Tryst with terrorists

Mumbai’s tryst with terrorist

Mumbai is truck again. It’s a sense of déjà vu for all. We saw the same horror scenes repeatedly on TV, the same rhetoric by the Govt. the same debate on talk shows. Nothing has changed after 26/11. Our booming economy and our status as a rising power has made Mumbai & Delhi as the most vulnerable cities to terrorist attacks. Look at the past four months and we were given enough warnings about a bigger attack in future. The number of failed bomb attacks – in Delhi high court, Delhi's Gargi College, Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and elsewhere. They were dismissed as pranks. Perhaps these were the result of the Karachi Project which David Hadley revealed in his interrogation to FBI. Mumbai blasts could be an indication that the Karachi Project is blooming in India. Home grown Jehad group have been active and our Intelligence have failed to trap them. Not one of the five urban terrorist attacks that preceded the latest Mumbai bombings has been solved. Perhaps the lull after 2008 has set in complacency in the intelligence agencies. This was evident in the goof-ups in the 'Most Wanted' list that was posted to Pakistan. It's clear that coordination among security agencies in India is still lacking. And why not as many of the internal security reforms proposed after the 26/11 attacks have bitten the dust. Despite decades of terror attack we haven’t been able to pluck the shortage in the Police personnel in our country. As per the home ministry, about 5,40,000 policemen were immediately required to make up the shortages in our police forces. But less than a third of that number has been recruited till date. Our projections for policing are well below the UN recommended ratio of 222 policemen per 1,00,000 citizens. Worse still, for a country repeatedly targeted by terrorists, India's internal security budget is less than 1% of its GDP, whereas India's defence budget is about 2.5% of its GDP. If the responsibility of the government is to protect its citizens, then it simply needs to spend more on equipping, training and arming our policemen to achieve greater efficiency. We urgently need to spend a huge amount on CCTV Camera installed on strategic positions. These footage are crucial in catching terrorists. The London bombers, the Time square bombers and Kasab were all caught on camera. We need to model our Police and surveillance on UK, which has about 1.85 million CCTV cameras and the average Briton is caught on camera 70 times a day as per the police figures. Living in a surveillance society is the need of the hour. We also need to adopt the idea of community policing from UK which has protected London which perhaps has the largest movement of terrorists through it but remains secure.
We need to accept that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and its cut in aids to Pakistan will make our neighborhood a secure field for the terrorist to play as they want. Mr. Chidambaram has rightly pointed out that India is located in one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Our neighborhood is the global terrorism's epicenter. It is their aim to target India's economic rise and its cities, which remain crowded, disorganized and vulnerable. We need some elementary steps that could make citizens secure. Upgrading our police force, investing in technology for internal security and the long awaited national intelligence grid initiative could help fill this void, but it is still some years from being completed. Until then, we are left at the mercy of the terrorist.

Let the peace begin

Let the Peace Begin
The Death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan constitutes a significant victory over global terrorism. It is indeed a victory for President Barack Obama who announced in a midnight televised address to the world that he has got Osama. Obama's ability to use rhetoric to inspire has always been one of his greatest political assets. His statement announcing the mission's success demonstrated dignity and pride. He confidently announced that he -- and the forces under his command -- had actually accomplished the mission that seemed nearly impossible. The death of a single individual is essentially being heralded as a justification for the deaths of at least hundreds of thousands (a figure largely comprised of civilians) in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. It morally justifies the use of "enhanced interrogations" and "extraordinary renditions." It clears the ledgers on the trillions of dollars spent on futile wars for nearly 10 years. And, most appreciably, it validates the Bush Administration's open-ended waging of global warfare.
One must remember that eliminating Osama is a milestone, not a turning point, in what remains an ongoing struggle without a foreseeable end. The significance of what was accomplished stems from Bin Laden's symbolic importance. He has been an icon, one representing the ability to strike with success against the United States and the West. That icon is now gone. But before bursting into celebrations we need to face at least two realities. The first is that Bin Laden's demise is in no way to be equated with the demise of terrorism. This is not a Victory over Terrorism Day. Terrorism is a decentralized phenomenon- and Al-Qaeda is now a franchise organization with innumerable franchisee all around the world operating out of Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other countries. So terrorism will continue. Indeed, it could even grow somewhat worse in the short run as there are sure to be those who will want to show that they can still strike against the West.
The second reason for responding with caution to this welcome development is that it underscores a point once again- that Pakistan is home to some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world and is decidedly less than a full partner in fight against terrorism. The country has many states within state with multiple rulers and heads and no coordination among them. Some parts of the government there are sympathetic to terrorism and unwilling to act against it; others are simply unable to do so, given a lack of capacity. This reality is unlikely to change in future.
Osama’s death has brought Pakistan at a crossroad where it urgently need to choose the right path. It should now give up its current policy of verbally condemning jihad — and actually fighting it in some places — but secretly supporting it in other places. Until the Government firmly resolves that it shall not support armed and violent non-state actors — including the Lashkar-e-Taiba — Pakistan will remain in endless conflict both with itself and with the world. Bin Laden’s death will only have meaning if it marks the beginning of the end of the ruthless cycle of violence. The world is now tired of War. "Congratulations Mr. Obama! Well done! Now it's time for you to leave Afghanistan." By cutting off the head of Al Qaeda, and with due regard to the pro-democracy surge of the Arab Spring, the era of perpetual war should now be supplemented by a period of unprecedented peace.
Let the peace begin