In the massive series of terrorist attacks by Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the US on September 11, 2011, 2996 people were killed. Since that historic collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre when two planes crashed into it, creating an indelible symbol of this vividly shocking in our minds. Since there have been several other heinous and severe terrorist attacks in the world since 9/11. Literally thousands of people have been murdered and tortured in these terrorist attacks in the world since 9/11, causing people all over the world to get separate groups of atheists, apologists, spiritualists, etc. Let us take a look at just a few instance of the massively inhumane Terrorist Attacks in the World since 9/11.
10 Horrifying Terrorist Attacks since 9/11.
10. 2002 Bali Bombings
On October 12, 2002, two bombings took place in the tourist district of Kuta in Bali, Indonesia. While the first bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber inside a night club, the second, and much more powerful, explosion took place when a car bomb was detonated outside. The explosions killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 27 Britons, 7 Americans, 6 Swedes and 3 Danes, besides injuring another 209 people. Another smaller device was detonated outside the US consulate in Denpasar. An audio of Osama Bin Laden’s voice stated that these were retaliations against Bali’s support to the US and Australia. Various Islamist militants have been executed since.
9. 2003 Istanbul Bombings
On November 15 and November 20, 2003, four truck bomb attacks took place in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 57 people, including several Britons, British official in Istanbul consul general Roger Short, and Turkish citizens in particular, and leaving another 700 people severely wounded. On November 13, truck trucks with bombs slammed into the Bet Israel and Neve Shalom synagogues, and exploded, killing 27 people, mostly Turkish civilians. The other two bombings took place on November 20, two more trucks exploded at HSBC Bank AS and the British Consulate, claiming 30 more lives. Turkey charged 74 people for this, all involved with al Qaeda, either as members or as aides and abetters.
8. Beslan School Hostage Crisis
The Beslan school hostage crisis began on September 1, 2004, when a group of armed Islamic separatist militants, who were mostly Ingush and Chechen, and led by warlord Shamil Basayev, occupied School Number One in Beslan, North Ossetia of Russian Federation, and took over 1,100 people, including 777 children as hostages. The terrorists were in demand for the recognition of independent Chechnya at the UN, and the Russian withdrawal from there. The situation lasted 3 days, after which Russian security forces put a stop to the siege. The massacre led to the death of 385 hostages, including 186 children, while several more were injured, or reported missing.
7. 7 July 2005 London Bombings
On July 7, 2005, central London faced a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks that targeted the civilians commuting in the morning rush hour by public transport system. In the country’s very first suicide attack, 52 civilians were killed, alongside the 4 British Islamist bombers who detonated four bombs, three of them aboard London Underground trains and the fourth in in a double-decker bus. Apart from the deaths, another 700 people were severely injured in the attacks around the city. This series of attacks, often referred to as 7/7, is dubbed the worst terror attack in the country in decades. A London based al Qaeda group is believed to have played an important role in this.
6. 2007 Karachi Bombing
On October 18, 2007, 139 people were killed, and a further 450 injured in a terrorist attack in Karachi, Pakistan. The attack was on a motorcade carrying erstwhile Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, two months before she was finally assassinated. The police vehicles mainly bore the brunt of the two explosions, as most those killed were members of the Pakistan People’s Party. Bhutto blamed suspects including senior military and intelligence officials in his regime, and rival politicians, while his regime blamed Al-Qaeda and Taliban elements. Al-Qaeda’s Pakistan operations chief, Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam and Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud were killed killed in drones.
5. 2008 Mumbai Attack
On November 26, 2008 began a series of terrorist attacks took place in Mumbai, which continued till November 29, in Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, etc. though the destruction caused to Taj has made it the symbol of the 26/11 attack. India’s National Security Guards conducted Operation Black Tornado, killing 9 out of 10 attackers. At least 66 people were killed in the attacks and encounters, including police personnel and at least 308 more were injured. Ajmal Kasab, the surviving attacker who was arrested, and in 2012, hanged, admitted that it was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, backed by Pakistan Government’s intelligence agency ISI.
4. Boko Haram Attacks in Nigeria
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Nigeria, during terrorist attacks from 2009 and 2014 by Boko Haram, a northeast Nigeria-based Islamist terrorist movement led by Abubakar Shekau. In the first half of 2014, they killed at least 2,000 people in northeast, north-central and central Nigeria. They have also abducted more than 500 men, women and children since 2009, including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in 2014. Their leader was executed in 2009, followed by a mass prison break in 2010, and progressing to attacks against soft targets, suicide bombing of police and UN offices, etc. Despite increased security force, the military has proven ineffective in countering them.
3. 2014 Peshawar School Massacre
On December 16, 2014, more than 145 people, including 132 school boys ranging between 8 and 18 years of age, as well as other school staff, were killed in the Army Public School in Peshawar, northwest of Pakistan, in what is dubbed as the deadliest terrorist attack to have occurred in Pakistan. At least 130 other people were also injured in this terrorist attack. Seven gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban opened fire within the school premises. These militants were all foreign nationals. The Special Services Group of Pakistan Government launched a rescue operation. The special forces eventually succeeded in killing all seven militants, and further rescuing 960 people.
2. December 2014 Assam Violence
On December 23, 2014, more than 85 people, including about 20 children, were killed in Assam, India in a series of terrorist attacks in the districts of Kokrajhar, Sonitpur and Chirang. The attacks have been attributed to the I. K. Songbijit-led faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland who refused to give up militancy in 2000s. The NDFB militants claim to represent Assam’s indigenous Bodo tribe, agitating against the immigrants and their descendants in Assam. The attack happened during Christmas preparations. Most of the militants and victims were Christians. Houses were burnt. Indian Government launched Operation All Out to eliminate the Bodo militants on Dec. 26.
1. ISIS Attacks
The extremist Islamist rebel group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, formed from the Sunni Islamic group called Islamic State of Iraq that operated till 2013 in Iraq, killing many thousands in bombing attacks, controls Iraqi and Syrian territory, and other areas. Judged as unrepresentative of Islam by Islamic and non-Islamic communities, ISIS commit heinous war crimes, sex slavery of kidnapped women and children, ethnic cleansing, brutal murders and several other human rights abuses in more than 200 attacks, killing hundreds to thousands of inmates, civilians and soldiers in each of the attacks. Counter attacks have killed ISIS militants, since.
All around the world, there have been hundreds and thousands of other terrorist attacks in the world since 9/11. In the name or religion and God, the groups manipulate people into causing harm to people all around the world, to claim religious, political and military authority over people all over the world, killing and torturing people indiscriminately. As the memories of these terrorist attacks in the world since 9/11, the bereavements caused by them and the potential for many more such attacks in future return to haunt people, they have been united by empathy, terror and the common goal of fighting terrorism, to drop their apathy and take notice.