Wisdom of restraint

THE Manmohan Singh government has done well to avoid a knee-jerk response to the Mumbai carnage and choose diplomatic means over military ones, in effect rejecting the hyperbolic proposition that the attacks were “India’s 9/11” or “an act of war”. This, coupled with the United States’ pressure on Pakistan to act against those involved in the attacks, has already resulted in the reported arrest of Laskhar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and the house arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar.How far President Asif Ali Zardari’s government will go in acting against other LeT operatives remains unclear as does the Pakistan Army’s willingness to weaken the group’s military capability. But one can be cautiously optimistic.Eventually, the gains could be modest but will probably contrast favourably with India’s unproductive, expensive – costs estimated at Rs.7,000 to 10,000 crore – and high-risk response to the Parliament House attack of December 2001, which led to a 10-month-long eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation involving one million troops. This took the two countries to the brink of war at least twice, with the potential for escalation to the nuclear level.
No easy options
In the present case, India has no easy options. The task of pushing Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice must be conducted with the utmost caution – without irreparably damaging the bilateral dialogue process or allowing a military build-up on the border or weakening Zardari’s civilian government. Equally, India must maintain a certain distance from the U.S. and not get drawn into its plans for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Consider the basic characteristics of the Mumbai attacks. In all likelihood, they were planned and executed by militants, identified by Indian police and intelligence agencies as belonging to the LeT, who received high-level combat and maritime training from professionals of the kind usually associated with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and former Army officers.Unlike in most cases in the past, there is compelling evidence in the present instance. This partly comes from the interrogation of the detained terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman alias Kasab, whose arrest was itself a unique achievement. More important is the circumstantial evidence, including the attackers’ Global Positioning System and satellite telephone records, e-mail tracks, ordnance factory markings on arms, fingerprints on boats and other materials, and Pakistani labels on their rations and personal effects left behind on MV Kuber, which they apparently hijacked en route from Karachi. Much of this is admissible in law.The fact that the attackers carried out their assigned tasks with clockwork precision, targeted at least nine sites in Mumbai, and battled 500 commandos for 60 hours speaks of an extraordinarily high level of combat training and fanatical dedication. Indian intelligence and police agencies must painstakingly collect clinching, incontrovertible evidence and establish the attackers’ identities and their Pakistani connections before making any more public statements. They must carefully preserve and analyse all forensic evidence.

A strong caseThere have been lapses here, such as allowing the reopening of Leopold Cafe and the Trident. Too many premature statements have been issued. Even so, the existence of a strong prima facie case simply cannot be denied.

Although a high Indian official, who would only be identified as an “authoritative” source, told journalists in a background briefing on December 4 that the government had evidence of the ISI’s involvement, no specific disclosures have been made to substantiate this allegation. Nor has New Delhi gone public on this. Going by the available literature on terrorism, including publications by Pakistani analysts such as Ahmed Rashid, Shuja Nawaz, Ayesha Siddiqa and Hussain Haqqani, not many groups in Pakistan barring the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed have access to such a high level of military expertise through the ISI or possibly Al Qaeda. Past LeT-ISI connections are well documented although some analysts believe that the LeT has “outgrown ISI’s support”. But that some rogue ISI elements were involved cannot be excluded.

Officials and intelligence experts from the U.S. quoted in The New York Times say there is no hard evidence to link the ISI to the Mumbai attacks. “But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it.” Some others maintain that the collaboration “goes beyond information sharing to include some funding and training…. And these are not rogue ISI elements. What’s going on is done in a fairly disciplined way.” If the ISI is indeed involved, it would speak of a degree of complicity on the part of Pakistan Army officers. This is a hair-raising possibility, indicating loss of Army control over the agency and suggesting that the extremist rot has spread deeper and wider than anyone imagined.However, even if the ISI or its rogue elements are not directly involved, Pakistan has a responsibility to act against the terrorists who were based on its territory and were in all likelihood its citizens, according to Ajmal’s confession.

Easing pressure on Taliban
A good hypothesis about the attackers’ motives is that they wanted to provoke India into a military retaliation. This would furnish Pakistan with an excuse for redeploying the 100,000 Army troops currently stationed near the Afghanistan border, easing pressure on Taliban-Al-Qaeda militants and allowing them to regroup before Barack Obama assumes the U.S. presidency and drafts thousands of more troops into the Afghanistan war.

Pakistani ministers, including Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and military officials have already spoken of the need for such redeployment in case tensions mount with India. Taliban commanders operating near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have said they are willing to offer a ceasefire and fight India jointly with the Pakistan Army.

Such redeployment would probably tilt the strategic balance in Afghanistan, leading to a possible paralysis of and even withdrawal by the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) – and chaos in what has become the world’s most dangerous and volatile region, on a par with West Asia.

This spells horrifying consequences for the neighbourhood. India will not be immune from them. A triumphant Taliban and re-energised forces of jehadi extremism will not stop on the India-Pakistan border. Their impact will aggravate the Hindutva menace.

That is why India cannot afford to create conditions that will allow tensions and a military build-up on the Pakistan border, which can set in motion such a disastrous chain of events. A major, and possibly early, casualty in the chain will be Pakistan’s fledgling democracy and civilian government, which already faces an uphill task.

Pakistan’s internal crisis
Pakistan is in serious economic trouble, with inflation running at 25 per cent, its rupee in the doldrums, and a severe balance-of-payments crisis necessitating huge handouts. Worse, there is a growing collapse of governance and rising ethnic strife, manifested by the Mohajir-Pashtun clashes in Karachi, a creeping Taliban takeover of the North-Western Frontier Province, and an insurgency in Balochistan.

Virtually all institutions of governance have lost their integrity. The entire system may begin to unravel if a new military crisis breaks out.It is plain that India has no realistic military option unless it wants to catalyse or accelerate the disintegration of Pakistan. All the irresponsible talk about surgical strikes against LeT camps misses the simple fact that these are makeshift entities, where no personnel or equipment is stationed. True, the LeT has a 75-acre complex at Muridke near Lahore.

But for the most part, it houses madrassas, hospitals and skill-generation centres. It would be ludicrous to attack these – even assuming an attack would not be intercepted or invite massive retaliation.This, of course, does not mean that India should put all its eggs in the U.S. basket or rely on it to mediate its relations with Pakistan. This has always proved a high-risk gamble: the U.S. is guided by its short-term and parochial interests and plays one side off against the other, with unpleasant consequences for both.

Even less should India identify with and endorse the ISAF strategy in Afghanistan. It is therefore disturbing to note that the “authoritative” source referred to earlier characterised the U.S.-led war at the Afghanistan border as “also our war”.

India should chart out an independent course. After the five Assembly elections, which proved that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hysterical anti-terrorism, attack-Pakistan plank has few takers, the government has greater freedom to fashion its own diplomatic strategy vis-a-vis Pakistan.The best strategy would be to take the Mumbai case to the United Nations Security Council under Resolution 1373, which requires all states to “refrain from providing … support… to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts…”, give “early warning to other states” and “deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts…” all on pain of punitive measures. This multilateral approach will avert overbearing U.S. influence in South Asian affairs. Contrary to irrational fears, a 1373 reference will not revive the Kashmir issue or put India at a disadvantage in any other way. But adopting this course means thinking independently of the U.S. and asserting India’s policy autonomy. It is unclear whether our leaders are prepared to do this.

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Short on strategy

THE war on terror in Mumbai is sure to revive the debate on whether the Central and State governments are soft on terror, with the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in 2004 being cited as a manifestation of this laxity. The campaign by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose National Democratic Alliance government enacted POTA in 2002, for a tough anti-terror law to contain the alarming rise of terrorism in the country obfuscates the real issues.

The Supreme Court held both the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), 1985, and POTA constitutional, in spite of their draconian provisions. It was the political class that repealed these Acts because of their grave potential for abuse by those responsible for implementing them. The Supreme Court refused to strike them down merely on the grounds that they could be abused, maintaining that such a challenge could be mounted against any law. The court sought so that that the law provided for proper checks and balances to ensure due process and protection of individual liberties were guaranteed, as prosecution could continue in cases registered under these Acts even after their repeal and lapsing. The history of the two anti-terror laws is ample testimony to the fact that we tend to substitute legislative response for institutional response. The country has not been able to win the war on terrorism because it lacks an institutional response. Strange as it might seem, both TADA and POTA could not “prevent” terrorist acts although that is what they were intended for. This is because prevention of a terrorist act is largely a result of the work of an efficient intelligence agency, which helps to apprehend the suspects before the commission of an offence. The legislative framework becomes relevant once the investigating agency takes over and the suspect becomes the accused and is prosecuted in accordance with the law. It is assumed that successful investigation and prosecution of suspects depends on a legal framework that enables doing away with certain legal safeguards, which are seen as loopholes by the accused. These safeguards give opportunities to the accused to seek to establish his/her innocence and minimise the scope for the investigating agencies to resort to short cuts in resolving a case.

It is naive to assume, for instance, that the terrorists who struck in Mumbai would not have done so if our legal framework did not have these safeguards. These terrorists were ready to lose their lives and even risk police torture if caught alive. Even the harshest of laws would not have dissuaded them from taking the risk.

On the contrary, there is enough evidence to prove how the anti-terrorist legislation lent itself to abuse. Take TADA, for instance, which was allowed to lapse in 1995. Union Minister of State for Home Rajesh Pilot stated on August 24, 1994: “Of the approximately 67,000 individuals detained since TADA came into force, 8,000 were tried and only 725 persons were convicted. Some 59,509 people had been detained with no case being brought against them. The TADA Review Committees found that except in 5,000 cases the application of TADA was wrong and asked for the withdrawal of cases. Despite the admissibility of the confessions made to the police as evidence – which were invariably made under torture – the conviction rate was less than 1 per cent. Yet, thousands of people underwent prolonged detention without ever being convicted. The maximum numbers of arrests under TADA were not made in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir or north-east India but in Gujarat, which had no record of terrorism. The majority of the victims belonged to religious minorities.”

The experience with POTA, 2002, does not inspire any confidence about the effectiveness of safeguards against its abuse. In Jharkhand, where the highest number of POTA cases and detainees were registered, there is evidence to suggest that the tribal community was targeted. In Gujarat, all except one of the POTA detainees belonged to the Muslim minority. The Central POTA Review Committee’s conclusion that POTA was inapplicable against the accused in the 2002 Godhra train tragedy case is an instance of how the State government sought to abuse the law. The State government refused to abide by the committee’s decision and did not withdraw POTA charges against the accused for nearly three years. The cases were withdrawn only after the Supreme Court held recently that the committee’s decision was binding on the State government.

The three POTA Review Committees that were set up under the POTA Repeal Act in September 2004 submitted their findings to the Union Home Ministry in September 2005. These findings indicated that of the 1,529 POTA accused the committees had examined in the 263 POTA cases, no prima facie evidence was found against 1,006, suggesting that POTA was not applicable to two-thirds of the accused. Nearly 100 of these 263 cases were lodged in Gujarat and Jharkhand. In Jharkhand, those arrested under POTA included women and children.

