For more than two decades now, India’s geographic location had her reeling under cross-border terrorism from neighbouring states. The tide finally seems to be turning. Bangladesh’s election of Sheikh Hasina as its new prime minister is one such event. Bangladesh’s founding President Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s eldest daughter, Hasina has always been pro-India and this time around, she has vowed to stamp out Pakistan’s ISI from Bangladesh’s soil. A porous Indo-Bangladesh border had allowed easy infiltration for the ISI to launch terror attacks in India’s north-eastern region. This region will be far more peaceful once ISI and other terror outfits are eliminated.

On the southern front, Sri Lanka has already tasted considerable success in stamping out the LTTE. The separatist outfit is now on the verge of extinction and Sri Lankan forces are determined to wipe it out completely. Several southern states in India will breathe easy once LTTE is dismantled and a long and bloody chapter in India’s history of foreign sponsored terrorism will end. Similarly in the north, Nepal’s ruling government has also started building pressure on terrorists and assured India of full cooperation in fighting terrorism bred from Nepal.

The most important change has come in Kashmir, where people of the valley have turned against militant-terrorists for the first time in many decades. This change has been so drastic that all pro-militancy outfits including the Hurriyat Conference have been forced to change their strategy. It has also disgusted Pakistan, a country that invested billions in fomenting separatism in Kashmir, but gained nothing out of it. Pakistan this time had no face to dispute a record turnout in the elections in J&K.

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