I would agreee with Ajit that lopsided development is an enabler to terrorism by providing a ready supply to the recruiters of terrorism. But that is all. Just an enabler, not a cause.

The motivations of people who give up their lives in terrorist activities is not a secure/wealthy future.In fact many of these people give up whatever prosperity they have for their cause which they believe is a great cause. It is driven more by the training/brainwashing they have gone through. The roots of Osama bin Laden lie in Saudi Arabia which is not a poor country, neither is he personally. Even closer home in India, Kashmir which has been the hub of terrorism is not poor. In fact many feel that we are subsidizing Terrorism by massive funding of terrorism. In fact the example of Punjab terrorsim in not so distant past also proves the same. If that were the case then Bihar would have been the hub of terrorism. Just to butress my example on Kashmir below are some stats from an article of Rajeev,

QUOTE BEGINS
" Within our own country what do you think the rate of poverty in Kashmir is? Below the average, above the average in India? 10 per cent? 20 per cent? 30 per cent?

The astonishing fact is that, despite all the wailing and the beating of breasts, J&K is the least poor state in the country, with a rate of poverty of about 3.4 per cent, compared to 26 per cent for the country as a whole! And no prizes for guessing how it got that way: a hint, it is not because they earn lots of foreign exchange from tourism, dried fruits and nuts, and pashmina shawls.

In effect, Kashmir is extracting royal tribute from the rest of India. Strangely reminiscent of what the British did during colonial times. That is, there is massive funds flow from the Centre to J&K. In fact, it gets 10 percent of all central assistance and J&K has received more than any other state since 1995! Far out of proportion to its fair share, which by population should be about 1 percent: that is, J&K gets roughly ten times what it deserves."
QUOTE ENDS

Now coming to the second point on Iron hand as solution. Would crushing with an Iron hand defeat terrorsim. Sometime it helps and sometimes it can aggravate. The seeds of terrorism are different and hence treatment has to be different. Sometime terroism takes the garb of identity (language/state/race/religion/nationalism) , sometimes economic disparity, sometimes ideology and often Megalamonia of some personalities . As a keen reader of history I see more deaths caused in the name of megalomaniacs than any other cause. Without taking names, I would like to point out that all the people who have been able to "achieve" death tolls in millions have used some sort of "ism". In modern world it was the "------ism" of Lenin/Stalin/Mao or "Na...ism" of Hitler, "Fa...ism" of Mussolini". There are some "ism" related to religion which also can not shy away from the responsibility.

Solution: Please revisit what these Terrroists have been "studying", getting trained on, who they are spending time with. There you will find sees of terrorism. Education and sometimes little bit of stick will also help

Dude,

Do you really think that Development will address terrorism and religion/caste/creed inspired hatred.