The United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre amended the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, to incorporate some of the provisions of POTA pertaining to the definition of and punishment and enhanced penalties for terrorist activities, and specific procedures, including the banning of terrorist organisations and interception of communications.The amendment dropped some of the following POTA provisions that were widely perceived as draconian: treating the confessions to a police officer as admissible evidence and the prolonged period of custodial detention, that is, 180 days. The amendment reduced this period to 90 days, in accordance with Section 167 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The only possible justification for treating the confessions of an accused to a police officer as admissible evidence is that the investigating agencies are unable to gather evidence against terrorists other than through confessional statements, which can be secured through torture, the safeguards against involuntary confessions not being very effective. The reduction in the period of custodial detention could ensure expeditious investigation of terrorist offences. The reason that prolonged detention could help the police investigate an offence better is not very convincing.Similarly, under POTA, an accused could not seek bail for a period of one year after arrest without the consent of the prosecution and the satisfaction of the court. POTA also provided for presumption of guilt of the accused and the shifting of the burden of proof of innocence on to the accused. The amended UAPA does not retain these provisions. The absence of these provisions has, however, not weakened the legal mechanism as the courts, under the CrPC, retain the discretion to deny bail in cases of terrorism and the prosecution is free to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) submitted its eighth report on “Combating Terrorism: Protecting by Righteousness” to the government in June this year. It has reiterated its recommendation made in its report on “Public Order” for the creation of a specialised division in the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate terror offences. The need for a federal agency to fight terrorism has been widely felt in recent days, to ensure coordination between the Centre and the States not only in gathering and sharing intelligence but in investigating terrorist crimes. The commission has also recommended an amendment to the National Security Act (NSA) instead of the UAPA, in order to ensure an adequate legal framework against terrorism, and comprehensive police reforms. The ARC’s recommendations may not be sufficient to guarantee the requisite institutional response against terrorism, but they can at least make a beginning in that direction, if accepted by the government.

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Mumbai under seige

Terror struck the country’s financial capital late tonight as “coordinated” serial explosions (12 of them) & indiscriminate firing rocked areas across Mumbai. City was held on gun point as terrorist fired gun shots on the streets of the city. Which at this point of time seems like complete planned attack. City beared a Gaza strip look with gun being fired from AK-47 and grenade being shot at will. Several police personal and citizen were dead. Foreign nationals, Anti Terrorist Squad officers & Media persons were targeted. The first incident took place between 10.15 pm and 10.30 pm when bullets, apparently from automatic weapons, were fired at police and paramilitary forces outside the Taj Mahal Hotel in south Mumbai. Minutes later, bullets were fired near Hotel Trident - another five-star hotel - barely a kilometre away from the Taj. Trident is in a high security zone and lies just behind Air India and Maharashtra legislature buildings. Unidentified persons also opened random firing near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, headquarters of the Central Railway, which is a world heritage building and remains crowded almost throughout the day. According to sources, two men rushed into a local train stationary at CST and fired indiscrimately. The next time he raises the issue of terrorism in Parliament, CPM member N N Krishnadas will be able to speak from his personal experience as he had a providential escape from the gun-toting extremists who barged into the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on Wednesday night.Death was never so near, it was terrible,” the Left MP from Palakkad in Kerala told Deccan Herald from Mumbai over telephone.His colleagues Vikhe Singh Patil from Maharashtra and Lalmani Prasad from UP were still inside the hotel and rescue operations were on when he spoke to media on Thursday evening.
“We reached Mumbai on Wednesday as part of a Parliamentary Committee visit and were allotted rooms in the third floor,” Krishnadas said.“Around 9.40 pm, myself and another MP Bhupinder Singh Solanki were having dinner at the Shamiana Restaurant in the hotel and suddenly two masked men barged in firing indiscriminately,” he said.One foreigner was shot dead on the spot. It was a matter of a few minutes, and before they could figure out anything, the hotel staff escorted them out through an emergency door to the first floor lobby.“When we reached there, we could see about 150 people lying on the floor to save themselves from fire and counter-fire and the whole night we were there in that position,” he said adding that other two MPs were in their rooms at that time.

