Moving with Caution

EDITORIAL
Posted on 2008-11-18
WE only hope that the state police department’s proposal for an Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) does not get caught up in the leisurely debate among bureaucrats – questions and answers about whether this thing complies with this regulation and that thing is in accordance with that law – and does answer all those questions but in a rapid fire manner. Because the state has waited for too long without a proper, focused police unit dealing with terror. The state police has carried on with the existing organisation, but a special unit is now required to deal effectively and timely with the threat.
An Anti-Terror Squad is a part of the state police and yet have its own entity, unique focus and team pride. Members of ATS have to be directly recruited and given special training, such as in commando action, to face any kind of situation. In order to attract better materials and also in view of the risk to life involved, the salary of ATS members has to be higher than that given to state policemen. In Madhya Pradesh, for instance, the salary of ATS members is 60 per cent higher than that of average policemen.
It does not seem likely that Goa ATS will get all its members through a direct recruitment process right from the very beginning. They may be resistance even among those sections of unemployed youth who are usually very eager to join the police force for the power and other things that this career offers. The reasons for resistance could be primarily two: one, the work would be very demanding and hard; and two, it would carry great risks to life, which an average policeman is not exposed to, unless of course he is working in a disturbed area. So, Goa’s ATS may have to depend on members of the state police force on a temporary basis in the beginning. Although the state is small, ATS will have to set up modules in prominent urban centres such as Panaji, Margao, Mapusa, Vasco, Sanvordem and Canacona. Initially, every module could have some personnel taken from the regular police force and some direct recruits. But if the ATS is lucky to get all direct recruits, that would be ideal.
Hopefully, with an ATS in place, the gaps that exist in intelligence on terror in the state would be covered. One of the most important needs for fighting terror today is gathering of intelligence. Terrorist modules are very unlike criminal gangs, though sometimes at some layers they do become seamless. Police are able to gather information about criminal gangs much more easily, because some of their present or past members can be tapped as informers. But terrorist modules are hard to penetrate. Primarily because they are most often ideologically, and not monetarily motivated. Terrorists in their own perception look upon themselves as working for a ‘cause’ and hence it is well-nigh impossible to get informers from among them. Secondly, many of them are first-timers and have no police record and are not under surveillance. Terrorists, unlike gangsters, maintain a double façade, appearing in public as innocent, gentle, nice men who could not even swat a fly. Quite often even their families are not able to know about their activities, until of course they come to hear they have been caught, shot by the police or escaped to Pakistan or some other country.
Sometimes police, facing an uphill task of gathering intelligence through penetration of terror modules, indulge in excessive armed action or search. We have had prejudices spilling over in military or paramilitary action against terror in Jammu and Kashmir. Despite the overwhelming fact that terrorists are often found to be from the community of a certain faith, it would be very unfair and unjust to paint an entire community with the same brush. Excessive police action, interrogation and search against members of a certain community is very likely to generate hostility against the police, making it more difficult to gather information and foil terror plots. We hope Goa’s ATS, as and when it starts its operation, will strictly refrain from such excessive action in its own interest.