Written on 9:21 AM by nitesh
Government of India after the attacks on Mumbai have acted like never before in passing the two laws namely setting up of a National Intelligence Agency and Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act in a matter of 2 weeks. I feel this must be the fastest a law has been made.
First of all what would be the functions of NIA:
• NIA is first of all will not be under the jurisdiction of State governments, It can take charge of terror activities without the consent of state concerned. CBI had to take permissions of the state government to act. So In short if will be like the Homeland security if we go to USA.
• NIA can set up special fast track courts for speedy trials.
(still searching for more functions.......)
UAPA:
• It denies bail to foreigners accused in terror cases e.g Kasav like people can be detained for longer duration.
• Bails to Indians will be granted only after courts hear the case.
• Another provision is if a person is found with explosives the onus will be on him to prove his innocence.
• Another important feature will be that the duration of the custody or remand is increased from 15 days to 30 days.
But again the questions arises setting up an law is not enough we need officers and money for new instruments. CBI, IB and CID are already short staffed. What is done nowadays in case of states is if any police officer is creating trouble for a VIP he is transferred to CID. This is not the right way we need right persons for the right job.
CBI is having shortage of 1/3rd of its staff, they say good applicants are hard to find by. Where are the funds to buy latest forensic equipments, to teach them about the cyber crime, to teach them about the new un conventional way used by terrorists?
We are trying to tackle the terror attacks by land, air and sea but what about attacks from cyber space. If we are attacked on a big scale say like websites of many banks getting hacked are we prepared for such attack.
Another issues is of budgeting FBI has a budget of around 7.1 billion dollars and on the contrary expenditure by central government on policing is just 3 billion dollars.
Strict terror laws are not the only way through which we can control terror. Though I agree that there was a need for the centralized agency to tackle menace like terror, but these laws should not go the way POTA and TADA went. Major causalities during these laws were the common men, they were caught by the police beaten, tortured to accept that they are terrorists.
Many students in Hyderabad were arrested, tortured and finally they were released by court after 6 months, but they lost their jobs and college admissions meanwhile.
Point is laws should not be misused. If we can control terror in Punjab we can control it everywhere, what is needed is will , free hand to the police officers, no more vote bank politics like removing the ban on SIMI.
We will get to know in few months whether this law and agency is helpful or its a just another notional agency with only name and without any members.
Posted in
Mumbai Attacks,
NIA
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Written on 9:00 AM by nitesh
Recent attacks on Mumbai have raised concerns about the fragile coastline, Southern India which was supposed to be a safer from terrorist attacks is no longer safe now, thanks to the long fragile coastline. New agencies are coming up to tackle terror menace but the real problem lie somewhere else.
Indian fishermen while fishing mistakenly and intentionally cross the sea border to fish in sea waters of Pakistan. These poor are arrested there and their boats are captured. Some 200 Indian boats are missing, when Indian delegation visited Pakistan in the month of October and enquired about the boats, no one was willing to tell but somehow they came to know that the boats are auctioned at throw away prices. A 20 lakhs rupees boat is auctioned at around 2-3 lakhs. This is very dangerous in context of terror attacks as we all know the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai came to India via an Indian boat Kuber which was captured according to GPS signals in Pakistani waters.
Chances of Indian boat in Pakistani hands going unchecked are very bright. Casualness of Indian intelligence and Gujarat police is so high that they hardly care to question the fishermen who after spending 1-2 years in Pakistani jails return back to India.
Problem of Indian fishermen crossing over in Pakistani waters has increased in the last five years because of redrawing of the borders. Line was earlier parallel to Pakistani coast and perpendicular to Indian coast is now at an angle of 45 degrees. To our bad luck in the Pakistani waters lies the point where Indus valley delta meets the Arabian Sea abundant in fish, crabs etc. New borders have considerable decreased the fish abundant areas for Indian fishermen and as result many wander into Pakistani waters and are captured. Pakistan has caught 383 boats since 2003 of which 200 are missing and 183 are in dilapidated state.
So now the question arises why our agencies are not able to regulate fishing and keep a strict vigil on the fishermen and prevent them from wandering into Pakistani waters.
There is only one reason shortage of staff and equipments. Gujarat which has the longest coastline among the Indian states (1650kms) , has around 24000 mechanized boats and 5000 trawlers. As per the rules upto 12 kms Gujarat police guards them and from there on till 200kms its Indian coastguard. Other agencies are Gujarat Maritime board which gives certificates to the boats and customs which issues identity cards to the fishermen. A typical custom officer has around 200kms of area to manage, with only 150 staff and 3-4 vehicles. With such a shortage of manpower we cannot expect them to cross check the ids and other details.
