Take It From The Super Cop

Shri K.P.S.Gill is one of the legendary officers of the Indian Police Service. At the height of the depredations caused by the Pakistan-sponsored Khalistani terrorists in Punjab, he held charge twice as the Director-General of Police (DGP) of Punjab. He has the unique record of defeating the terrorists without conceding any of their demands. The nation owes a deep debt of gratitude to him for defeating the terrorists and for showing that a well-trained and well-motivated police force is the best counter to terrorism. He is presently Adviser to thegovernment of Chattisgarh on counter-terrorism operations against the Naxalites (Maoists). On August17, 2006, he interacted with a group of serving and retired police officers at Chennai on counter-terrorism management. Some of the salient points made by him need to be widely known. These are given below:

• After 9/11, all democracies in the world have given their police special powers to enable them to deal effectively with terrorism. One fails to understand why we in India hesitate to give similar powers to the Police. However, even if such special laws are enacted, they would not serve much purpose unless there is a political will to have them effectively enforced.
  
  
• The present mushrooming of dedicated Anti-Terrorism Special Squads could lead to a marginalisation of the role of the police stations in counter-terrorism. The basic responsibility for dealing with terrorism should remain with the police stations. Every police station and its staff should be made to realise that they have an important role in counter-terrorism and that it is their responsibility to deal with terrorism.
  
  
• As DGP, he never followed the practice of combing operations in counter-terrorism. There were many explosions in different parts of Punjab, but the police never undertook a combing operation in the areas near the scene of the explosion and rounded up people to question them. Such indiscriminate combing operations add to the feelings of alienation of the community from which terrorists have arisen.
  
  
• Arrests should be investigation and evidence-driven and not blind. Wrongful arrests of persons, who are subsequently found to be innocent, could drive many into the waiting arms of terrorists.
  
  
• In Punjab, there were practically no instances of prevention of acts of terrorism on the basis of inputs from the intelligence agencies--whether at the central or State levels, but there were many instances of prevention on the basis of information gleaned during interrogation of suspects. Prompt and skillful interrogation is an important component of counter-terrorism.
  
  
• Transmission of funds through the hawala channels comes in the way of effective action against terrorist funding. A timed exercise was carried out in Punjab to determine how long it takes for money to be transmitted though the hawala channels to a terrorist in need of money for his operations. The hawala channel was able to transmit the money in 16 minutes, whereas transmission through normal banking channels might have taken hours, if not days.
  
  
• The need for the technological modernisation of the police has not yet received the attention it deserves. What is described as modern technology available with the police is 10 to 15 years old, whereas the terrorists use the latest, state of the art technology. The bullet-proof vehicles given to the police use old technology.
  
  
• All terrorist organisations have been increasingly using improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The methods for detection and neutralisation used by the counter-terrorism agencies have not been able to keep pace with the rapid changes in the modus operandi used by the terrorists.
  
  
• Some technologies have universal application, some technologies don't. Each State must have its own research and development capability to select or develop appropriate technologies, which would suit the conditions prevailing in that State. 

(B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai)