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| Internal security biggest challenge to nation | | |
N K Pant |
Does merely telling the chief ministers and through them India's vast citizenry that the internal security scenario is not only grim but is also going to get worse absolve Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from his resposibility to save innocent civilian lives? Well this is what has been exactly the case in our country. Barely a week had lapsed when the PM cautioned Chief Ministers of Indian states in a meeting on the inevitability of India being on terror outfits' radar for eventual terrorist strikes, the nation witnessed bomb blasts at Malegaon in Maharashtra that killed 38 persons and injured nearly two hundred others.
The PM instead of expressing concern at externally aided and guided proliferation of terrorist modules and "sleeper cells" in our cities and towns, ought to have directed the official machinery to go all out to crush them.
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Having such vital information on well-entrenched terror elements on one hand and not being able to act upon it on the dictates of vote bank politics on the other, shows the government in an extremely bad light.
New Delhi perhaps needs to take a leaf out of the UK cops' book. The police there were able to preempt occurrence of major crime in the process of being hatched up by the Islamist terrorists in that country. Their intended plan was to blow up several US-bound passenger jets in the mid-air over the Atlantic.
The alert police force were able to round up nearly two dozen conspirators several of them of the Pakistani origin well before they could execute their heinous act. India has suffered for the past nearly two decades from terrorism in Punjab, in Jammu and Kashmir and in other parts of India. Countless innocent lives have been lost to the terrorist's bombs and guns.
The culprit in this case is clearly Pakistan carved out of India in 1947 on Muslim League's intense hatred for Hindus and the two-nation theory. Strangely, India still remains an eyesore for Pakistan on the South Asian landscape and the ISI; our Islamic neighbour's notorious intelligence agency leaves no stone unturned to dismember India. The agency has been covertly working over last several decades in spreading a terror network all over India.It is not surprising that ISI's bloodied hand is visible in the day-to-day terrorist acts one witnesses in different parts of India killing and maiming scores of innocent citizens. It is estimated that the agency spends more than Rs 10 crore per month on its India specific operations.
With the covert infrastructure created with this money, it has succeeded in bleeding India, which Pakistani armed forces could not achieve by attacking the country four times since the Independence.
After the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts killing nearly 200 commuters, Indian intelligence officials were sure that the blueprint for the blasts was meticulously prepared by ISI. However, the agency was clever enough to get the bombs planted and explosions triggered by its Indian agents recruited and nurtured locally over the years with liberal financial largesse.
It is beyond doubt without the logistic support of Pakistani sleeper modules and their local sympathisers providing shelter to the culprits, no innocent blood can be splattered or property worth millions destroyed in any of the Indian cities.
To begin with Pakistan had patronised several terrorist groups basically operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
Subsequently these terror outfits having pan-Islamic and global connections have spread their tenctacles in rest of India. Moreover these death merchants have found safe havens in adjoining Bangladesh and Nepal from where they regularly infiltrate into India for carrying out acts of sabotage. The bomb blasts in Varanasi's Sankat Mochan temple and Railway station a couple of months back are believed to have planned by Bangladesh-based terror groups. The UPA government had recently told the parliament that revelations of arrested ULFA cadres pointed out the outfit's active links with Pakistan's ISI having extensive facilities in Bangladesh.
It is sad that the political leadership holding the reign of government is a mute witness to this brazen activity.
The last two decades have amply proved that Pakistan inspired well-armed and funded terror gangs have struck at their own choosing in different cities of India- Mumbai, Ayodhya, Coimbatore, Srinagar, Jammu, Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Delhi and Bangalore etc. A top police official has recently revealed that the terror threat in Bangalore, India's Silicon city was real and has warned companies especially in the IT sector to be on their guard. Likewise, our military establishments, nuclear facilities, scientific and technological institutions of repute are reported to be on terrorists' hit lists.
In addition to Kashmiri terror groups, the ISI is also assisting Maoists and rebel groups in our northeast in disintegrating India. Opposition parties are fully justified in criticising the government about the increasingly deteriorating internal security scenario after the recent Mumbai blasts.
Moreover, the latest bomb explosions at Malegaon have put a question mark on the state's ability to ensure the safety of the man on the street.
It is definitely not a law and order situation but a very serious threat to unity and integrity of the country as a whole.
The externally aided terror outfits and their indoctrinated Indian backers are hitting hard at the very foundation of our nation.
The challenge of internal security has assumed the biggest challenge to our national security today and whosoever political party is in power has to tackle it on a war footing.
The authorities have to seriously consider giving a complete revamp to intelligence agencies besides modernising the police set up. However, it is rather difficult to defeat a wily adversary determined to hit at the nation's roots with an efficient police force alone, it also needs constant cooperation from the enlightened citizenry. Such positive role ultimately remains the responsibility of India's political leadership irrespective of the party affiliation.
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