New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that acts of terrorism could be defined as "peacetime equivalents of war crimes" and upheld the conviction and life sentence given to 18 activists of a banned organisation under TADA for the attack on police in Jehanabad in Bihar in 1988.

"If the core of war crimes - deliberate attacks on civilians, hostage-taking and the killing of prisoners - is extended to peacetime, we could simply define acts of terrorism veritably as 'peacetime equivalents of war crimes'," a Bench comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat said in a recent judgement.

The accused persons were tried for attacking a police party at village Bhadasi in Jehanabad and killing a police personnel and injuring several others.

Upholding the life sentence imposed on the accused by the TADA court, the apex court said, "The unlawful assembly's common object was to resist the enforcement of law, and to commit criminal offences and to overawe authorities/public servants by use and show of criminal force stood firmly established on the evidence on record."

Justice Pasayat, writing for the Bench, said a terrorist activity does not merely arise by causing disturbance of law and order or of public order.

"The fallout of the intended activity is to be one that it travels beyond the capacity of the ordinary law enforcement agencies to tackle it under the ordinary penal law. It is in essence a deliberate and systematic use of coercive intimidation," he said.