Security sitution in India

[King]

I have some honest opinions to make about the security situation in India. I know this is not going to please many over here and I’ll come under some scathing comments but I need to make this point. Firstly before people jump the gun this is not a comparison with Pakistan. I’m not interested in that. We all know India is not Pakistan and I don’t need to be told about that. I would be stupid to compare India’s security situation with Pakistan. Pakistan is gone to dogs but that doesn’t mean India is sitting pretty. India is also under constant attacks and just being better than Pakistan is not something India should be after in my opinion. I want to point out lack of leadership and counter strike from India that has resulted in a lot of mishaps that perhaps could have been avoided. Here’s the dossier of attacks on India (note the increase in this century). I’m just producing the attacks in just one city, for details on all the attacks so far go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_India : Kandahar hijack and release of hostages The Taliban authorities initially refused to cooperate with Indian authorities to secure a release of the hostages[citation needed]. They also emphatically refused to allow Indian commandos to storm the plane. They refused the request to let Afghan commandos storm the plane, as well. Their plea was that they wouldn't allow a foreign military outfit to operate in Afghanistan and they themselves are not capable to undertake such an operation. (It has since been confirmed that this hijacking was carried out with the official support/complicity of the Taliban and the Al Qaeda)[citation needed]. The Taliban encircled the plane with tanks and heavily armed militia in a bid to stop any forceful storming by Indian Special Forces. Negotiations opened up between the Indian embassy officials and the hijackers. The Indian Negotiation team Plane also had some well armed equipped soldiers but they were not shown[citation needed]. It was only after a week had passed that the Indian government sent its special crisis group to Kandahar for serious negotiations. By that time the media outcry in India was so great that a quick resolution to this crisis was needed as a political face-saving exercise. As a result the government accepted the demand to release the following terrorists in exchange for the release of the passengers and crew of flight IC 814.[4] • Maulana Masood Azhar • Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar • Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh who had been imprisoned in connection with 1994 Kidnappings of Western tourists in India went on to murder Daniel Pearl These three released extremists were later involved in various terror attacks on India, including the September 11, 2001 World trade center attack in U.S. The erstwhile Indian Minister for External Affairs, Jaswant Singh went personally to Kandahar to deliver the prisoners over to the hijackers and receive the passengers back in exchange for a safe passage to the hijackers. Attack on Indian parliament Terrorists on December 13, 2001 attacked the Parliament of India resulting in a 45-minute gun battle in which 9 policemen and parliament staffer were killed. All the five terrorists were also killed by the security forces and were identified as Pakistani nationals. The attack took place around 11:40 am (IST), minutes after both Houses of Parliament had adjourned for the day. The suspected terrorists dressed in commando fatigues entered Parliament in a car through the VIP gate of the building. Displaying Parliament and Home Ministry security stickers, the vehicle entered the Parliament premises. The terrorists set off massive blasts and have used AK-47 rifles, explosives and grenades for the attack. Senior Ministers and over 200 Members of Parliament were inside the Central Hall of Parliament when the attack took place. Security personnel sealed the entire premises which saved many lives. Mumbai Mumbai has been the most preferred target for most terrorist organizations, primarily the separatist forces from Kashmir. Over the past few years a series of attacks including explosions in local trains in July 2006, to the most recent and unprecedented attacks of 26 November, 2008, where two of the prime hotels and another building, in south Mumbai, were sieged. Terrorist attacks in Mumbai include:* • 12 March 1993 - Series of 13 bombs go off killing 257 • 6 December 2002 - Bomb