India has always had a problem regarding Bangladeshi immigrants, including about deciding what to do with them. In the states neighboring Bangladesh, particularly Assam, this has caused major problems including a long agitation against their presence. The increasing influx of these immigrants has also caused changes to the demography of many districts in these states. Even if they are immigrating for the purpose of economic betterment, no country can accept an unprecedented influx of outsiders, and for a long time, the security agencies have been claiming that they are a security problem as well. Bangladesh has active terrorist bases inside it, and many of recent blasts in India have been blamed on these groups by the police and intelligence agencies.
In addition, the intelligence agencies believe that these migrants are susceptible to being picked up the terrorist groups and made active members who will connive at planning for blasts, being members of active terrorist cells as well as providing support as sleepers. Over a period of time, various courts (including the Supreme Court) and even the Central Government appointed Governors have asked for a policy to urgently identify these immigrants and deport them back to Bangladesh.
India’s faces a severe problem with respect to terrorism. Some of them are on the path of terrorism due to wrong incitement, some are due to the situation and some are terrorists due to being mercenaries, and this being the most profitable route. So, for example, terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir got a massive boost by the rigging of the 1987 state elections, and this was further increased due to the massive boost given by Pakistan through training, funds and men. In many sections of the North-East, terrorism has grown because of separatism again, but for many Naxalite affected areas, people also turn to violence because the state and its institutions have failed them. Hence, the message always goes out from security experts that innocents must not be harmed, and a lot of care and attention must be taken to ensure that people do not feel prompted to turn to terrorism to escape state repression. Those who would have seen Gulzaar’s movie ‘Machis’ would see one example of this happens. In Kashmir right now, the biggest measure that brings hundreds of people out to protest against security forces is the case of frame-ups and innocents being killed. Such one-off problems increases the total problem of handling the insurgency.
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Imagine that you are located near the border, living in Punjab or Jammu & Kashmir. You have an idea of who the militants / mafia / terrorists are, although you have never assisted them in their work. One day, you think that you need some weapons to defend yourself and hence you go to the terrorists, ask them to lend you some weapons. They agree, and send you three assault rifles of the sort commonly used by terrorists and some grenades. You take your pick, and send the remaining back. Later when police call you, you realize that this could be something wrong, and you destroy the evidence. Remember, all this is illegal, with the case of actually keeping weapons banned under the Arms Act (minimum sentence of 5 years). Now, if you were a commoner, innocent in your mind, you would still have been prosecuted, with the chance of being included in the conspiracy and being racked up on terrorism charges. Sounds pretty legal so far. And now pretend that you are not a commoner, but a film star, but have done everything else the same. What should the sentence be, and should it be any different?
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The 1993 Bombay blast trial has finally come to an end, at least for now. The biggest news from it is that 12 people have been awarded the death sentence and Sanjay Dutt has been sentenced to 6 years in jail under the Arms act for possessing an AK-56. The quantum of punishment under the Arms act is between 5 and 10 years. He got 6. Harsh, really?
A rich, famous and powerful person has been convicted and sentenced. It doesn’t happen too often in our justice system. Maybe the Dutts never tried to manipulate the system. But some of the arguments against the verdict have been quite irrational to say the least.
We are a nation of strange people. We always seem to lament that our justice system does not punish the high and mighty, but when it does, we cry foul and call the sentence too harsh! Mr Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, our very own control freak, calls Dutt’s crime unintentional. I’m sorry, an AK-56? Unlicensed! Obtained from friends of the underworld. I don’t think it was unintentional at all.
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Well, actually, make that into the decisive phase of sentencing. The court has already found people guilty or not-guilty, and is slowly moving into the sentencing phase. Till now, the special TADA court has been giving people sentences on the basis of their support to the actual blasts, and the sentences have seemed fairly proportionate. People accused of supporting the crime at different levels have been sentenced to various prison terms, and the gravity of the crime has been matched pretty fairly to the level of conspiracy. Even in that, there are nuances. For example, the police team that let the explosives and arms through for fines were sentenced to varying prison terms; the constables being sentenced to lesser terms than the inspector leading the squad who was sentenced to a much higher prison sentence due to greater complicity. Hence, people in the various gangs who supported the crimes in some way have been also sentenced.
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India, an exporter of terrorism to the world? That would be an incredible cross for the country to bear, and yet recent events have brought that question much closer to everybody’s mind. There does not seem to be much doubt that the recent terrorists attempts in England were the work primarily of Indian Muslims from Bangalore, notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s attempted confession of shock at this and his degree of concern over the condition of the families of those caught.
The trail of events seem to lead to the fact that a fair amount of the inculcation into jehadist and terrorist thought had been already there in the minds of the people already arrested. The fact that they were fully indoctrinated during their stay in England does not clear us of the need to ensure that this country does not come under the shadow of international terrorism. India already has too many home grown terrorists of all religions and types (ULFA, Maoists, Kashmiri, Naga, Sikh, etc).
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