The Pune bomb blast and the govt.'s stand on terror strikes

[winnie_the_pooh]

The Hon'ble Home Minister has clarified certain things

1.It was not an intelligence failure as the attack took place on a "soft target".Anything can happen on a soft target.

You and I are soft targets.If tomorrow a couple of us or even a couple of hundred of us are slaughtered,it would not be an intelligence failure.

Another conclusion that you can draw is that intelligence that points to an attack on a "hard target" alone is of importance and actionable.Perhaps the intelligences agencies are geared towards thwarting attack only on hard targets(VIP's , infrastructure and national institutions).

This should reassure us all.Only soft targets were attacked and killed.No need for panic.

2.The police can't give 24/7 protection.

We already know this.They are there to give 24/7 protection to only the VIP's and their ilk.It is what makes them "hard targets".We should all pay taxes to provide better protection to these hard targets.God forbid something happens to them.

3.It was not an overt attack by a gun man but through an "insidious" bomb in a back pack.

Another way of saying,"We can do nothing to stop something like this happening".

"Insidious bomb" is an addition to the "cowardly attack" often used in describing such incidents by politicians.Does it not remind you of the filmy dialogue often used by the hero ,"Maa ka doodh piya hai to bahar ake ladd" .Does it not make our politicians look very heroic.

4."He...assured that a spokesperson would regularly update the press"

Here is an update carried in the The Indian Express that also carried the quotable quotes given above,"Traces of nitro group compounds and pieces of metal and shrapnel indicating the device had a clock timer,were noticed by Home Minister P Chidambram when he visited Pune this morning,they said"

He is a forensics expert as well.Whoopi.

5."Indian cities are no less vulnerable than any other in the world when it came to terror attacks".

The same as those in 'failed states' I am sure.Rwanda,Congo,Haiti.....So reassuring.

The govt had taken adds in national dailies some time back croaking about how there had been no terror attacks in the last one year.They conveniently glossed over violence by Naxalite and sundry groups in the North East.

Since the govt. took responsibility for some thing that was a combination of various circumstances that it had no role in creating,would it now take responsibility for it's failure in preventing this?

[grewal]

When there was terrorism in Punjab , the attitude of security agencies towards these violent elements was very harsh. This strong resistance from the police and other forces ( CRPF , BSF even ARMY ) resulted in end of the terrorism . Today we have a peaceful Punjab . But don't know why is the government of India is not adopting the same attitude while dealing with all those insurgents and naxals . The only way to eradicate this menace is that the government should adopt a tough stand and should retaliate with full force, in this way only there will be a able to create a feeling of terror in the hearts of unscrupulous elements. No doubt sometimes even innocents get effected by such aggressive move of the government , but at the end it is for the betterment of the larger interest of the entire nation .

Prabhdeep Singh Grewal

[winnie_the_pooh]

No doubt sometimes even innocents get effected by such aggressive move of the government , but at the end it is for the betterment of the larger interest of the entire nation

As long as the "innocents" does not include you yourself or some one you hold dear.Would you set your house on fire if it serves the larger national interest?

Sorry if I sound harsh or aggressive.

[goodboy_mentor]

The only way to eradicate this menace is that the government should adopt a tough stand and should retaliate with full force, in this way only there will be a able to create a feeling of terror in the hearts of unscrupulous elements.

There is no doubt it is an important question and government should take it very seriously, but it is easier said than done. Any insurgency is just like fish in a pond of water(water represents support of local people.) The moment fish looses contact with water or the quality of water becomes unfavorable, it's death becomes inevitable. Drawing comparison between terrorism in Punjab and elsewhere would be too simplistic. We cannot ignore the following facts about terrorism in Panjab:
a) It never had popular support of people within the state.
b) Few misguided, brainwashed youths were being used/misused by Pakistan to seek revenge of defeat in 1971. And some unscrupulous politicians, putting nations interest ahead of votebank politics were playing in the interests of Pakistan. As Pakistan viewed Sikhs to be one of the major causes of its defeat in wars and as Sikhs make up 10–15% of all ranks in the Indian Army and 20% of its officers, whilst Sikhs only forming 1.87% of the Indian population, which makes them over 10 times more likely to be a soldier and officer in the Indian Army than the average Indian. Pakistan thought it would be in its interest to play a communal divide and rule that would weaken the armed forces of India to a very considerable degree. Please refer: http://sikhquotes.org/128.html

by (Maj. Gen. Fazal Muqeem Khan, author of book "Pakistan's Crisis of Leadership")

“The major reason for our defeat are Sikhs. We are simply unable to do anything before them despite our best efforts. They are very daring people and are fond of martyrdom. They fight courageously and are capable of defeating an army much bigger than them.”

On 3rd December 1971 we fiercely and vigorously attacked the Indian army with infantry brigade near Hussainiwala border. This brigade included Pakistan army’s Punjab regiment together with the Baloch regiment. Within minutes we pushed the Indian army quite far back. Their defense posts fell under our control. The Indian army was retreating back very fast and the Pakistani army was going forward with great speed.

Our army reached near Kausre-Hind post (Kasure). There was small segment of Indian army appointed to defend that post and their soldiers belonged to the Sikh Regiment. A few number of the Sikh Regiment stopped our way forward like an iron wall. They greeted us with the ovation (Slogan) of ‘Bolé-so-Nihal’ and attacked us like bloodthirsty, hungry lions and hawks. All these soldiers were Sikhs. There was even a dreadful hand-to-hand battle. The sky filled with roars of ‘Yaa Ali and Sat Sri Akal’. Even in this hand-to-hand fighting the Sikhs fought so bravely that all our desires, aspirations and dreams were shattered.

In this war Lt. Col. Gulab Hussain was killed. With him Maj. Mohammed Zaeef and Capt. Arif Alim also died. It was difficult to count the number of soldiers who got killed. We were astonished to see the courage of those, handful of Sikh soldiers. When we seized the possession of the three-story defense post of concrete, the Sikh soldiers went onto the roof and kept on persistently opposing us. The whole night they kept on showering fires on us and continued shouting the loud ovation of ‘Sat Sri Akal’. These Sikh soldiers kept on the encounter till next day. Next day the Pakistani tanks surrounded this post and bombed it with guns. Those, handful of Sikhs got martyred in this encounter while resisting us, but other Sikh soldiers then destroyed our tanks with the help of their artillery. Fighting with great bravery they kept on marching forward and thus our army lost its foothold.

Alas! A handful of Sikhs converted our great victory into big defeat and shattered our confidence and courage. The same thing happened with us in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In the battle of Jassur, the Singhs opposed the Pakistan army so fiercely that our backbone and our foothold were lost. This became the main important reason of our defeat; and Sikhs’ strength, safety and honour of the country, became the sole cause of their victory.

c) The moment government decided to arm the people of Panjab, the people became fearless and started giving information about hideouts of the terrorists to the Police etc. hence lead to the end of terrorism

Now coming to present terror, it makes up of 2 types external and internal(Naxalism). External can be takled much easily as it is similar to the one that was experienced in Panjab than the internal one.
a) They have budgets running into crores of rupees, seperate for propaganda, weapons and intellegence gathering etc. etc., some estimate that it is now Rs 1000 crore.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news ... vt/283526/
b) They have their own weapon manufacturing units
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 460469.cms
c) They are not visible targets, they hide/merge with common people. Most important of all they have penetrated various sections of society and are getting support in various ways like food, shelter, intelligence etc. etc.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 582141.cms
d) And the philosophy they are working on cannot be ignored.
http://threat-to-india.blogspot.com/
http://ajadhind.wordpress.com/historic- ... -mazumdar/

What is the main basis for building up a revolutionary organisation? Comrade Stalin has said: “The main basis for building up a revolutionary organization is the revolutionary cadre.” Who is a revolutionary cadre? A revolutionary cadre is he who can analyse the situation at his own initiative and can adopt policies according to that. He does not wait for anyone’s help.

Our Organisational Slogans -
1. Every party member must form at least one Activist Group of five. He will educate the cadres of this Activist Group in political education.
2. Every party member must see to it that no one from this group is exposed to the police.
3. There should be an underground place for meetings of every Activist Group. If necessary, shelters for keeping one or two underground will have to be arranged.
4. Every Activist Group must have a definite person for contacts.
5. A place should be arranged for hiding secret documents.
6. A member of the Activist Group should be made a member of the Party as soon as he becomes an expert in political education and work.
7. After he becomes a Party member, the Activist Group must not have any contact with him.
This organisational style should be firmly adhered to. This organisation itself will take up the responsibility of revolutionary organisation in the future.

