05-28-2009, 12:08 AM
From Pioneer, 28 May 2009
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->OPED | Thursday, May 28, 2009 | Email | Print |
Corrupt and soft state
Hiranmay Karlekar
To win the war on terror, radical reform is needed
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly told the Congress Working Committee on May 17 that dealing with terrorism and the present economic slowdown would be the new Governmentâs foremost priorities. In coping with terrorism, the Government has before it measures already identified in the light of the experience of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai (November 26-29, 2008).
While their implementation is important, <b>it will be difficult to curb terrorism if corruption remains all pervasive in the civil administration and the police forces.</b>
It is easy to understand the reasons for saying this. Para-military forces like the Central Reserve Police Force play an important role in combating terrorism. Much would, therefore, depend on the physical fitness, intelligence and fighting ability of the men and women comprising the force.<b> The recent discovery of corruption in recruitment to the CRPF, which has led to the arrest of several senior police officers, raises serious questions about the quality of the personnel inducted into it. Things are even worse in the State police forces where, more often than not, bribery holds the key to recruitment.</b> Induction of people who lack the qualities needed in good policemen but have greased palms for their jobs, leads to incompetence, and corruption to recover their âinvestmentâ, which seriously affects the fight against terrorism.
<b>Investigations are poorly conducted, charges are incompetently framed and evidence is abysmally marshalled. Not surprisingly, there have been cases of wrong arrests as well as release of the guilty for lack of evidence.</b> A striking example is the release on May 11 of Mohammad Sadique Israr Shaikh who had been accused of involvement in the serial bombings in suburban trains in Mumbai on July 11, 2006, which killed 209 people and injured 829. A special court hearing cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, ordered his release after Mumbai Policeâs Anti-Terrorism Squad said it found âno sufficient material evidence to indicate his involvementâ in the bombings. <b>A wrong arrest in respect of the serial bombings which sent shock waves throughout the country reflects very poorly on Mumbai Police; so does the release of a terrorist who has been guilty because of the policeâs inability to find evidence.</b> Shaikhâs has not been the only case of its kind.
Corruption enables terrorists to infiltrate into the country. <b>According to Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole survivor among those involved in the Mumbai attack, he and other terrorists, travelling by the trawler MV Kuber, which they had hijacked, had been intercepted 556 km from Mumbai by an Indian coastal patrol boat. They had escaped by flashing fishermenâs identity cards issued by the Gujarat Fisheries Department which had earlier been caught issuing fake identity cards! </b>There have been other instances. Belal (Lalu Mian), a 23-year-old Bangladeshi national, who was arrested in West Bengalâs Basirhat district on April 25, 2000, had helped those who had, on December 24, 1999, hijacked to Kandahar, Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu to Delhi, to enter India. Engaged in smuggling arms and ammunition, including RDX explosives, he had been infiltrating terrorists into West Bengal for several years.
<b>Several Customs and police personnel with links with smugglers facilitated the landing on Indian shores of RDX explosives used in the serial bombings in Mumbai on March 12, 1993.</b> Corruption also enables terrorists to avoid detection and acquire false identities by securing important documents like driving licences and passports. <b>Ibrahim Athar, a resident of Bahawalpur in Pakistan and the leader of the gang that hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, had managed to get two passports for himself from the Regional Passport Office in Mumbai. Another hijacker, widely known as Shakir, had got a passport from the same RPO on September 7, 1999, under the name of Farooq Abdul Azis Siddiqui who was shown as a resident of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Aftab Ansari, the man behind the abduction of leather merchant Partha Pratim Roy Barman on July 25, 2001, and the hit-and-run attack which killed four policemen in front of the American Center in Kolkata on January 22, 2002, had no difficulty in getting a passport under the name of Farhan Mallik.</b>
The moral is simple: A soft and corrupt state cannot win the war against terrorism.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->OPED | Thursday, May 28, 2009 | Email | Print |
Corrupt and soft state
Hiranmay Karlekar
To win the war on terror, radical reform is needed
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly told the Congress Working Committee on May 17 that dealing with terrorism and the present economic slowdown would be the new Governmentâs foremost priorities. In coping with terrorism, the Government has before it measures already identified in the light of the experience of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai (November 26-29, 2008).
While their implementation is important, <b>it will be difficult to curb terrorism if corruption remains all pervasive in the civil administration and the police forces.</b>
It is easy to understand the reasons for saying this. Para-military forces like the Central Reserve Police Force play an important role in combating terrorism. Much would, therefore, depend on the physical fitness, intelligence and fighting ability of the men and women comprising the force.<b> The recent discovery of corruption in recruitment to the CRPF, which has led to the arrest of several senior police officers, raises serious questions about the quality of the personnel inducted into it. Things are even worse in the State police forces where, more often than not, bribery holds the key to recruitment.</b> Induction of people who lack the qualities needed in good policemen but have greased palms for their jobs, leads to incompetence, and corruption to recover their âinvestmentâ, which seriously affects the fight against terrorism.
<b>Investigations are poorly conducted, charges are incompetently framed and evidence is abysmally marshalled. Not surprisingly, there have been cases of wrong arrests as well as release of the guilty for lack of evidence.</b> A striking example is the release on May 11 of Mohammad Sadique Israr Shaikh who had been accused of involvement in the serial bombings in suburban trains in Mumbai on July 11, 2006, which killed 209 people and injured 829. A special court hearing cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, ordered his release after Mumbai Policeâs Anti-Terrorism Squad said it found âno sufficient material evidence to indicate his involvementâ in the bombings. <b>A wrong arrest in respect of the serial bombings which sent shock waves throughout the country reflects very poorly on Mumbai Police; so does the release of a terrorist who has been guilty because of the policeâs inability to find evidence.</b> Shaikhâs has not been the only case of its kind.
Corruption enables terrorists to infiltrate into the country. <b>According to Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole survivor among those involved in the Mumbai attack, he and other terrorists, travelling by the trawler MV Kuber, which they had hijacked, had been intercepted 556 km from Mumbai by an Indian coastal patrol boat. They had escaped by flashing fishermenâs identity cards issued by the Gujarat Fisheries Department which had earlier been caught issuing fake identity cards! </b>There have been other instances. Belal (Lalu Mian), a 23-year-old Bangladeshi national, who was arrested in West Bengalâs Basirhat district on April 25, 2000, had helped those who had, on December 24, 1999, hijacked to Kandahar, Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu to Delhi, to enter India. Engaged in smuggling arms and ammunition, including RDX explosives, he had been infiltrating terrorists into West Bengal for several years.
<b>Several Customs and police personnel with links with smugglers facilitated the landing on Indian shores of RDX explosives used in the serial bombings in Mumbai on March 12, 1993.</b> Corruption also enables terrorists to avoid detection and acquire false identities by securing important documents like driving licences and passports. <b>Ibrahim Athar, a resident of Bahawalpur in Pakistan and the leader of the gang that hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, had managed to get two passports for himself from the Regional Passport Office in Mumbai. Another hijacker, widely known as Shakir, had got a passport from the same RPO on September 7, 1999, under the name of Farooq Abdul Azis Siddiqui who was shown as a resident of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Aftab Ansari, the man behind the abduction of leather merchant Partha Pratim Roy Barman on July 25, 2001, and the hit-and-run attack which killed four policemen in front of the American Center in Kolkata on January 22, 2002, had no difficulty in getting a passport under the name of Farhan Mallik.</b>
The moral is simple: A soft and corrupt state cannot win the war against terrorism.
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