Action plan to fight
terrorism formulated
Tribune
News Service and Agencies
NEW DELHI, Oct 14 (PTI)
A seven-point action plan, calling for the
creation of special task forces to tackle the menace of
ISI-sponsored terrorism and criminal gangs and
reorientation of the criminal justice system, was
formulated at a meeting of the Chief Ministers of seven
northern states here today.
The meeting, convened by
Home Minister L. K. Advani, to discuss the prevailing law
and order situation and the need to build coordination
among states to tackle terrorism, suggested that old laws
be amended to provide effective countering of strategies
being adopted by criminals.
For this, legal backing
was essential, the meeting felt.
It decided that special
task forces should be set up to evolve and implement a
plan of action to identify and stamp out terrorists and
criminal gangs and to carry out coordinated operations
against inter-state criminals.
The meeting strongly
favoured that the criminal justice system should be
reoriented in view of the problems being faced in law
enforcement, especially with a view to countering the
designs of external agencies, official sources said.
The meeting felt that
there had to be speedier disposal of cases and bail
should also be given with due care. It also proposed
suitable amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act, the
Passport Act and the Explosive Substances Act to make
them more stringent, the sources said.
The Union Home Ministry
estimated that property worth Rs 2,000 crore was damaged
and nearly 34,000 lives were lost in the country on
account of terrorism sponsored by the ISI.
In a presentation on the
role being played by the Pakistani agencies and their
surrogates in India to destabilise internal security, it
said Rs 46,000 crore was spent on army and security
forces on internal security duties.
While the period was not
mentioned, in the presentation on the magnitude and
extent of damage caused by ISI-sponsored terrorism, the
ministry quantified that 51,810 kg of high explosives,
including RDX had been pushed into India and 7,125
Pakistanis and foreign mercenaries sent after training
for sabotage.
Of these, 1,750 were still
active, 1,120 had been killed, 140 arrested and the rest
had returned. This figure excluded 19,000 Indians trained
by the ISI in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Afghanistan
for sabotage.
The ministry also
estimated that Rs 18,500 crore was spent on compensation
to victims, border-fencing and raising of
counter-terrorist forces.
Addressing the meeting,
the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, stressed the
need to handle internal security with a firm hand so that
the country was not perceived as a "soft
state".
"India should not be
perceived to be a "soft state", although there
should be no compromise with the ideals of justice
enshrined in the Indian Constitution," Mr Advani
said.
Mr Advani urged the states
to effectively counter the proxy war of the ISI and
suggest new ideas and operational methodology by which
the central government and the states could work to
improve the existing measures.
The meeting was attended
by the chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal
Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan and
the Finance Minister of Punjab.
Taking part in the
deliberations, the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr
Prem Kumar Dhumal, urged the Centre to liberally help the
state to enable it to beef up security in the border
areas adjoining Jammu and Kashmir.
He also thanked the Centre
for agreeing to bear the expenses on the hiring of
helicopter to undertake reconnaissance and intensify
vigil in the border areas.
Mr Dhumal also urged the
Centre to bear the expenditure on account of the
deployment of paramilitary forces on the border areas of
Himachal, which the Centre had agreed to in principle, a
state government note said.
The Haryana Chief
Minister, Mr Bansi Lal stressed the need to constitute a
special task force for the NCR to coordinate
investigation of serious crimes.
"Coordination between
the police forces of neighbouring states needs to be
strengthened and there is also need to improve the
communication system throughout the NCR," he said.
Mr Bansi Lal also demanded
Rs 54 crore for the modernisation of police in Haryana.
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