It should be remembered always that if the words “Seizure of Political Power” are left out, the Party no longer remains a revolutionary Party.

It was not only that comrade and member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Party, but Com. Lenin also mentioned area-wise seizure of power in his writings. Above all, the working class in Russia gave a concrete proof of Lenin’s conclusion when they kept the town of Kronstad under seizure for three days. In the era of socialism, all the elements of area-wise seizure of power are present in our framework.

So the question of collecting arms will have to be put up before every Activist Group from now on. ‘Dao’, knives, sticks–all these are weapons, and with their help at opportune moments, firearms will have to be snatched.

To smash all those mistakes in the Party, the Party will today first have to establish its leadership over the mass organisations.

What do we mean by active resistance? First, preservation of cadres. For this preservation of cadres, proper shelters and communication system are necessary. Secondly, teaching the common people the techniques of resistance, like lying down in the face of firings, or taking the help of some strong barrier, forming barricades, etc. Thirdly, efforts to avenge every attack with the help of groups of active cadres, which has been described by Comrade Mao Tsetung as “Tit for tat struggle.”

So, it is not a fact that the task of forming a secret Party is solely that of the underground leaders; every Party member should work for the secret organisation and through those new Party cadres the Party’s links with the masses will be established. Only then the underground leaders will be able to work as leaders. So in this era, the main call before the Party is–every Party member will have to form a Party Activist Group. These Activist Groups will have to be enthused with revolutionary politics. This task of forming Activist Groups will be the main task for all Party members of all fronts. How soon we can raise these activists to Party membership will depend on how many new activists these activists will be able to collect. Only then we can get a large number of Party cadres unknown to the police and all the difficulties of underground leaders in maintaining links with the party ranks will disappear.

[ravi.sharma]

Hi GBM,

Nice post. Specially the one about the he war and the way the Sikh regiment ruined Pakistan's Intentions.

Though the point is, when will the government wake up and do something concrete, instead of just lecturing a false security , aal is well, when nothing is.


Ravi.

[winnie_the_pooh]

The Home Minister has been honest enough to clarify that terrorists can strike anywhere in the country at will.

That soft targets being attacked can not be construed as failure of the intelligence network.The intelligence network of the state govt. is not there to protect or gain information about soft targets.If such an attack is thwarted it is only incidental(my reading from what has been said).

What is a hard target? Some place or some one that is a high value target and is therefore provided round the clock security.

Soft target? Any place or any one else that is not a hard target.

If you are not a hard target you are a soft target.If you are a soft target,your getting killed is something unfortunate but inevitable as the state is only going to and does protect only hard targets.

What are you supposed to do in such a situation?

Be vigilant.If it is a bomb that you suspect,that is a very good advice.

However that is not a very good idea in a situation like the one in Mumbai in Nov. 2008.Then an armed citizenry was and is the only answer.

However the security forces consider that it is their sole prerogative to provide security to you.They do not like any encroachment on this and frown upon any suggestion that you become responsible for your own security. Therefore the acknowledgment that police can't be there to protect you at the moment you may need them, assumes significance.This in fact flies in the face of the arguments advanced to restrict civilian ownership of firearms as is being proposed.

Make every citizen of India a hard target,that is what I say and wish for.

[Anand]

winnie I love your analysis and conclusions.
The below is my opinion:
1.The Police are there to protect the public in general and not individuals. Unfortunately, if there is an
attack like 26/11 , the average policeman is neither equipped to nor has the training to tackle
such a situation, what with his usual duty being "law & order" or dealing with non-violent crime.
2.The point here is also that the Police is more of an investigative agency, and generally arrives after a
crime has been committed, or executes warrants etc. There are usually special units dealing with
anything that requires an armed response, the average Pandu is usually a petty crime deterrent not
much more.
3.The responsibility of any individual's safety is his'/her's or that of his immediate loved ones, not that
of the State's. This safety can only be made possible if there are dependable "implements" available
for defensefor individuals.
4. A responsible State must not deny these "implements" to its people. It must not in anyway weaken
the public in general from being able to defend itself from criminals, terrorists gangsters etc.
5. The State must be held accountable for any "failures" in its functioning as it would hold any
individual's "failures" in his functioning.
Regards,
Anand