Around 9.40 pm, myself and another MP Bhupinder Singh Solanki were having dinner at the Shamiana Restaurant in the hotel and suddenly two masked men barged in firing indiscriminately,” he said.One foreigner was shot dead on the spot. It was a matter of a few minutes, and before they could figure out anything, the hotel staff escorted them out through an emergency door to the first floor lobby.“When we reached there, we could see about 150 people lying on the floor to save themselves from fire and counter-fire and the whole night we were there in that position,” he said adding that other two MPs were in their rooms at that time.
Around 9.45 am on Thursday, commandoes evacuated them and escorted them to the Asadnagar Police station, from where they were taken to the Bank of Baroda guest house at Churchgate. Solanki, who also witnessed the 2001 Parliament attack, said the Mumbai attack was deadlier than the one in Delhi.
Target Points:-
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower,Apollo Bunder, S.Mumbai
Hotel Oberoi/Trident Nariman Point,S.Mumbai
Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Railway Station
Police headquarters in S. Mumbai
Metro cinema, S. Mumbai
JJ school of Art, N.A. M. G. Road, Fort, S.Mumbai
Leopold's restaurant, Colaba, Nawroji F Road,S.Mumbai
Blast in a taxi in Vile Parle, N.Mumbai
Western Expressway, S.Mumbai
Cama Hospital, Mahapalika Marg, S.Mumbai
Sequence of events:-
Wednesday, 26/11/2008
Millitants enter city via sea on boat.
Cafe Lehold, Nawroji F Road,Colaba, South Mumbai faces first attack at (09:30 PM IST, Wednesday, 26/11/2008)
Militants open fire at CST,Railway Station & UNESCO World Heritage Site(10:15PM IST)
Gun battle at Metro cinema (10:20 AM IST)
Millitants enter Cama Hospital, (10:30PM IST)
Militants hijack police gypsy and open fire on public at Colaba with AK-47, AK-56 & hand grenades (10:33PM IST)
Hotel Taj was one of the flashpoint, where 17 blasts has been reported so far (10:45 PM IST).
Thursday,27/11/2008
ATS chief Hemant Karkare (IPS) broght dead at JJ Hospital with 3 bullets, after leading operation at Cama hospital (02:20 AM IST, Thursday, 27/11/2008)
ATS officer Ashok Kamte killed at cross fire with millitants at Metro cinema.
Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, JJ school of Art is under attack
More than 100 people have been killed & 283 have been injured.
5 terrorist have been killed in encounter in Hotel Taj.400 people were rescued from Hotel Taj & 170 from hotel Oberoi.
9 terrorists (alleged) have been captured by ATS (5:30 AM IST)
119 of 125 dead are Indian national rest 6 are foreigners.
Several people are held as hostages in Hotel Taj, Nariman Point & Oberoi(Trident)
Milltary has started several operations with ATS, CRPF, STF, Mumbai Police ( including CST which is now under millitary control).
Navy being called by Home Ministry, central.
NSG (National Security Guards) commandos have been air lifted from New Delhi to Mumbai for anti-terrorists operations (05:00 AM IST, Thursday, 27/11/2008)
NSG reaches Mumbai (07:00 AM IST)
No order from Police commisioner & Home Ministry to start operation.
City under complete control of Military, NSG, STF,ATS,CISF & Mumbai Police.
'Deccan Majahedeen' claims responsibilities of attack via e-mail to news agencies/channels.
Cama Hospital cleared of milittants. Under army control now. (08:30 AM IST)
A couple and old lady dies in 'threat firing' early in morning (08:45 AM IST)
NSG trying to negotiate with millitants but fails. (08:45 AM IST)
NSG commandos (200 of them) with help of STF, ATS,Military (5 columns, 800 in numbers) & Navy starts special operation to gush out millitants now, probably 2 or 3 of them. 6 foreign nationals among 15-20 hostages. (08:50 AM IST)
Few (approx.40) people, all civilians, move out of the hotel as NSG moves in. (09:10AM IST)
Anti-terrorist operations on at 3 places viz. Taj Palace, Hotel Oberoi (also known as Trident) & Nariman Point (09:20AM IST)
An hour after operations began, no clue about the progress as no gun-shots heard in last 30-35 minutes(10:30 AM IST)
NSG asks media not to go into detail of operation on air as millitants might be wtching on TV. Media asked to take cautious approach at immensely tense and vulnerable situation (10:35 PM IST)
Citizens,World & Media wait & watch as NSG and rest do hard job at ground zero.30-35 persons remain hostage, including 2MPs (10:50 AM IST)
DGP AN Roy : " Complicated operation, time factor not known". Terrorists are believed to be asking ransom. Operation continues.....(13:25 HRS IST)
Hotel Taj Palace free of hostages, search on there for any hiding terrorists. Final assault at Taj. Hostage crisisis at hotel Trident/Oberoi & Nariman point. NSG go all out at terrorist at these 3 places. (14:30 HRS IST)
Coast Gaurd & Indian Navy launch massive search operation at Indian coasts looking for escaping millitant's boat (14:45 HRS IST)
Indian coast Guard & Indian Navy get hold of MV Alpha by which terrorists supposedly reached Mumbai (via Gateway of India) from Karachi Port, Pakistan(15:45 HRS IST)
6 Blasts occur in Oberoi in last 15 minutes, gunbattle continues at Trident & Nariman Place. (16:05 HRS IST)
Atleast 200 people are feared stuck in Hotel Oberoi as intense gunbattle continues to rescue citizens of difffrent nations. (17:45HRS IST)
6 fresh blasts at hotel Oberoi/Trident & Nariman house (18:00 HRS IST)
Fire again breaks out at Taj Palace (18:10 HRS IST).
1 alive terrorist of Pakistan national captured from Taj hotel (18:25 HRS IST).
Terrorist kill their own head, who was master mind of this attack, body was recovered by STF in Mumbai (19:00 HRS IST)
Hotel Taj palace is now free of militants, struggle continues at Oberoi though, 2 force personnel killed. (22:00 HRS IST)
26th hrs after it all started, the fight continues as brave hearts continue their fights & Mumbai struggle for euillibrium (23:00 HRS IST)
Friday, 28/11/2008
7 rescued from Hotel Oberoi including 3 foreigners (00:05 HRS IST)
Rescue operations carry on at Hotel Oberoi (00:30HRS IST)
2 NSG commandos injured in operation at Hotel Oberoi (02:30 HRS IST)
Fresh fire break out Hotel Oberoi (03:00 HRS IST)
More person brought out of Taj Palace (05:00 HRS IST)
Army,NSG & STF decides to air drop commandos at Nariman point as it gets difficult to gush them out (05:45 HRS IST)
Operation continues at Oberoi & Nariman place (07:30 HRS IST)
More grenades blasts at Nariman Point (08:30 HRS IST)
Helicopter continue to hover around Nariman Point, as rescue operation continues (09:45 HRS IST)
Operation reaches decisive phase as security forces corner terrorist at Nariman point (10:05 HRS IST)
ATS officers under attack:-
ATS Special squad ACP, Ashok Kamte (IPS), is reported to have died in Operation
ATS encounter specialist ACP Vijay Salaskar (IPS) is also dead as bullet hits his head in cross-fire.
ATS chief Hemant Karkare (IPS) is dead in operation.
3 more senior ATS officers of IPS ranks are fighting for their life in hospitals.
16 police personnel including 4 senior officers (3 of IPS Rank) died in operations. 2 SI, 2 ASI & 6 constables include among police deaths.
STF, NSG, Millitary & ATS trying to crack into hotels. Cross fire still on.
CISF deployed at airport.
Millitary & STF do flag march to restore normalcy in the city
Fire still on at Taj Palace.
Aftermath:-
Emerging hostage situation in Taj Palace, Oberoi hotel and Cama Hospital.
All educational institute & Govt,PVT. office to remain close today.
No trading at BSE & NSE: SEBI
Domestic & international flights cancelled/delayed
Local train run late
England cricket tour of India has been cancelled.
Championship matches shifted out of Mumbai.
Australia rejects to visit India for T-20 cricket championship.

