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Inside the Mind of a Suicide Bomber

Dr. N. C. Asthana, IPS (Retd)

Liberals in India and liberal-minded analysts in the West have assiduously

woven an aura of religious fervour behind suicidal attacks by terrorists
particularly when they happen to be Muslims. It has been fashionable, almost de
rigueur to say “The profile of a suicide-bomber is that of a young man from a
religious home who has been approached by a radical maulvi, then recruited,
radicalized and trained in a madrisa.” Essentially, their desire is to reduce the
criminality of these terrorists by suggesting that the suicide bomber was an
innocent, good-at-heart man to begin with, but he was brainwashed by some
radical maulvi into committing that dastardly act against people of other
religions—otherwise he would have been a good family man relishing the
sweetness of communal harmony!

Exaggerated Role of Religion in Suicidal Attacks

The role of religion in suicidal terrorism has often been exaggerated and
oversimplified—all these contrived notions shatter on the harsh rock of some
cadre of the Sunni TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan) attacking their co-
religionists Sunni Muslim policemen (that is, of even the same sect in Islam)
praying in a Peshwar mosque on January 30? End of argument!

Etymologically also, the appellation given to them by these people has had
nothing to do with religion. The root word of the Arabic word ‘fidayeen’ is
‘fida’ which means enamoured, in love, captivated, or totally devoted. From
‘fida’ we get ‘fidayee’ which means a lover, devotee, or faithful. ‘Fidayeen’ is
the plural of ‘fidayee’.

Suicide bombers are neither mentally unstable people in some inexplicable

manner nor necessarily so vehemently fired by some contentious religious
philosophy as understood by them or the obsessive desire of enjoying 72 houris
in heaven that they are able to blow themselves up. Many of them are indeed
religious fanatics but it is not necessarily the case—the Peshawar mosque
bomber was obviously not a religious fanatic. Usually, their military, political or
operational causes come first; religion comes later. We explain the psychology
of their acts below.
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Not Necessarily Poorly Educated or Losers, But of Low Self-Esteem

It is a popular misconception, often fuelled by popular and entertainment media

that the suicide bombers are always poorly educated, gullible people who are
easily brainwashed by radical maulvis into giving up their lives for what is told
to them to be an act of religious merit that would earn them eternal enjoyment
of 72 houris in heaven. It is not necessarily so. Many of the Islamic suicide
bombers have been found to be well-educated and even technically qualified
too. The Glasgow airport bomber (2007) Kafeel Ahmed had an M. Phil. in
aeronautical engineering from the Queen’s University, Belfast and was pursuing
Ph.D. in computational fluid dynamics. The Haifa bomber (2003) Hanadi
Taysser Darajat was a law graduate from Jareesh University, Jordan. However,
even if they are not outright losers in life, most of them suffer from low self-
esteem. In their own view, their lives are not really important and they feel that
their death for a cause would be more useful than their continued existence on
the planet. All such people commit their crimes knowing fully well its
ramifications and consequences. One who sacrifices his life for a common
cause, contributes towards the success of his cause and is thus elevated in the
eyes of his comrades. Thus, one of the motivating factors for suicidal missions
is to gain respect of peers.

All suicidal missions start from an implicit admission that either the situation is
desperate or they are desperate. Nobody loves to blow himself up even if the
pain lasts a fraction of a second. They are obliged to do so when, at a military
or operational level, they find that their usual repertoire of numerous terror
tactics or other tactics of unconventional warfare is not proving sufficiently
effective.

Historically, Self-Sacrifice Has Been Regarded As Heroic

The very usage of the term ‘suicide terrorism’ is actually a misnomer. It is

actually ‘sacrificial terrorism’, which involves a suicidal act. Suicide is
different from sacrifice. Suicide can be pointless also or an admission of defeat.
Sacrifice, on the other hand, is a socio-cultural concept that has been held in
very high esteem in practically all the cultures.

In the Bible, a reference to what was a suicidal mission is found in the story of
Samson who died together with his victims as he collapsed a Philistine temple.
“Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ Down came the temple on the
rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more as he died than while
he lived." (Judges 16:30). In Greek history, King Leonidas who fought and gave
up his life in the famous Battle of Thermopylae with his 300 Spartans fighting
against nearly 20000 Persians—that is, certain death. The Charge of the Light
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Brigade in the Battle of Balaklava, even though a military blunder, is lauded in

poetry and thus rendered immortal. The British regarded it as one of the great
officer-like qualities to not flinch in the face of fire even as the soldiers around
them ducked for cover. Everybody has heard about the Japanese kamikaze
pilots in the Second World War. During the Battle for Berlin the German
Luftwaffe had also flown ‘Self-sacrifice missions’ (Selbstopfereinsatz) against
Soviet bridges over the River Oder. Viet Minh ‘death volunteers’ fought against
the French colonial army by using a long stick-like explosive to damage French
tanks, as part of their urban warfare tactics. Throughout the course of military
history, those few who stayed back to hold an untenable position so that the
others could save their lives; those who fought a rearguard action, and those
who volunteered for moving in first in a place of great danger have always been
accorded the highest honors in history.

