Page 354 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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334———Sikh Terrorism

waited more than two years to crack down on Shining Shining Path members, and the group retains strong
Path. In December 1982, the government declared links to the cocaine and heroin trades in the Andes.
Ayacucho to be an emergency zone and sent in the The group has also been implicated in a foiled plot to
military to restore control at the beginning of 1983. bomb the U.S. embassy in Lima in November, caus-
The guerrillas had by then established a base of ing the U.S. State Department to issue an advisory
operations and developed grassroots support, while warning to U.S. travelers to avoid Peru. Shining Path,
Peru’s political instability and worsening economic whose rebellion claimed an estimated 30,000 victims,
crisis rendered the government’s moves ineffective. may once again pose a serious threat to Peru.
Unable to infiltrate the small, tightly organized terror-
See also ABIMAEL GUZMÁN (ABIMAEL GUZMÁN REYNOSO)
ist cells, the military’s attempts at repression—thou-
sands of people accused of sympathizing with the
guerrillas disappeared from military bases during the Further Reading
1980s—only strengthened the support for Shining Kirk, Robin. The Monkey’s Paw: New Chronicles From
Path. As the organization grew, it gained control of Peru. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,
coca-producing areas. The group demanded and 1997.
received millions of dollars in protection fees from McClintock, Cynthia. Revolutionary Movements in Latin
America: El Salvador’s FMLN and Peru’s Shining Path.
drug traffickers; these funds enabled it to further
Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press,
expand its territory.
1998.
In 1988, Guzmán announced that Shining Path,
Palmer, David Scott. The Shining Path of Peru. New York:
with an estimated 10,000 active members and more
St. Martin’s, 1994.
than half the population living in areas under its con- Stern, Steve J., ed. Shining and Other Paths: War and Soci-
trol, would now move in a new direction and bring the ety in Peru, 1980-1995. Durham, NC, and London:
revolution from the countryside into the cities, in Duke University Press, 1998.
particular the capital, Lima. Strong, Simon. Shining Path: Terror and Revolution in
The ongoing violence of the countryside had driven Peru. New York: Times Books, 1992.
an estimated 100,000 migrants from their Andes
villages to Lima’s ever-expanding slums on the out-
skirts of the capital. Home to the poorest of Lima’s SIKH TERRORISM
7 million residents, these slums proved fertile ground
for Shining Path, which plastered revolutionary
slogans on walls, distributed propaganda, set up soup Terrorist acts by militant Sikhs, members of a
kitchens, and began an extensive bombing campaign in religion originating in northern India in the 1500s,
the capital. By 1992, Shining Path’s campaign had reached a peak in the 1980s with the assassination of
brought the country to the brink of anarchy. Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and the bombing
Responding to the almost daily terrorists attacks of Air India Flight 182. Militants have attacked the
that had paralyzed the capital, in April 1992 President Indian government because Sikhs want an indepen-
Alberto Fujimori closed Congress, suspended the con- dent homeland; many acts of Sikh terrorism were also
stitution, and gave the military sweeping powers to committed as revenge for a 1984 attack by the Indian
arrest and detain citizens, effectively putting the coun- military on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest
try under martial law. In September of that year, Army of Sikh shrines. Militant Sikhs have also targeted
commandos raided a Shining Path hideout and moderates and critics in the Sikh community and
arrested 15 top commanders, including Guzmán. members of nontraditional or minority Sikh sects.
Guzmán’s arrest was a crushing blow to Shining The vast majority of Sikhs live in India, although
Path. Disorganization and desertion followed; the substantial communities can be found in the United
Fujimori government passed a series of amnesty laws States, Canada, and Great Britain. Most Sikhs in India
for former guerrillas, which led to the almost com- live in the northwestern state of Punjab, where they
plete disintegration of Shining Path by the mid-1990s. constitute a narrow majority. For the first half of the
Recently, Shining Path has been staging a come- 19th century, this area was an independent Sikh king-
back. Attacks on an Army barracks and police outpost dom until conquered by the British in 1849. When
during the summer of 2001 have been attributed on India and Pakistan became independent nations