washington's war against terrorism and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network isn't limited to cleaning up Afghanistan. This fight against terror will go beyond the battlefield, eventually into the Arab world, to Europe and to Latin America.

Once the campaign in Afghanistan is over-and that could be in weeks if the Taliban decides upon a tame surrender at Kandahar, or could extend into months, if not years, if the US gets embroiled in a guerrilla war in southern Afghanistan-the attention of the world's hawks will shift to the other areas where the enemy lies. Terrorism didn't begin with those dramatic attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. And it's not going to end with the capture of Afghanistan. In fact the web of terror that bin Laden and his cronies have woven has spread to so many points across the globe that its elimination will be a colossal task. The enemy is everywhere now and it rarely has an address.

THE POWER OF ONE: Bin Laden claims to have nuclear weapons

America has launched a range of initiatives against these masters of hate. And the air attacks on Afghanistan are just one part of this campaign. There will be, in due course, some short spectacular attacks-in the Israeli fashion-on terrorist bases in other parts of the world also. And what most of us will never know or learn about is the systematic elimination of terrorists in the world's dark alleys. This had begun even before Washington fired its first cruise missile on Al Qaida camps and will continue well after the curtains are drawn on the Afghanistan campaign.

Currently, this war against terrorism is not only being fought with guns and missiles, but with everything that intelligence agencies can bring out for use. Despite considerable effort, only few breakthroughs have as yet been achieved. Arrests have been made across Europe-in Britain, France, Germany and Bosnia-as also in Canada, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Latin America. All suspected bank accounts are being frozen and their earlier links are being re-examined. But if the success of the US and its friends is any indication of what lies ahead, then it is clearly going to be a long haul.

ANGER AT WORK: Pro-bin Laden protesters at an anti-US rally in Karachi on October 29

There is, however, a consistency in the pattern that is beginning to evolve. To begin with, the attacks on the US have brought home the point that it takes only a handful of motivated people to destroy the world we live in. Today's terror groups are most likely to target multi-cultural, pluralist democracies. Furthermore, despite their dislike for such societies, these terrorists can live and train within them-like in the US-until the day comes when they are ordered to destroy the very people they have lived and dined with. Nation states are being rendered more and more ineffective as the world debates what it must do now. While the regular terrorist is your modern mercenary soldier, ready to die for a price, it is more important to nail his sponsors who are funding him but are unwilling to die.

While many of this new breed of terrorists were not just born and raised in the Arab world but also in Europe, it is believed that many of them are followers of an extremist fascist ideology called Takfir wal Hijra. And they use religion to justify the slaughter of both Muslims and non-Muslims. And it is this new fanaticism that is being harnessed by terror groups all over.

Indications are that the web of terror has spread to almost all corners of the world, with core groups operating out of Asia, Europe, North Africa and Latin America. While intelligence agents have found that London is a key recruitment centre, proof is now emerging-as banks investigate dozens of account links in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay-that the financing of terrorist groups comes from as far away as Latin America.

As yet, we have only witnessed well-coordinated attacks by hijacked planes and the scare that a few anthrax casualties can create. But these could be little more than a murderous tease compared to the prospect of nuclear weapons in the hands of rogues like bin Laden. Just what he could do if he does have the nukes that he claims is perhaps the most pressing question for the US and many analysts the world over-even though the consensus is that bin Laden's group has only a "dirty bomb", a basic weapon packed with some radioactive debris. No wonder Pakistan, until recently a partner of bin Laden, has had to make some arrests, most notably of Bashiruddin Mehmood, an engineer and a diehard bin Laden follower. The US now admits that other Pakistani scientists may also be on its watch-list. But it's not just Pakistan's nukes that cause concern. Not all of the Russian and former Soviet nuclear arsenal is strictly under Moscow's control. Russia's own internal security agencies have admitted this. In the 1990s, stolen Russian nuclear material, smuggled via Afghanistan, was stocked in a warehouse in Peshawar. Such gaps must be plugged without further delay.

However, since pulling off even a low-grade nuclear attack is complicated business-and perhaps as yet beyond bin Laden's capability-there is still hope that all is not lost. But as the goal of terrorists is to spread panic, they are doing so slowly but systematically. Just as the world had begun to trumpet the case of globalisation, essentially the economic benefits that came with it, it has now been stunned at the sheer globalisation of terror. Bin Laden and his gang have corporatised terror by their ability to move people from the Philippines to Britain and then the US. And somewhere along the way, a bond develops between these recruits.

The primary target may now appear to be the US, but with the terrorists against pluralist societies per se-and with the US tightening security all around-it is only a matter of time that their focus shifts towards India. There is, therefore, an immediate need for a two-pronged approach by Delhi. First, since Islamabad is under pressure to behave, it must look beyond Pakistan. For that, Indian intelligence agencies must shed their traditional habit of waffling and adopt the Mossad approach: get down to collecting hard intelligence about India's enemies. And second, people across India must become alert to the threats of terrorism and be prepared to play their part. Expecting the local policeman to do everything will be expecting a bit too much. In this era of terror, there will be no second chance.