Hollywood films are in fact full of instances depicting acts of self-sacrifice. We

may recall the self-sacrifice of the character (Harry) played by Bruce Willis in
the film ‘Armageddon’ who stays back to detonate the nuclear bomb on the
asteroid that was on collision course with the earth and certain to have
catastrophic consequences for the planet. Since the bomb could not be detonated
remotely, he chose to stay back and get killed with it so that the earth may be
saved.

Suicidal Missions in Conventional Warfare

In the context of warfare, suicidal missions are purely tactical decisions. It is an

admission of the fact that since they cannot fight the adversary on his terms, or
that the war is not going favorably for them, they must devise their own terms
of combat. It is thus the weapon of those who perceive themselves to be the
weaker or disadvantaged side, at least at that moment.

Unfortunately for them, in conventional warfare, in spite of the heroism and

adulation associated with it, suicidal missions have rarely proved to be militarily
effective. No decisive victory until 19th century could ever be clinched by a
suicidal charge. The French Marshal Pierre Bosquet had very rightly observed
for the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava: “It is magnificent, but it is not
war!” The tactic of kamikaze aircrafts, for example, had failed miserably in
spite of appearing fearsome. The Japanese sacrificed 1,465 aircrafts and could
damage only 47 ships—failing to sink any aircraft carriers, cruisers, or
battleships.

Tactical Advantages of Suicidal Missions in Terrorism

Note that above, I have used the term conventional warfare. The situation
changes materially in the context of unconventional/asymmetric warfare or
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terrorism which are a priori, unequal combats. Suicidal attacks do pay off for
terrorists. The doctrine of asymmetric warfare views suicidal missions as a
consequence of an imbalance of power, in which groups with little significant
power resort to suicidal attacks as a convenient tactic to demoralize the targeted
civilians or government leadership of their enemies. Terrorists often resort to
suicidal bombing in response to actions or policies of a group, state actor or
alliance with greater military power as a coercive measure to force them to
rethink their policies even as they might not expect any decisive victory over
them. The Peshawar mosque bombing is an example of this situation.

Terrorists who use suicidal techniques do it simply because they have, at that
particular juncture in their ‘business’, found it expedient to do so. Sheikh
Ahmad Yassin, the former leader of Hamas had stated, “Once we have
warplanes and missiles, then we can think of changing our means of legitimate
self-defense. But right now, we can only tackle the fire with our bare hands and
sacrifice ourselves.” Al-Zawahiri had also argued in his “testament” called
‘Knights Under The Prophet’s Banner’, that “the method of martyrdom
operations is the most successful way of inflicting damage against the opponent
and the least costly to the Mujahideen in casualties.”

Terrorists resort to suicidal terrorism for a variety of ‘operational reasons’.

1. Suicidal attacks have got a certain shock value attached to them. They
send the target into a state of shock much beyond the actual damage
inflicted upon him.
2. Suicidal attacks are sure-fire methods. The chances of the attacks
succeeding and inflicting considerable damage on the enemy are quite
high.
3. As such they are very cost-effective. The same amount of damage to the
target’s military resources (such as aircrafts and ammunition dumps),
men (such as the US Marines in Beirut) and economic resources (such as
fuel depots) cannot be easily inflicted through conventional means of
attack. Hence it makes them particularly attractive to the non-state actors.
When non-state actors find that militarily they cannot take on the military
might of a state, they resort to suicidal attacks.
4. They are a cost effective means of countering sophisticated weapons at
the disposal of the state, particularly air force, armor and heavy artillery,
things which non-state actors lack, either in the combat zone or outside it.
The destruction of more than a dozen aircraft including eight military and
some civilian aircrafts by the LTTE in a single suicidal attack on the
Katunayake military airbase is a good example.
5. As the LTTE Black Sea Tigers have demonstrated, considerable damage
can be inflicted on small navies equipped with not-so-sophisticated
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vessels or vessels that are incapable of defending themselves adequately