goes off in a bus in Ghatkopar killing 2 • 27 January 2003 - Bomb goes off on a bicycle in Vile Parle killing 1 • 14 March 2003 - Bomb goes off in a train in Mulund killing 10 • 28 July 2003 - Bomb goes off in a bus in Ghatkopar killing 4 • 25 August 2003 - Two Bombs go off in cars near the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar killing 50 • 11 July 2006 - Series of seven bombs go off in trains killing 209 • 26 November 2008 to 29 November 2008 - Coordinated series of attacks killing at least 172. I mentioned if IPL can be held outside India because of security reasons what stops international teams from requesting the same? Have there been no bombings in India in the past one year? Are you abreast with security situation in India? Don't you know some of the famous destination for sportsmen included was attacked in Bombay? Haven't you seen how many foreigners were targeted/killed during the Bombay shootout? Half the cricketing world is **** scared about visiting India if you did not know. For once stop thinking about Pakistan and for once look in-house if the security has improved in India. I can give you a dossier of bombings since few months/years, it has only gotten worse. All these bombings were topped off by Mumbai shoot out. That is the worse I have seen for a very long time. Who gives a toss about your comparison with Pakistan and feeling more secure than Pakistan? There are people dying on the streets and the govt is able to do crap to improve the security situations. I’m sick of hearing it was Pakistanis screwing up India. If they are able to walk in to a city and take the entire city as hostage what the heck is the Govt of India, Military, Cops, Para-Military, intelligence doing? The situation has only got worse since a year or two. If terrorists are able to walk across the neighboring country and creating havoc then it rakes of inability of the Indians to stop that. How long will India keep saying the attacks were designed by Pakistan when every tom, dick and harry in the world knows it already? On the contrary, what have they done to stop this from happening though? Zilch, an absolute NADA. The same old lackluster reaction and people move on as if nothing’s happened. As long as India has better security situation than Pakistan it’s all good it sounds like, doesn’t matter the number of bombings continue to increase. I’m tired of this attitude of some of you blokes feeling great because India has better security situation than Pakistan. It seems it just doesn’t matter hundreds across the country die every year due to lack of security or intelligence. There’s always some excuse round the corner rather than get to the bottom of the problem and sort it out for ever. Whether moving IPL was prudent or not time will tell. In a way I'm quite happy the players now don't have to play under constant threat or under pressure. They can enjoy playing cricket without having to worry about the security issues. For the player this was the best thing to happen, although they are expressing they are going to miss out playing in India they will rather be happy not to be visiting India at this point in time. The players' families will be relieved at this decision. India definitely lacks the ability to ensure their citizens can live without fear at all times. India has done nothing to improve the security situation in general. It’s not just about securing some players’ lives. India has to put in a lot of work to ensure its citizens can live without constant fear of a terrorist strike. I cannot see that happening in the near future. I have read reports where the cops aren’t even armed well enough to tackle such situations. The security hole was glaring during the Mumbai shoot out and they had to bring in trained staff from a different city to sort out the issue in Mumbai. Somehow I’m not convinced India had the ability to hold the IPL this year. Going by history they will not have the ability in the near future either. I have lost count how many times the city of Mumbai has been attacked and the attacks still continue to happen. Despite all this you guys call India is safe and a heavenly place? Just because cricket has not been targeted all is honky and dory? If you do think everything's just fine then you are the reason the govt cares a hoot about the security and cannot nip these issues quickly enough. There is this "everything is fine and anything goes" attitude which has screwed up the country left, right and center.

[goose]

I agree. Whatever the real reasons behind the move away from India, it at least appears we have an establishment that will not compromise on security. The IPL has been temporaily derailed but it wil get back on track. Any sort of incident in an Indian held IPL would kill it off altogether. I actually reckon an IPL in England would be a big success. There are too many vested interests at stake. It is destined to succeed whatever the reality on the ground.

[King]

I was disappointed the IPL was not going to be held in India but now I'm quite happy to see that for the sake of players and IPL. IPL last year was one of the biggest tourney and unlike the "Stanford" debacle IPL is surging forward which will only help the cricketers around the world. I think India really need to work on an optimal security setup not just for holding cricket tourney but in general to keep their nation safe and secure.

[satishg]

good post..beefing up our defense system should be the top most priority of the govt but alas the politicians dont give a damn about it,unless and until a Mumbai like attack happens and every citizen and media person start screaming about how bad our system is..well even then they just make promises until all this hue and cry dies down and things just go back to how they were before the attack..guess we as citizens need more conviction and we need leaders who can lead us with a purpose and who wud instill a strong belief about combating terrorism

[graphic23]

... I mentioned if IPL can be held outside India because of security reasons what stops international teams from requesting the same? Have there been no bombings in India in the past one year? Are you abreast with security situation in India? Don't you know some of the famous destination for sportsmen included was attacked in Bombay? Haven't you seen how many foreigners were targeted/killed during the Bombay shootout? Half the cricketing world is **** scared about visiting India if you did not know. For once stop thinking about Pakistan and for once look in-house if the security has improved in India. I can give you a dossier of bombings since few months/years, it has only gotten worse. All these bombings were topped off by Mumbai shoot out. That is the worse I have seen for a very long time. Who gives a toss about your comparison with Pakistan and feeling more secure than Pakistan? There are people dying on the streets and the govt is able to do crap to improve the security situations. I’m sick of hearing it was Pakistanis screwing up India. If they are able to walk in to a city and take the entire city as hostage what the heck is the Govt of India, Military, Cops, Para-Military, intelligence doing? The situation has only got worse since a year or two. If terrorists are able to walk across the neighboring country and creating havoc then it rakes of inability of the Indians to stop that. How long will India keep saying the attacks were designed by Pakistan when every tom, dick and harry in the world knows it already? On the contrary, what have they done to stop this from happening though? Zilch, an absolute NADA. The same old lackluster reaction and people move on as if nothing’s happened. As long as India has better security situation than Pakistan it’s all good it sounds like, doesn’t matter the number of bombings continue to increase. I’m tired of this attitude of some of you blokes feeling great because India has better security situation than Pakistan. It seems it just doesn’t matter hundreds across the country die every year due to lack of security or intelligence. There’s always some excuse round the corner rather than get to the bottom of the problem and sort it out for ever. Whether moving IPL was prudent or not time will tell. In a way I'm quite happy the players now don't have to play under constant threat or under pressure. They can enjoy playing cricket without having to worry about the security issues. For the player this was the best thing to happen, although they are expressing they are going to miss out playing in India they will rather be happy not to be visiting India at this point in time. The players' families will be relieved at this decision. India definitely lacks the ability to ensure their citizens can live without fear at all times. India has done nothing to improve the security situation in general. It’s not just about securing some players’ lives. India has to put in a lot of work to ensure its citizens can live without constant fear of a terrorist strike. I cannot see that happening in the near future. I have read reports where the cops aren’t even armed well enough to tackle such situations. The security hole was glaring during the Mumbai shoot out and they had to bring in trained staff from a different city to sort out the issue in Mumbai. Somehow I’m not convinced India had the ability to hold the IPL this year. Going by history they will not have the ability in the near future either. I have lost count how many times the city of Mumbai has been attacked and the attacks still continue to happen. Despite all this you guys call India is safe and a heavenly place? Just because cricket has not been targeted all is honky and dory? If you do think everything's just fine then you are the reason the govt cares a hoot about the security and cannot nip these issues quickly enough. There is this "everything is fine and anything goes" attitude which has screwed up the country left, right and center.

