Those nineteen terrorists who staged the televised attacks, one of the deadliest in modern history on American soil, changed the world dramatically.

Suddenly, there were no freedom fighters, insurgents or militants. Anyone who took up arms against the state was now a terrorist. US President George W. Bush told a joint session of Congress on 20 September that year: ‘Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.’

The global response was instant, and most countries declared support for US actions. Over the next few years, more than 140 countries passed stringent counterterrorism legislations, according to estimates by the Human Rights Watch. The US war on terror gave cover to many illiberal democracies and autocracies for a brutal crackdown on those inconvenient to them. The world witnessed one of the largest burials of dissent in modern times.

For India, it was an easy decision to make. It was still chafing from the humiliation of the IC-814 hijack of 1999 and other highprofile terrorist attacks, such as the one on the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Legislative Assembly. New Delhi opened its deep intelligence archives to the Americans, and even toyed with the idea of joining the American war on terror by sending troops to Afghanistan. It was quick to move on the domestic side too. India declared the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) a terrorist organisation and banned it under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA). Orders went out to state police forces to round up any and all members of SIMI—not an easy task in Mumbai or elsewhere. The order was ill thought out. To begin with, SIMI had not been proven to be a terrorist organisation. Complicating the situation was the near absence of Muslims in the ranks of the security establishment.
Besides, it was hard to deny the erosion in the establishment’s professional standards. Over the years, police reforms had been mostly stalled by the political parties in powerboth at the Centre and in the states. Many aspects of this are well documented.