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Saffron Terror

Hindu terror and Islamic terror are two sides of the same coin, is the new ‘secularist’ slogan. This is the saffron variety of terror, we are told. Meanwhile, the Sangh Parivar while retaining faith in their “Hindu cannot be terrorist” axiom, has strangely again succumbed to these ‘secularist’ tactics by publicly disowning use of the term ‘Islamic terror’ in the vain hope that the former would take pity and eschew from the newly created Hindu counterpart. But the din of Hindu terror has become louder with every passing day. It is almost inexplicable the manner in which the Malegaon blasts has shared media space despite its minimal magnitude. In contrast, a succeeding Assam blast which killed almost 15 times more people vanished despite proof emerging of a Muslim Congress member’s complicity in the blast The ‘secular’ media has charged the ‘saffron’ party of having politicized the terror debate by defending the accused or more precisely the linkage of Hindutva with terrorism. For instance, the Statesman, in a scathing editorial accuses Rajnath Singh of being responsible for giving currency to what is called “Islamic Terrorism.” But this gives rise explicitly to the question, that why has the mainstream English media including the TOI and the HT which have never dared used the term “Muslim Terror” consistently been using unproven associations of Hinduism with terror? . It almost seems that the same sanctimonious media is carefully grooming Hindu terror in their aura of false consciousness, as a balancing act against future Muslim terror episodes. But as we shall soon see, the politicization of debate on the Hindu terror has little to do with the BJP and more to do with the ‘secularist’ camp.Initially, it is imperative that we understand that reason why ‘Muslim terror’ is a legitimate association. Contrary to the general misunderstanding, it does not connote that all Muslims are terrorists and neither attempts in any way to associate the entire Muslim community with terror. Instead, it largely signifies that the driving ideological force behind terrorism of this variety is Islam. I will not go into the debate on the violent verses of the Quran promoting Islamicization of the whole world and whether those verses are read out of context by Islamists, as very often scriptures can be interpreted in diverse ways. But the ‘secular’ compromise in deriving a counterpart of Islamic terror is illogical since Hinduism and Islam are poles apart in their belief structures, secondly there have been no Hindus who have been ready to blow themselves up in the service of their religion which is a global phenomenon with Jihadi warriors, thirdly the accused in the Malegaon blast cases were at most reactionaries against Islamic terror but never have they have claimed to derive inspiration from Hindu theology Coming to the politicization of the Malegaon blasts, it is not to be forgotten that soon after the arrest, the initial statement by the BJP was the law should take its own course, although there was a general feeling of disbelief which was natural since previously no Hindu had been implicated in any bomb blasts. It were only the ‘secularists’ and the Islamic apologists who adopted “we always told you so!” attitudes. For the Congress, it was a godsent opportunity to win back the confidence of the Muslim community after the Batla House encounter in which suspected Muslim terrorists shot dead a police officer in cold blood. In a brazen act of minority appeasement, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari issued an insinuation wondering whether Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad terror strikes were outsourced by Sangh parivar affiliates to the SIMI/IM. 2 It is foolish to expect that the BJP would have remained silent in the face of such unfair ‘secular’ aggression.

Under the circumstances, one could not help notice the absolutely unprofessional and biased manner in which the ATS operated. Daily new masterminds moving from periphery to center, selective leakage of rumours to the ‘secular’ media, character assassination of the accused, RDX in today and out the next day, RSS involved yesterday- RSS the target tomorrow; all theories which are ample testimony to the nature of its functioning. As Kanchan Gupta writes, “If the ATS were really serious about its job and under “zero political pressure”, it would have steered clear of media publicity, put together the evidence, presented it in a court of law and secured convictions”

A Sadhvi was arrested on the charge that her own bike was used in the blasts which B Raman, the anti terror expert reasoned was absolutely improbable. When a three tier Narco test came out negative, it was blamed on her yogic powers of evasion! A telephonic conversion which was not recorded but overheard by a witness is also doubtful at best, since one cannot envisage how a telephonic conversion can be heard both ways except through a speaker phone which is not used for private conversations! Rediff.com accused her of being a woman of loose character, who masterminded the blast to avenge the murder of her boyfriend Sunil Joshi who was eliminated by suspected SIMI activists 3 this year. In spite of such depraved conspiracy theories besotted with the idea of casting aspersions on her chastity, even if proven true would actually reduce the current case to nothing more than personal vendetta, certainly not religion based terror! It is astonishing that the horrifying affidavit filed by the Sadhvi Pragya, accusing ATS of torture both physical and mental was conveniently ignored by every human right group substantiating the suspicion that they operate primarily as minority terrorism right groups. Worse, the journalist turned cartoonist Jug Suraiya caricatured the tortured Sadhvi through a sickly ‘secular’ joke in the Times of India. Those, who shed copious tears for suspected jihadis tortured in police cells lose track of the fact, that men (and women) who are ready to blow themselves in the service of their religion will never confess their crimes under ordinary circumstances. Even when innocent as in Hyderabad, it is part of the collateral damage a community experiences which refuses to take accountability for their deviant children and the ideology which moulds them. All in all, collateral damage needs to be distinguished from political witch-hunts.Then, a serving colonel of the army was arrested and immediately made the kingpin of the Samjhauta blasts. Less than 24 hours later, a red faced ATS retracted their claim when a forensic lab confirmed that it was not RDX which was used in the blasts.4 The Army also dismissed claims that 60 kg of RDX could be amiss from their stores, even as the ATS considered the missing RDX to have been dumped in the Jhelum. Meanwhile, the ATS keeps exploring possibilities for abuse of this waterproof, undiscovered yet missing RDX.