Agreed. No country is ever safe 100% by the way. I know it doesn't help but it is a case to be made. Perhaps, you recognize it but you don't acknowledge that in your post. This is not an excuse for the situation in India. As far as the attacks go, India cannot do much about what is happening beyond its borders. In a partial defense of the situation of India, I will say that it is tougher to ensure the security in India than it is in most places around the world. For one, India is the ideal melting pot for a variety of cultures, where it is very easy to attack us. In the US or any western countries, you can recognize an Asian when you see one. You can recognize someone as from the middle east when you see one. In our country, it is very difficult to recognize Pakistanis or Bangladeshis from India (I'm not too aware of the lingual subtleties and how easy it would be to recognize Pakistani and Bangladeshi Urdu from the Urdu that is spoken here - or how their Islam following is different from how its done in our country). That gives a big problem for us. We've got numerous political parties who are ready to pounce on 'secular ideals' everytime a person of a particular religion is shown as the suspect of an attack. They will attack the political party in charge for showing religious bias, castist bias, or bias in any manner they can differentiate a person who was charged. So, prior to charging, say a Hindu man, it has to go through numerous levels of bureaucracy to ensure that it will not cause an uprise, etc. Our country runs on divisive politics. The more ways the people can be differentiated from each other, the more advantageous it is for cunning people to cash in to that. It is a lose-lose situation for the police in charge. We've got extremists in all directions who have reasonable control over a decent-size crowd to cause severe problems to a particular community. I don't think I need to go into it any further here. I hate writing this post because it seems as if I'm putting the blame only on the politicians and on nothing else. I think we, as a nation, have been distracted for a LONG time from the basics of running a nation. The key parts of securing the nation's border with border security, having a strong IPS infrastructure by spending large amounts of money on the arms they will have to combat strong attacks, etc. does not take a priority over say, Abhishek Bachchan's marriage to Aishwarya Rai. There are so many people to blame, but that will not do anything. The common citizen in India needs to think like Naseeruddin Shah in 'A Wednesday' (I'm making the same mistake I'm accusing other people of making by comparing this situation to a film, but in this case, I'm justified). Individual glorification, and absolute egotistical nature of an average Indian leader (of whatever) forms another part of it. No one wants to be wrong because then you will be looked down upon. No one is man enough of admitting a mistake, nor is anyone prepared to forget that he is human and it is an inherent behavior to make mistakes. I have seen politicians resign over failed matters but have never said that it was a lapse, and that it will be immediately fixed. Other parties call for resignations but never offer a chance to rebuild what was broken. It will take a long time before all this can addressed and we have a strong, secure India. Note that I recognize none of what I've said matters to a person looking at India from not within India, but as Indian who is trying to understand why we are failing in this matter, this is what I can say is the reason. I agree with your post because you're saying what is felt by an Australian or an English cricketer. But as an Indian guy, I feel I've got more to say than "India is unsafe, and I won't bother living there." Because as strange as it may seem, not once, in my 11 years that I spent there, or my frequent trips there, have I felt unsafe traveling late at night at a busy center in Bangalore or a small town nearby - at any point of time. And that is the most frightening part because it seems the Indian attitude is that 'life will go on', and for once, perhaps, it shouldn't. Maybe, it will do a world of good, that (god forbid) if another attack happens, we should stop going to work to show that we don't feel safe. But I don't think that will happen either. While I agree with you Ravi, I don't know what can be done in a situation like this. No person can change this by himself/herself. By the state of the Indian politics, and projecting where its future lies, it seems that by the time anyone can truly feel safe within India, regardless of what your religion/cast/etc. is - is quite far away. I refer to India/Indian in the 3rd person here - not to separate myself from it but to show that it is not an individual or a group of people's problem. It is an innate problem with what we as a nation, and I, as an individual want from my country and from my government. I am a part of the problem too. I am terribly disappointed that the IPL is not being held in India. While I feel that generally, India, might be seen as an unsafe place to tour right now (not unreasonably), this move is more a direct consequence of the Lahore attacks on the SL cricketers.

[King]

Top post Graphic23 It's hard hitting, honest and does not mince a word. Enough of feeling everything is right, we all know it's not. If not enough noise is made as you said above nothing will change. I know making some noise here on a cricket forum may not help but there are a lot of people that read these forums and in specific influential people. Although most know about the state of affiars, unless pointed somewhere it may not go in the head.

[jaskaran]

The security situation in India has always been bad ever since terrorism hit J&K..it's because of high profile incidents such as Kandahar Hijack,Parliament,Mumbai etc that people are more aware now than they were before...my father was posted in RR(J&K) and there was never a day when some paki terrorist "tried" to attack some establishment or the other..but such incidents never made any big headlines throughout the country.