significant disadvantage, potentially leaving it nearly 50 to 100 years behind.
5. The Chinese army is not battle-hardened. It is a lion on the paper.
6. The Galwan incident in 2021-22 showed the weakness of the Chinese army.
7. During 2025, a small war between India and Pakistan exposed China’s weaponry and air defence systems. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Chinese government will consider attacking India in the short term.

China’s support to Terrorism

So what if China will not attack directly? It has another way of supporting terrorism. How, let’s understand that.

1. China provides military assistance to Pakistan. Prima facie, it appears that China assists Pakistan in developing its army, Navy, Air Force, and air defence. However, most of the weaponry goes into the hands of terrorists. Now, one may say, what can China do? Please read the next point.
2. If we admit China doesn’t support terrorists, then why does China ‘Veto’ from declaring the terrorists like Masood Azar and others in the UN? Especially when the whole world knows about this terrorist from Pakistan, that means China wants to save terrorists and Pakistan. That also means the above point is valid.
3. If terrorists keep attacking India, India will lose weapons in retaliation, the region will be unstable, and businesses will run away. The religious unrest will take place, and innocent civilians will be killed. The government will focus on internal instability rather than the growth story.
4. China also provided weapons to Myanmar rebels, because whenever the Indian army neutralises the rebels, the army always sees the Chinese weaponry and grenades.
5. However, China purposely and cowardly hides the silent killing and detaining of Uyghur Muslims. The Chinese government hides how it has created transit camps for these Muslims.
6. China has converted mosques into public toilets. But it will push terrorism against India.

International support to Terrorism

The whole world knows who has created ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terror organizations. On the international stage, many developed countries lecture others on how to stop war, money laundering, terrorism, crime and all. However, the same countries will continue to carry out such activities in silence.

All these incidents only prove how many nations take the support of terrorism to fulfil their country’s and their objectives.

Now, you may believe that without the support of governments, terrorism cannot exist.

Conclusion

There could be many more reasons why the government support terrorism. I also wonder where ‘Human Rights Activists’ go when such incidents are taking place. They will only appear when a terrorist organisation is busted. We will also examine how the UN and its Human Rights department are perceived as being radical and biased in the upcoming blogs.

Please comment below, what could be other reasons that the government support terrorism? If I feel it is relevant and must be included, I will add it to this blog.

Please share the blog, and see you in the next one.