When a Hindu seer was arrested, the apprehension of Hindu leaders was considered communal tactics. But could a sincere Hindu help recalling the infamous, Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati conspiracy case in which the ‘secular’ media played such an egregious role in defaming both him, and the Math that the Andhra High Court was compelled to intervene and issue a stern warning to all these agencies of ‘secular’ terror, for “the amount of disrepute and sacrilege inflicted upon Sri Jayendra Saraswati, as of now, is so enormous that it has hardly any comparables"5 It seems the ‘secular’ media derives some perverse pleasure in slandering Hindu godmen. Or else what can explain several reporters calling this Shankacharya as an imposter with an alias in Dayanand Pandey, oblivious of the Hindu sanyasa tradition in which one renounces his previous identity while taking up a life of renunciation. This also points to the disconnect between Macualay’s children and the real India. Another channel dug up porn in his laptop, as if they had private access to it. More pertinently, even if true how does watching porn make a terrorist of a man, even if a deviant seer? The ATS web keeps expanding every day, through the fallacious accusation of ‘guilt by association.’ Everyone in contact with such important public figures like the colonel, the shankacharya and the sadhvi are now considered a threat and suspect. An endocrinologist was publicly defamed; then attempts were made to malign Sri Sri Ravi Shankara of the prestigious Art of living foundation. The enlightened Swami calmly took on the ‘secularist’ media and informed that it was his solemn duty to transform the lives of all including terrorists, and he rightly explained the radicalization of certain Hindu groups as a consequence of the shadow of Islamic fundamentalism looming large over the nation. To Mr Vir Sanghvi’s sophistical allegory in the Hindustan Times 6 I posit the counter question - What happens if the police suspected an imam and tried to arrest him. Immediately thousands of Muslim men, women and children would have rushed to the streets with the cry of “Islam in Danger.” The police fearing a riot would avoid arresting the accused – this is exactly what happened when recently the Jaipur Police tried to arrest Abdul Matin, a fanatical cleric of Benares! Even if arrested, the terrorist sympathizers in the media and in the civil rights and the human right groups would have rushed to his defense, while supposedly secular politicians would hurry to his home to console his family and promise that they would leave no stone unturned in getting him released. There are several such crypto Muslim terrorists including a prominent Delhi based cleric who have been left untouched. Moreover, how much loyalty some Muslims have for India can be comprehended by Mr Sanghvi when he notices how much respect they shared for M C Sharma who died defending the cause of his motherland. The politicization of Malegaon by the ‘secular’ forces is also suggested by the fact that MCOCA has been applied on the accused through exploitation of loopholes in the law. The two main suspects Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt-Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit had no crime history while to invoke the MCOCA, the prosecuting agency needs to ascertain that the suspects have at least two major criminal involvements registered with the police anywhere in the country, and so the ATS invoked a 4 yr old case against a minor accused Rakesh Dhawade 8 and consequently charged all the 11 accused with conspiracy to wage war against the nation. But in stark contrast, the god fearing Muslim students who are said to have murdered M C Sharma and are also accused in the Delhi blast case were never charged under MCOCA, possibly to appease Muslim voters before the Delhi Assembly poles where Congress fortunes hang in the balance. 9 Is it not hideous hypocrisy, that while a terror law like POTA is repealed, and GUJCOCA denied, an exactly similar law like MCOCA is considered essential for law enforcement in Maharashtra run by the same Congress government!

All in all there is a conscious attempt by some political parties to divert attention from the failures of the current government to tackle Islamic terror, which has killed thousands of innocent Hindus since it came to power. Such myopic vision which does not extend beyond the next election may provide some immediate electoral gain but in the long run will only spell doom for the nation.

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Short on strategy

THE confusion within the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government about evolving a cogent strategy to tackle terrorist attacks manifested itself in a telling manner on September 16, three days after yet another series of bomb blasts rocked Delhi, killing 30 people and leaving over a hundred injured. On this day, different sections of the government were talking in different voices both about the factors that allowed terrorists to attack the capital city for the third time in a span of three years and about the policy and the strategy to be followed in the future.
Leading the babel of voices was Shivraj Patil, who claimed in a television interview that since he had not been espied as sleeping at a public function, and since he did not drink or gamble or was not caught going to dance clubs, he was doing a reasonably satisfactory job as the Union Home Minister. His comments were, in many ways, a response to fellow-Cabinet Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad, who had roundly criticised the Home Ministry for failing in the area of internal security.
Lalu Prasad said that the Home Ministry should gather accurate intelligence to ward off terrorist attacks instead of lamenting after the deed was done and lives were lost. He also demanded an emergency Cabinet meeting to be followed by an all-party meeting to discuss issues arising out of the Delhi blasts.
Indications from within the UPA were that several smaller parties and sections of the Congress shared Lalu Prasad’s criticism of the Home Ministry. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh of the Congress, however, came to Shivraj Patil’s support by asserting that the Home Minister was a responsible leader and that he knew the gravity of the situation and the implications of repeated terrorist attacks.
The differences were not confined to the analysis of past events. There were different viewpoints within the UPA on future plans and operations too. The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), headed by Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily, chose September 16 to release its eighth report, titled “Combating Terrorism”, and many