A typical journey of fishing boat coasts around 1 lakh for 10 days and the crew is expected to come with a rich haul of fisheries to cover the cost of trip, salaries and profit. Such pressure is bound to take them to the Pakistani water which is abundant in fishes and crabs. Indian waters a polluted by pollutants from jamnagar refinery, tata chemicals, Gujarat alkalies and above all the ship breaking yard at alang has killed all the ships.
Gujarat coast guard is also very ill equipped having only 4 ships, 2 aircraft and 2 hovercrafts to manage the whole area. It takes 45 minutes to one hour to physically check a boat, so checking of all the boats is not possible. Only thing can be done is that proper ids are given after thorough checking and GPS installed on all the boats fishing be regulated by the coastal police. Fishing harbors and ports should be separated for security reasons.
7000 men coast guard of India is very short staffed to handle the 7500 kms long coastline of India.
There are enough laws and agencies in India. Passing of NIA might have brought the terrorism from state list into center list as well but the real problem is not the agencies but the short staffing in the agencies and lack of coordination among the existing ones.
This post is a summary of the cover story of current issue of Tehelka magazine.
Posted in
Coastline,
India,
Mumbai Attacks
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Written on 9:25 AM by nitesh
The government of India has started taking actions after the 26/11 Mumbai blasts. Are these actions useful or helpful is a different matter. But first lets discuss what actions are being taken.
First was sacking of Shivraj Patil , and CM and Deputy CM of Mumbai. Few of these were expected specially the Patil one as the suit changing man was out of sorts in handling the home ministry. Other two went because of their own acts Deshmukh because of terror tourism and R.R Patil because of his incapability in handling those two ill fated days of blasts and his famous comment "Small things happen in big cities" led to his fall.
Other important thing done by India was using its foreign policy in putting pressure on Pakistan from other countries specially the US of A. Initially we all Indians became emotional and were emphasizing on the need for was but we later came to know was is not possible as US will not allow this to happen. US troops are already fighting in regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan borders in killing jihadi terrorists. Majority of Pakistani troops are stationed there and they are helping the Americans.
So diplomatic front is the only open front, even though we have contradictory statements, foreign minister stating that military option is open and defense minster saying other day military option is ruled out.
Pakistan what should I say about the terrorist nation of Pakistan is behaving in the same way as expected. One day they say they are not responsible for non state actors other day they say its their responsibility.
Time is ripe for India to maneuver its foreign policy and become procative now. We should do what Indira Gandhi did during the Bangladesh was, visiting many countries and gaining their confidence and backing of many countries. We should stop taking help for our matters and start depending less on America to help us in sorting our matters. This is not the way future superpowers should behave. There is a need for both soft power and hard power. If our soft power is expanding in form of yoga and curry we also need to show our hard power sometimes.
Following the 50-50 policy never helps, we should either be for or against and trying to create a middle way usually leads to failures.
Conscious of our VIP's has risen and most of them have started demanding less security cover which, has become a status symbol for the politicians. In yesterday's HT it was mentioned that 46,000 men guard 13,339 VIP's and if we cut on these numbers we can create 4 new NSG's and double Delhi or Mumbai police forces. But no lal batti culture has so creep down in our councious that its very difficult to do away with.
There is only one way in which it can be done its through supreme court. Jayalalita and Karunanidhi both are having Z+ security, I don't understand why do they need such security cover, they have never received any threat, they only fear each other :) . Mulayam Singh supported the UAP in saving the government so he was given Z+ security. Every government goes this way, there is no way to decide whom to be given Y,Z,Z+ security. This is wastage of so much tax payers money.
NIA is next ......
Related Posts:
Control Terror Solutions 1
Control Terror Solutions 2
Posted in
Life,
Mumbai Attacks
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Written on 10:28 AM by nitesh
Carrying forward my earlier post on steps to control terrorism in India , i after reading a lot , watching a lot of news channels and above all thinking a lot come up with few more solutions.
Eighth Point
Stop the funding of terrorism, its difficult but not impossible, most of the funding is done via poppy and opium crop which is grown in Afghanistan. If that can be curbed I think a major part of their funding for latest weapons will be affected
Ninth Point
Stop wastage of so much resources on our elite politicians like giving them so many NSG commandos, around 2500 are for their security out of the total of 10-12K NSG commandos.
Tenth Point
Raise salaries of Police officers, politicians pass the bill for their salary hike with full majority, salary should be hiked of police officers also , i feel it may to some extent stop bribing etc.
Eleventh Point
Smart people for intelligence agencies like RAW, IB , CID, CBI etc. Right now what is done is that if a politician is having problem with any officer he is transferred to CID office or CBI office. This is not the right way, funda of right man for right job just like in our armed forces should be followed.
