The suicide bombing in a Riyadh residential area that killed at least 18 and injured over a hundred may well have been targeted at the Saudi Royal regime as the United States claims. It is possible that this judgement is based on US intelligence inputs which, for a change, had been pretty accurate in forecasting the crime although it, understandably, could not identify the actual target. In fact the US had closed all its missions in the region the day before in view of the intelligence alert about a major terrorist strike. This is the second terrorist strike in recent times on a residential area in this city. Such areas no doubt are comparatively easier targets than government buildings and also have a decided impact on the general populace. The spate of the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia undoubtedly goes beyond the mere targeting of the royal regime. India, and Indians, are naturally concerned with the spate of terrorism in Saudi Arabia. First, the Saudi economy relies heavily on expatriate manpower to keep it running. Increasing terrorist risks and dangers to the expatriate community could trigger a movement of such people out of the country with deleterious effects all around, and not just for the economy of Saudi Arabia. With close to four million Indians in Arab countries south of Iraq, a deterioration of economic opportunities there, and/or threat to their lives and well-being, would obviously hurt India grievously. The situation could particularly deteriorate if the upper crust of professionals starts to leave the country since, in per capita terms, their role in the economic life of the kingdom is much higher. Secondly, the spread of terrorism in our neighbourhood only indicates that the global war against terrorism is not only not succeeding, but that terrorism itself may well be intensifying all the way from Kashmir to Iraq. What is needed is transnational cooperation in staging counter-measures to contain it. This is something that all the countries of the region must pay greater attention to while dealing with the specific challenges nationally. As for India, it is time it looked at terrorism beyond the Kashmir factor.