Police exzmine damaged vehicles at the site of one of the bomb blasts in New Delhi on September 13.

of its recommendations were clearly at variance with the official position of the Congress. The single most important recommendation made by the ARC was that “a comprehensive and effective legal framework to deal with all aspects of terrorism needs to be enacted”.
This suggestion virtually challenged the position held by the Congress vis-a-vis the basic legal framework for confronting terrorism. The party has been consistently maintaining that there is no need to alter the legal framework of anti-terror laws and that extremism can be contained using existing laws. In fact, the Congress and its allies in the UPA have been at loggerheads with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led principal opposition for a long time on this issue.
One of the first actions of the UPA government was to withdraw the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which had been brought in by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The BJP’s argument was that stringent laws such as POTA should be reintroduced to take on terrorism. The Congress vociferously questioned this standpoint.
Many of the specific recommendations in the ARC sought to alter the Congress, and UPA, view. These included recommendations favouring longer periods of preventive detention (even up to one year), stringent bail provisions, altering the normal criminal procedure practice in terms of confessions made before the police, and treating these confessions as admissible evidence

Shivraj Patil, Union Home Minister. At one point, there was a groundswell of opinion favouring his removal from office.

Even as all these political and strategic questions were being debated within the UPA’s political and governance committees, the investigation into the Delhi blasts was proceeding much in the same manner as those into the earlier attacks. On September 16, the investigating agencies released a number of pictures of suspected perpetrators of the attack. There were also many “revelations” about how the operatives of the Indian Mujahideen and other terrorist outfits had planned the September 13 attack and how they had gone about it. Still, no breakthrough was in sight.
According to sources in the Home Ministry, as many as six cases relating to terrorist attacks in the past three years remain unsolved. These include the 2005 Deepawali-eve serial blasts in Delhi and the 2006 serial train blasts in Mumbai.
In a sense, one of the reasons for the repeated failure of the security and political system was highlighted by Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat when she took a delegation of victims’ relatives to Shivraj Patil two days after the blasts. These poor people, who lived close to Ghaffar Market in Karol Bagh, had lost as many as 11 of their kith and kin. They had virtually to bribe their way through hospitals and other official machinery to carry out the post-mortem of the bodies and get them released for cremation.

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Are we prepared

Ideally, terror strikes should not occur. However, we do not live in an ideal world. It is almost impossible to foil every terror conspiracy in a country that is as vast and populated as ours. Which brings us to the question: How prepared are we to deal with the aftermath of a terror strike? It is imperative that the stocktaking exercise currently underway — on how to tackle terror — includes evaluating the effectiveness of our emergency services. Right now, restructuring our security agencies, better equipping them and adopting tougher laws are dominating the agenda. These are certainly important issues. But we should not also neglect the aspect of preparedness to respond to terror attacks, when and if they happen. There are any number of examples to underline this fact. After each violent attack — be it in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur or Varanasi — emergency services have proved to be less than adequate. The number of ambulances available to transport the injured is woefully short in most of our cities. Hospitals, especially those run by the government — where the majority of the injured are rushed to for medical attention — struggle to cope with the demands of such situations. Often there aren’t enough beds and life-saving medicines are in short supply. The national capital is relatively better equipped than other cities, but even here there has been a shortage of anti-gangrene serum to treat the victims of the recent bomb blasts, which is baffling. In advanced countries, the damage wreaked by terror strikes is mitigated by efficient response mechanisms. A good example would be how London’s emergency units handled the 7/7 bombings. We would do well to learn from such examples. However, for that to happen there must be political will and accountability. It does not help, for instance, to have a Union health minister who devotes time to prior commitments even as the capital is bombed and its medical care machinery struggles to cope. Anbumani Ramadoss has time and again proved that his priorities are grossly misplaced. He would rather urge chief ministers to quit smoking and move with mercenary zeal against colas and fast foods, instead of putting in place frameworks that enable our states to shore up the public health system. Always, the good minister has an excuse to explain the abysmal state of our health-care infrastructure. There can be no more excuses, sir; the country cannot afford it anymore.