Twelfth Point
The citizens should be given the option of show their protest against a canditate by using the option 'vote for none' . This will show our resentment towards the candidates and may put pressure on politicians also. See section 49-O
Thirteenth Point
Monitoring is required, as we now how valuable information is being provided by the CCTV footage installed in railway stations, so huge investment is required to install CCTV's and other modern equipments in public places and places of importance.
More points will be added
Posted in
Mumbai Attacks,
Terrorism
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Written on 4:20 PM by nitesh
Well the attacks are finally over now is the time for action. Officially around one hundred eighty have died but unofficially it must be around two hundred fifty.
Following steps can be taken which I see
First Point
A centralized agency whose head is only accountable to prime minister of India , that no need for bureaucracy and other permissions.
Three to four tier coastal security for India's highly susceptible to danger coastal line.
Second Point.
Increase coordination between Raw, IB, CBI , CID . These agencies and many other should be interacting with each other so that we can act together in any case whether terrorists attacks or any other danger on Indian country.
Third Point.
A change in foreign policy, infact we don't have any concrete policy at all in case of our dangerous neighbors from nepal, Bangladesh , Pakistan , sri lanka and china above all.
China is coming deep inside our neighboring countries with plans for infrastructure and other help for the countries, Bangladesh is almost a out of control country on the lines of Pakistan. Bangladesh soldiers come and attack inside Indian territory and we do nothing, chinese are coming inside Sikkim and arunachal pradesh and we in a hush hush way try to keep the infiltration silent in short doing nothing.
China is building roads and train network in neighboring areas of arunachal pradesh and we dont even have a fully developed road network there.
We need to change our tendency of getting equal returns from the saarc countries, time is to give them more so that their economy is lifted , they are educated and things like opting for terrorists deeds in shortage of food can be avoided.
Fourth Point.
First lets read the conversation which could have gone between Zardari and Manmohan Singh
MS: Angry . Send your ISI chief we want to discuss facts with him.
Zardari: Well Sir i am sorry about what has happened in Indian, I am with you in this matter and cooperate full support as you now ji we are also the sufferers in this case, You know how they destroyed our Marriot hotel , you could have learn't from happenings here in Pakistan and tried to be vigilant. We will send you the isi chief you can discuss what you want with him.
MS: Ya I know you are also sufferers of terrorism like us , bye
Zardari: Okay friend we are with you in this matter we are also suffers like you.
Today morning Pakistan do a U turn and says we are not going to send isi chief to discuss facts with India but we are with India in this matter.
Is this the way a contry who think itself as future America that is future super power behave.
Time is ripe for some action, I don't understand what will calling the ISI chief of pakistan do. Manmohan Singh or the government must be thinking that junta is very angry we need to give some strong message to the public of India that we are doing something so lets call the ISI chief.
Common what will that do and other thing like organizing a cabinet meeting without calling the suit changing home minister Mr Patil , he is not the only one who is at fault all of you and you Mr Manmohan singh as the captain of Indian government are also at fault.
So step like a future super power would be to send in commandoes to certain areas of pakistan in POK and other areas to capture some militants and show some thing to the world that we not weak. Israel has done like this many time why cant we do it.
Fifth Point.
Destroy the mafia in mumbai which is also one of the helper in the mumbai blasts, we have done it many times now give some more powers to ATS and destroy it completely. Though some funds to political parties or bollywood movie makers may be coming via mafia but we need to take action.
Sixth Point.
Reform the police , give them some good training, get their tummies inside.
This is most important.
Seventh Point.
Give the police some weapons which are relevant in 2008 they should not be using weapons which were used in the 60's , they could never have been able to kill the terrorists using the latest guns.
Imagine a scenario:
If this could have happened we would have been raped.
Three main metropolitan cities Mumbai, Chennai , Kolkatta -
Three small ships from areas Karachi, LTTE area, Bangladesh
Dhoom - Dhoom in this three cities
We couldn't' have been able to do anything
It is very possible , it could have happened as our neighboring areas are sensitive.
Following are the steps which i see i will update if i get more and readers are request to add more.
Posted in
Mumbai Attacks,
Terrorism
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Written on 2:13 PM by nitesh
Links getting connected:
State government of Maharashtra and Central government were informed about the departure of ship from the coast of karachi.
Mini boats were provided by Mumbai Underworld to the terrorists.
Terrorists were trained by ISI or Pakistani Army.
Weapons were provided to terrorists by Underworld.
Terrorists were well informed about the Hotel interiors, probably they may have worked inside the hotel some time before.
Its Global jihad as citizens of many country were inside hotel as hostages
Posted in
Mumbai Attacks
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