from such threats. Their small explosive-laden boats and divers become
naval versions of the car bombs and have taken a heavy toll of naval
vessels of Sri Lanka, which is way disproportionate to the LTTE’s actual
strength on the seas.
6. Suicidal attacks are much simpler to plan. They do not have to concern
themselves with making an escape plan, often the most difficult part of an
operation. They have only to worry about penetration.
7. The suicide device itself is reduced to a much simpler version as one does
not have to bother about making a remote-controlled device or a delayed
action device.
8. Since the attacker is a human, making last-minute changes is easy. A
time bomb placed somewhere becomes totally useless if the target
changes his program and does not come there at the time when the device
is set to go off.
9. Since the attacker is a human, he can use deception and guile to penetrate
a heavily defended target that may not be penetrated easily by mechanical
means alone.
10.They do not have to worry about some member getting caught and
revealing sensitive information in the course of interrogation or torture.
11.It has great psychological impact on the enemy.
12.At times, if properly executed it can even result in strategic advantage to
the non-state actor particularly if they have taken out some important
leaders, vital for the conduct of operations against them. While a state can
recover from any such elimination and introduce substitutes, there is
undoubtedly some dislocation both in terms of time and planning of
subsequent moves.
13.It also makes the state waste its manpower and material resources in
strengthening the security of its top functionaries, vital installations and
public places.
14.In fact the non-state actors can force the state to squander its resources
merely by propagating a ‘hit list’ of their real or imaginary targets.
Once that list is out, there are few governments which can afford to think
rationally and most of them are forced to protect even those things which
they would have never protected otherwise.
15.Not only that, it forcefully introduces widespread panic and feeling of
insecurity amongst the people and towards this end they are aided by the
media which is keen only on sensationalization. Further, over reaction
from the government aggravates the feeling of insecurity and indirectly
fosters the image of the group being almost invincible if not into an all-
pervading force. They get a larger-than-life image at a very low cost.
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16.They can deliver maximum shock to the enemy in a single attack. That
is to say, they do not have to worry about conserving their resources for
some other day.
17.The fact that, in a suicidal attack, even high security places can be
attacked, serves as a great morale booster to them. It has great
propaganda value too.
18.Suicidal attacks are living examples of the supreme sacrifice. They
constitute the most convincing proof of the dedication and devotion of
those who took part in it for their ‘cause’. Thus they act as a source of
inspiration to all those cadres who find their resolve wavering and that
they are lacking in the fervor which they had once.
19.They can hope to gain some sympathy amongst their covert or half-
hearted supporters by such acts of daring and ‘bravery’. Every movement
looks for and eulogizes its martyrs.

Different Methods of Suicidal Attacks

They include:

1. Suicidal attacks on foot using explosive belt, satchel charge or any

explosive device carried on the person of the attacker. The attack requires
that the entry must be gained through surreptitiously or though some
subterfuge. The target could be humans or even a vehicle, such as in the
case of the assassination of Neelan Thiruchelvam, TULF MP in Sri
Lanka. Somebody could try to blow up an airplane too—as Richard Reid,
the ‘Shoe bomber’ had tried.
2. Suicidal attacks on foot using firearms. In this type of attack a forced
entry can be made.
3. Vehicle-borne IED—also known as car bomb or truck bomb
4. Suicidal attack made using a boat. The attack on the USS Cole was made
this way. The LTTE have used it numerous times with great success.
5. Suicidal attack can be made using a small submarine or human-steered
torpedo also. The Japanese had done it in the WWII—the torpedoes were
called Kaiten.
6. Suicidal attack mounted using airplanes—the kamikaze attacks for
example.
7. Suicidal attacks made using animals as carriers of explosives. Donkey
bombs were a specialty of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) in Peru.
8. Explosives can be carried on bicycles also. The most famous example is
the assassination of the Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa
9. In the 9/11 type of attack an airplane itself could be used as a weapon.
10.A suicidal attack can also be made by forcefully diverting a vehicle to an
abyss, for example, the Tel Aviv Jerusalem bus 405 massacre in which a
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Palestinian traveling in a crowded bus en route from Tel Aviv to

Jerusalem seized the steering wheel from the driver and crashed the bus
over a steep precipice in the area of Qiryat Ye'arim.

Limitations to Fanaticism or Desperation in Their Minds

In spite of the aura they associate with it, terrorists know that this is a technique
that cannot be used indiscriminately; otherwise the movement will soon run out
of cadres. The idea therefore is to keep a sufficiently motivated cadre ready for
the act and use them whenever the leadership feels that the tactical advantages
accruing from it are compelling.

(Dr. N. C. Asthana, IPS (Retd) is a former DGP of Kerala and ADG

BSF/CRPF. Of the 51 books that he has authored, 20 are on terrorism, counter-
terrorism, defence, strategic studies, military science and internal security, etc.
They have been reviewed at very high levels in the world and are regularly cited
for authority in the research works at some of the most prestigious professional
institutions of the world such as the US Army Command & General Staff
College and Frunze Military Academy, Russia.)