One of the reasons for their focus on India has been explained by Bruce Riedel, formerly of the CIA. According to him, “India is the Holy Grail of South Asia jihadis”.

It isn’t only the South Asian terrorists, however, for whom India is a hated entity, but also those from further afield with their Al-Qaeda and ISIS connections, which stretch to the disaffected Muslims of Europe.

Why India? The Pakistani aversion towards this country is understandable. As a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, has said in his book, Magnificent Delusions, there is a fear in Pakistan of its “much larger neighbour culturally if not politically reabsorbing Pakistan”.

A probable basis of this apprehension is what eminent Indians said at the time of partition. For instance, Rajendra Prasad, who became the first President of India, said: “India, which was made by God and Nature to be one, which culture and tradition and history of millenniums have made one, is divided today.

“Let us hope and pray that the day will come when even those who have insisted upon and brought about this division will realize India’s essential oneness and we shall be united once again”. Even Clement Atlee, then British prime minister, said “this severance may not endure”.

More than the unity ordained by God and Nature, it is the efflorescence of Indian democracy which is a sore point with Pakistan while the fact that India with its 180-million strong Muslim population is an integral part of the modern world riles the Al-Qaeda and ISIS which are steeped in cruelty and medievalism.

For Pakistan, it is a perpetual affront that as it teeters on the verge of being declared a terrorist state and its democracy is a subject of derision because of the preponderance of the army and its rogue intelligence service, India is a beacon to the rest of the world not only because of its democracy, but also its pluralism which seamlessly encompasses 4,365 communities, 325 languages, 24 scripts and 17 official languages.

For the Al-Qaeda and the ISIS, the fact that India is an Asian country is another provocation. They are not too bothered about the other West Asian or African countries with their authoritarian governments and restricted societies. They are not quite the ideals which the world wants to emulate. Besides, they are under attack anyway from the jihadis.

India, however, is in a different league. Not only is it on the way to become a regional economic superpower, but, even more important from the point of view of the Islamic bigots, it has a buoyant cultural life with Bollywood entering the homes of the middle class with its joyous films and songs in the countries where the ISIS wants to establish its grim Caliphate.

The cultural impact is disturbing to the Islamists because, while Hollywood can be dismissed as too alien, Bollywood reflects much of the social norms prevalent in West Asia and Africa and among the sub-continental diaspora in Europe and America.

To make matters worse for the fundamentalists, the film world of Mumbai is overflowing with hugely popular Muslim actors, both male and female.

All of this is anathema to the zealots. Hence, the desire to set off an apocalyptic conflagration by attacking India and hoping to draw the US into the conflict.

This psychopathic response has to be seen in the context of India’s exceptional soft power, which is apparent to the Islamists by the unwanted (in their view) example set by the largely harmonious existence in India of 10 per cent of the world’s Muslim population with the followers of other religions.

It’s different in Europe and America where, even if the notion of civil rights gives the minorities equal status in law, they are virtually second class citizens in real life because of their complexion and living habits.

The resentment and ennui bred by this latent discrimination, especially among the second and third-generation citizens of their adopted countries, are believed to be behind the susceptibility of young Muslim men and women to Islamist propaganda.

Although there have been reports of young Indians also being lured away to join the “holy warriors” of the imaginary Caliphate, they are far fewer than those who have migrated to Syria and Iraq from Europe.

Besides, it is a fact of recent history that George W Bush’s realisation that hardly any Indians had joined the Al-Qaeda made him push for concluding the India-US nuclear deal, much to the chagrin of America’s cold war ally, Pakistan.

For the present, the Al-Qaeda and the ISIS may be excited about their planned Armageddon-style onslaught on India aimed at encouraging the Pakistan and Afghan Taliban, among others, to join hands and form a unified army of terror.

But, the grandiose jihadi dream may well ring the death knell for Pakistan rather than for India because the umbilical links between the South and West Asian terrorists will be revealed to the international community. (IPA Service)