11-29-2006, 12:08 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Socked in the eye </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Brother stuns Afzal's fan club
Delhi's commentariat, or chattering classes if you wish, must have received a rude shock when informed, courtesy an investigative report telecast by CNN-IBN, that Mohammed Afzal Guru was indeed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist. Had this fact been asserted by the police or any other Government agency, it would have been met with scorn and disdain. After all, those campaigning for the condemned terrorist to be spared the noose have shown scant regard and lesser respect for the country's judiciary, including the Supreme Court, claiming that Afzal Guru did not get a fair trial, which, of course, is nothing but outright calumny disguised as freedom of speech. But now that his elder brother, <b>Aijaz, has admitted on camera that Afzal Guru was not only a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist but was also working for Ghazi Baba, who organised terror attacks within and outside Jammu & Kashmir and was put down by security forces in 2004, our lib-left intelligentsia, which abhors the very concept of national interest, will find it difficult to portray him as an "innocent victim" of a "demonic state" where, to quote writer-turned-activist promoting fashionable causes, Arundhati Roy, "democracy does not exist". </b>It is also revealing that the defence - and it merits reiteration that Afzal Guru, contrary to gross misrepresentation of the truth by members of his fan club, was defended in court by lawyers - did not bother to produce his younger brother, Hilal, who has a different take on events, as a witness. It would, therefore, be in order to suggest that the absurd demand for clemency is not only misplaced but deserves to be rejected without any compunction.
Having said that, we also need to look at some other aspects of the investigative report which show the intelligence and security agencies operating in Jammu & Kashmir in poor light and raise important questions which need to be answered by authority unless it prefers to remain indifferent about the need to plug loopholes in the existing system that enable terrorists like Afzal Guru to strike high profile targets with amazing impunity. <b>It has now emerged that security forces and intelligence agencies allowed Afzal Guru freeplay for all of 2000 and 2001 to plan and execute the attack on Parliament House</b>. During this time, he was in regular touch with Ghazi Baba and there was enough evidence to restrain him from proceeding further with the crime for which he has now been sentenced to death. Those charged with conducting counter-terrorism operations, for some inexplicable reason, failed to piece together enough intelligence input to nail Afzal Guru before he and his fellow terrorists involved in the attack on Parliament House almost succeeded in their evil enterprise. This cannot be brushed aside as an oversight: The man's background and his associations demanded that his movements be tracked; yet, this simple principle of counter-terrorism was followed in the breach. Three questions arise from this disclosure. First, whose decision was it not to track Afzal Guru? Second, has responsibility been fixed for this abysmal lapse? Third, what steps have been taken to ensure that this does not happen again?<b> The answers, if any, would be available with the Union Home Ministry. Tragically, managing internal security is no longer the core competence of the Home Ministry under its current political management.</b>
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
Brother stuns Afzal's fan club
Delhi's commentariat, or chattering classes if you wish, must have received a rude shock when informed, courtesy an investigative report telecast by CNN-IBN, that Mohammed Afzal Guru was indeed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist. Had this fact been asserted by the police or any other Government agency, it would have been met with scorn and disdain. After all, those campaigning for the condemned terrorist to be spared the noose have shown scant regard and lesser respect for the country's judiciary, including the Supreme Court, claiming that Afzal Guru did not get a fair trial, which, of course, is nothing but outright calumny disguised as freedom of speech. But now that his elder brother, <b>Aijaz, has admitted on camera that Afzal Guru was not only a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist but was also working for Ghazi Baba, who organised terror attacks within and outside Jammu & Kashmir and was put down by security forces in 2004, our lib-left intelligentsia, which abhors the very concept of national interest, will find it difficult to portray him as an "innocent victim" of a "demonic state" where, to quote writer-turned-activist promoting fashionable causes, Arundhati Roy, "democracy does not exist". </b>It is also revealing that the defence - and it merits reiteration that Afzal Guru, contrary to gross misrepresentation of the truth by members of his fan club, was defended in court by lawyers - did not bother to produce his younger brother, Hilal, who has a different take on events, as a witness. It would, therefore, be in order to suggest that the absurd demand for clemency is not only misplaced but deserves to be rejected without any compunction.
Having said that, we also need to look at some other aspects of the investigative report which show the intelligence and security agencies operating in Jammu & Kashmir in poor light and raise important questions which need to be answered by authority unless it prefers to remain indifferent about the need to plug loopholes in the existing system that enable terrorists like Afzal Guru to strike high profile targets with amazing impunity. <b>It has now emerged that security forces and intelligence agencies allowed Afzal Guru freeplay for all of 2000 and 2001 to plan and execute the attack on Parliament House</b>. During this time, he was in regular touch with Ghazi Baba and there was enough evidence to restrain him from proceeding further with the crime for which he has now been sentenced to death. Those charged with conducting counter-terrorism operations, for some inexplicable reason, failed to piece together enough intelligence input to nail Afzal Guru before he and his fellow terrorists involved in the attack on Parliament House almost succeeded in their evil enterprise. This cannot be brushed aside as an oversight: The man's background and his associations demanded that his movements be tracked; yet, this simple principle of counter-terrorism was followed in the breach. Three questions arise from this disclosure. First, whose decision was it not to track Afzal Guru? Second, has responsibility been fixed for this abysmal lapse? Third, what steps have been taken to ensure that this does not happen again?<b> The answers, if any, would be available with the Union Home Ministry. Tragically, managing internal security is no longer the core competence of the Home Ministry under its current political management.</b>
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