Where is Policy on Terrorism?

These days heated debate is going on in Lok Sabha, over the issue of joint statement with Pakistan at Sharm el Sheikh. Where on one hand Prime Minister is trying to defend the joint statement on other he is also try to convince nation that government has not changed its position and conditions for talks with Pakistan. While opposition is pounding government on inclusion of Baluchistan in joint statement, government is looking clueless and with out any convincing reply on the issue.

There is another issue where opposition can corner the government and again will find the government clueless is, on the country’s policy on terrorism. This is very surprising and shamefull that even after 8 months of Mumbai attack we still don’t have a well documented policy on terrorism.

After Mumbai attacks there are only 3 things which are heard from government on the issue of terrorism, which are

1)      Better coordination among various intelligence agencies.

2)      NSG hub at other 3 metro cities apart Delhi as it already has one.

3)      No talks with Pakistan, till it take appropriate action against the perpetrators of 26/11.

Apart this, we haven’t heard much from government, and definitely haven’t heard on any thing which would say that so and so is the policy of government on terrorism.

Now lets look at these steps one by one and see how they will remain ineffective.

1)      Better coordination among various intelligence agencies: This line has become a cliché similarly to a media man asking effected people after every calamity “aap ko kaisa lag raha hai?”

Lets recall all the recent act of terrorism/aggression like Kargil war, attack on parliament, highjack of IC 814, attack on somnath temple, serial bomb blasts of 2008 (where nearly half a dozen cities were targeted) or more recent Mumbai attack, what was the first thing government said after every attack? “We condemn this act of terror” and then with out fail it was said “there has to be better coordination among the security agencies”.

A very interesting part is after every terror attack suddenly reports start appearing in media regarding the alert on terror act to concerned authorities.  Like in case of Kargil, intelligence agencies say they alerted army but army says they were never informed similarly in somnath temple case intelligence agencies say they informed Gujrat Government but Gujrat government has some thing else to say also in case of Mumbai attack agencies say they informed state government and state government denies it and similar stories will be planted in media in future also.

But the worst part in this whole scenario is nobody gets sacked, nobody takes the onus only exception being Mumbai attacks where Union Home Minister, State CM and his deputy resigned though not because they felt responsible for it but because UPA felt difficult to go in following general election with them being there.

Till the time there are no heads on the chopping blocks, respective jobs will never be taken seriously.

2)      NSG hub at other 3 metro cities-  Setting NSG Hubs should be considered just one step, of strenghtining the counter terrorism. It should not be taken as a complete act in itself.

Counter an act of terrorism has three steps a) Identifying terror act. b) Cornering/confining the terrorists. c) arresting/eliminating the terrorists.

If we take the case of Mumbai terror attack initially police took this terror act as gang war as lost crucial lead time in putting full force behind terrorists to capture them.

Similarly had Abu Ismail and Kasab been cornered/confined at VT then many lives would have been saved including that of senior officials of Mumbai Police.

The point that I’m trying to make here is, that the first line to counter a terrorist attack is local police because it is the local police which will identify the act as terror act and will try to corner the terrorists or at least try to confine the movement of terrorist. It is later on that NSG will come into action to arrest or eliminate the terrorists.

So apart setting NSG at various locations it is very important to train the local police to the extent even the local beat constable should be in position to take on the terrorists if any such thing happens in front of him.

With out trained local police, damage from the terror act could not be restricted.

3)No talks with Pakistan, till it take appropriate action against the perpetrators of 26/11-

Now this is the most absurd stand taken by any government world over on terrorism, by linking counter terrorism with diplomacy. Why will Pakistan take action against these people? These are the people who are shielded and groomed by Pakistan itself. If it had to take action against them, then why at first place Pakistan would have groomed them? Are we still not clear about the intentions of the Pakistan?

Till date Pakistan has not taken action against 1993 Mumbai blasts accused they how does the government expect Pakistan to act on this? Another point when as a country we are not taking action against terrorism why do we expect Pakistan to take action? Only way Pakistan will take action against the terror groups on its soil is, when it is coerced to do so. America did it now we have to do it. History will confirm that, it is when India has complete upper hand over Pakistan it is only then Pakistan listens and understand, we had 4 such opportunities namely in 1948, 1965, 1971 & 1999 and we let go all the four with out finding the permanent solutions to our problem.

So if India wants Pakistan to act then it needs to have complete upper hand over that nation or should act on its own against the terrorists hiding in Pakistan.

This is a very a very worrying situation as we are still clue less about how we are going to deal with the threat of terrorism form internal sources and most importantly from external sources. But to compound the problem we in India have the scenario where most of the internal act of terrorism have full support of external agencies. In this scenario a clear action plan against the terror groups and their leaders (including those who act behind the scene) is required, which we don’t see happening. Now the question is why? Why government is not acting against the terror group? Why is it depending on Pakistan to act against them? Is it that the leadership of this nation is afraid of these terror groups targeting them? Or are we incapable of acting against these terror groups? How long is India ready to wait for Pakistan to act? Even if Pakistan doesn’t act, then what are the options? These are the questions which all of must be wondering with, but unfortunately there is no reply nor there seems to be any movement to address these questions.

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