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Time to get tough

Terrorism seems to have the entire country in its grip. There is hardly a state which is not affected by the terrorist menace, though the shades may be different. There is ‘ethnic terror’ in the north-east, ‘Naxalite terror’ over vast swathes of central India and there is the ‘Islamist terror’ which, starting from J&K, has spread to other parts of the country. Of these, the last one is undoubtedly the most devastating by virtue of its linkages with the forces of global jihad. Their objectives may be different — separatism for the north-eastern rebels, new democratic revolution for the Naxals, and azadi for the militants in J&K. But, in practical terms, these boil down to creating communal disharmony, disrupting the economy and destabilising the political structure. A grim scenario is building up which calls for a comprehensive strategy. The salient features of the terrorist threat need to be clearly understood. First, it has today an all-India sweep, from Kashmir to Kerala and Mumbai to Manipur. Second, the terrorists, with their sophisticated weaponry and expertise in the use of IEDs, pack an enormous punch. Third, the frequency of these attacks is now anybody’s guess. Earlier, it was one major incident every quarter. Now another incident could happen tomorrow or just any other day. Fourth, while the Naxalite movement is more or less entirely indigenous, the north-eastern insurgents and the Islamist terrorists have a significant nexus with external forces which enable them get weapons, ammunition and explosives from our neighbouring countries — apart from access to sanctuaries, training facilities and guidance. Are we capable of facing the threat of terror? The answer is an emphatic yes provided we show the political will, chalk out a comprehensive plan and extend necessary legal and administrative support to the states irrespective of the governing party. There are three outstanding examples of our success against terrorism. Punjab offers the best illustration. The state witnessed what was one of the most lethal terrorist movements the world has seen, and yet it was vanquished. In Andhra Pradesh, which had become the epicentre of the Naxal movement in the country, the state police have been able to clear the affected districts of the Maoists, who have since fled to the neighbouring states. In Tripura, the security forces have been able to break the backbone of the ATTF and the NLFT, the major insurgent groups operating in the state. There is no reason why the central and the state governments, working in tandem, cannot contain the terrorist threat we face today. We should, to start with, define our antiterror policy in unambiguous terms, and make it clear that the country shall not compromise in its battle with terrorism under any circumstances; that it shall be dealt with sternly and at all costs. At the same time, the state must give an assurance that legitimate political demands will be met and that genuine socio-economic grievances shall be addressed. This policy will have to be backed by appropriate structural changes in the law enforcement machinery. A federal investigating agency must be set up in view of the fact that terrorist crimes have interstate or even international ramifications. The state police agencies, with their compartmentalised approach, would not be able to do justice to such cases. The state police units, it must be remembered, are our first line of defence against terrorism. These must be energised and motivated. The police stations should be strengthened and the system of beat patrol revived. Unfortunately, we have allowed the state satraps to politicise these forces and blunt their striking power. In a couple of states, the ruling parties are using them virtually as their private militias. The Supreme Court directions on police reforms should be implemented without any further delay. The apex court itself would have to crack the whip against the recalcitrant states. The investigation and law and order work must be separated in the metropolitan towns at least. Intelligence must be insulated from political influences and revamped on the lines recommended by the Saxena committee. There is a Money Laundering Act on the statute book, but it needs to be made more stringent because the terrorist outfits continue to indulge in hawala transactions in a significant way. The UN Security Council Resolution 1373 lays great stress on choking the financial sources of terrorists. A stringent anti-terror law is a must. The argument that the existence of TADA or POTA in the past did not finish terrorism is juvenile. Notwithstanding the existence of the Indian Penal Code, we still have incidents of murder and rape. Does it mean that the penal sections relating to these crimes could be abolished? Besides, if a particular law is misused, the answer lies in incorporating safeguards and ensuring that those overstepping the limits of law are suitably punished. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is no solution. We are a nuclear power. We aspire to have a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. But we are looking pathetic and clueless in the face of recurring terrorist attacks in our cities, including the national capital. A determined and firm response is called for. Veerbhogya Vasundhara (the brave shall rule the earth), say our ancient texts. The terrorist threat can surely be contained, if not demolished, once we decide that national security shall take precedence over all other considerations.

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Blank Screen

Ever since our cities have been rocked by serial bomb blasts in the past two years, the issue of making them safer from such terrorist outrages has been in the forefront of public discussion. Besides technological upgradation, a number of systemic reforms have to be implemented. Among these are the institution of a federal agency which would coordinate inputs from the various central and state level agencies; beefing up the number of police personnel; inducting more cyber security experts; increasing the budget for informer and surveillance networks; and expanding and modernising forensic laboratories. More than 36 hours after the blasts, the people of Beadonpura’s Gali number 42 — which lost 11 of its residents — had their first meal on Monday afternoon, courtesy a former Congress politician. Since Saturday, they have been living on biscuits and water, that too arranged by the local RWA. They hadbarely slept during the period. Now residents who ferried the dead and the injured on their own, without any help from the government, are at the end of their tether.

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Delhi serial Blasts

Five bombs have ripped through busy shopping areas of India's capital, Delhi, within minutes of each other, killing at least 18 people, police say. As panic spread, mobile phone connections were jammed and shops immediately downed shutters. The Metro rail service paused for a few hours and prominent markets were evacuated. Two blasts each at Greater Kailash and Connaught Place occurred soon after the first bomb exploded in Karol Bagh at 6:10 pm. Two bombs were diffused at CP.As police secured the scene, investigations into the cause of the blasts got underway The Indian security establishment believes that Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) and SIMI are behind IM. Some security analysts believe that IM is a group of ex-SIMI cadres, rather than HuJI-B. Others say that IM is a fake organisation designed to misguide investigatorsFive bombs have ripped through busy shopping areas of India's capital, Delhi, within minutes of each other, killing at least 18 people, police say. As panic spread, mobile phone connections were jammed and shops immediately downed shutters. The Metro rail service paused for a few hours and prominent markets were evacuated.Nearby property was badly damaged.Glass pieces lie scattered after bomb ripped through CP, the heart of Delhi The Supreme Court, on an appeal from the government, continued the ban but only till October 2. After that date, the court will review its order.Intelligence sources say one Abu Subhan, believed to be the mastermind of the Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts, may be involved in today’s attacks. Intelligence agencies had warned the government recently that SIMI was planning BAD (Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi) serial blasts.Islamic militant group Indian Mujahideen (IM), believed to be a front for Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), today claimed responsibility for the five bomb blasts in three crowded Delhi markets. At least 100 people had been injured at the time of going to press and more than 20 had died.The bombs were placed in dustbins and in the boot of a CNG-fuelled autorickshaw, an action replay of Gujarat and Jaipur blasts earlier this year. The credit for these two was taken by IM in emails, the authenticity of which has been confirmed by the Intelligence

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