TORTURE, TERRORISM AND POLICE:
– Riddhi Ray
Introduction:
Terror means creating an environment of fear and intimidation. First let us come to what the terrorism actually is. Although it is difficult to form any definition of terrorism but Global terrorism database is of opinion that-“The threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.”
So when some act of violence done due to the purpose of attaining any certain malicious goal by threatening and forcing people is called terrorism. Slaughtering innocent people who have not done any wrong, just for the sake of taking revenge against any personal aggression or to just create nuisance among the government and the citizen is the main motto behind terrorism.
Every strong or developing economy had suffered and still been facing terrorism. And our country India had gone through several terrorist attacks so far compared to other countries. Since independence in 1947 India has been dealing with terrorism and its violent consequences.
Reason behind terrorism:
So, for diving deep into the root cause we need to understand the history when India got divided in 1947 in two parts- One part with Muslim majority is called Pakistan and the other one with Hindu majority is known to us as our own India. And the main regions which always remain subject of dispute are Jammu and Kashmir, south-central India and Arunachal Pradesh etc. But most of the attack are been observed in J& K region. After independence J&K maharaja Harish Chandra handed over the possession of this region to Prime Minister of India by signing a treaty against providing security to this region but Pakistan claimed that J&K being a Muslim dominant area should be a part of Pakistan. And that’s how this dispute first arose and got continued for decades after decades.
And mostly for attaining control over all these regions some terrorist organizations came into action whose sole intention is to create an environment of peril and capturing these regions unlawfully. Some of these organizations are- Al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Khalistan liberation force. As per some report these organizations got funded by Pakistani political leaders like- former pm Nawaz Sharif, Former president Asif ali zardari and many more. In August 2008, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has said that there are as many as 800 terrorist cells operating in the country. Terror attacks caused 231 civilian deaths in 2012 in India, compared to 11,098 terror-caused deaths worldwide.
Recent terror attacks in India-
We all are aware of some past disastrous attacks has been conducted throughout India, like-
Kandahar Hijack, 1999- Air India flight IC814 containing 175 civilians flying from Kathmandu to Delhi got hijacked by five terrorists of Harkat-ul- Mujahedeen organization. And this plane got landed to Dubai after refueling from Amritsar and Lahore. And negation went on between Taliban terrorists and Indian government. And after being agreed to their demand of leaving three prisoners, like- Masud Azhar the plane returned back to Indian Territory safely without casualties.
Parliament Attack, 2001- In 13th December, 2001 Indian parliament house got attacked by five terrorist who were associated with Laskar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. First they did attack the vacant car of vice president. And later shooting went on between security staff and terrorist for almost half an hour. And 9 of Indian personals got dead but 5 of terrorists got killed also.
Mumbai terror attack, 26/11/2008- Ten Laskar-e-Taiba terrorists with bags full of explosives and fire arms reached Mumbai. They got divided into two cells and one group attacked the CST railway station of Mumbai. Two of them were Azmal kasap and Ismail Khan. And other group attacked the luxurious Taj hotel. In this 3 days terror attack almost 310 people got injured and 160 people died including 18 police officers & 2 NSG commandos. 9 terrorist shot dead at that place and the main culprit Azmal Kasap got sentenced to death in pune’s gherawara Jail.
Uri Terror attack, 2016: 18th September, 2016 A major attack carried out by four jaish terrorists. Almost 17 grenades had been thrown in army shelter which caused the death of 17 army personals. And over 30 soldiers got injured.
Pulwama Terror attack, 2019: On 14th February, 2019 the most recent Pulwama attack trembled the whole country with shock. Via NH-44 2500 soldiers by boarding on 78 busses were going from Jammu to Srinagar. At that time almost 3:30 pm 350 kg explosive filled Suv collided with one of those busses. Due to which 40 soldiers died on the spot. As per evidences the suicide bomber was registered with Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist group.
Counter terrorism:
Till now we have discussed the disheartening reality of terrorism and its draconic consequences. Now it’s time to enlighten ourselves about the steps have been taken so far by Governmental bodies like Executive-police, ministry, judiciary- judicial system. Many acts have been passed by legislature to prevent terrorism from spreading, like-
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967: It is an Act to provide for the more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations, and for dealing with terrorist activities, and for matters connected therewith. Some of its provisions are as follows-
Section 13 of the said act deals with unlawful activities of any organization. Any person takes part in or commits, abets, advocates any act of unlawful activity of any organization shall be liable to imprisonment which may extend to 7 years and also reasonable fines.
Section 16 clearly mentions if any person does an act of terrorism which leads to death of any person he will be liable to death penalty or imprisonment for life.
Section 17 mentions an act of funding terrorist group of individual will be punishable by imprisonment of 5 years bare minimum.
Under the first schedule of said act almost 42 organizations have been banned for funding or being actively involved in terrorism. Some of them are- Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Qaida/Al-Qaida in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS), Dukhtaran-E-Millat (DEM), The Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and many more.
Many more provisions are there to make the incident of terrorism as less as possible.
Other than that many acts are there which paved the way to counter the terrorism as much as possible-
Prevention of terrorism act (POTA)
National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 (Amended)
The National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2019
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019
The National Investigation Agency Act, 2008.
Surgical strike, 2016: ON 29 th September, 2016 Indian army conducted a surgical strike attack to destroy militant bases outside line of control. Almost 35 to 70 militants were demolished in this attack. And no casualties had happened I,e. no soldiers got died while performing such surprise attack over terrorist. This was one of the most successful attacks of Indian army.
Other Steps: And not only passing act but also government took a lot of steps as well. Many intelligence departments throughout the country are actively involved in investigating terrorism and removing it from its root. Like CBI, RAW, and most well known anti terrorism squad of almost every state are constantly working to eliminate terrorism.
Conclusion: This terrorism and ongoing violent aggression had already made a lot of damage to our country and throughout the world as well. To stop terrorism from spreading we need to take further steps. Lack of education and getting brain washed by filthy religious extremists are also one of the causes of terrorism. So besides amending and executing strict laws we need to focus also on all other aspect to eliminate it forever.