Germany’s past has returned to haunt its people again.

An article in the Time magazine discussed at length Germany’s Red Army Faction(RAF), a group of young middle-class German’s,who shook the country with their notoriety and continued to do so for over two decades.

Bankers, business tycoons, jurists, bureaucrats and policemen- were all victims of RAF’s so called “armed struggle”. The Second World War and the Hitler era shook the confidence of many in the country.That was in the past.

But almost 30 years after, the RAF is once again hitting the headlines.It was announced that two major RAF terrorists Brigitte Meinhof and Christian Klar who are serving life sentence will be set free. Oppositions flowed in from all possible directions and some have termed their release as a “slap in the face ” of the victims and their families in whose mind RAF still rings a bell of fear and desperation.

Terrorism in its entirety developed a new meaning since the September11, 2001 attack. Although, Germany was never a target of this new generation of Islamic fundamentalists, yet this does not mean that the country could take things lightly. The modern day terrorists are similar in their operation like that of RAF, only that they are waging a holy war in the name of religion. The need of the hour is to tackle the old menace,in this case, RAFas history repeats itself.

The question now is:will the release of two aging RAF terrorist of the yesteryears pose the same threat to society, when there are enough issues to be looked into.