Country cannot afford more terror attacks:
PM
New
Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday
said the country could not afford to have a “repetition of
the kind of terrorist attacks” as witnessed recently and it
was imperative to improve the intelligence machinery and undertake
police reforms to be able to deal with such threats.
“I
only wish to emphasise here that time is not on our side.
We cannot afford a repetition of the kind of terrorist attacks
that have recently taken place in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore,
Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Guwahati and some other urban centres,”
the prime minister said while addressing the country's top
police brass at their annual conference.
“Every
time a terrorist attack takes place there is a public outcry
over the failure of the government, accompanied by criticism
of the police and the intelligence agencies.”
“I
am aware that many terrorist attacks have been prevented,
thanks to the vigil of the police and intelligence agencies,
but a single incident of reasonable magnitude causes repercussions,
and calls into question the capability and the capacity of
the government and its various agencies.”
According
to home ministry figures, the country has been rocked by 64
bomb blasts in less than six months this year leaving more
than 215 dead and over 900 injured.
Referring
to the globalisation of terror that had made terrorism an
all-encompassing danger, the prime minister said police forces
should anticipate that the scale of such terrorist incidents
would only grow in the future and become a major test of our
capabilities.
“You
must therefore be prepared for such an eventuality.”
He
also pointed out that new-age terror had produced a whole
new range of interactive risks, especially in the sphere of
security that had led to the distinction between external
and internal threats being blurred.
"The
current international financial crisis is a good index of
the interactive nature of today's globalised world. Likewise,
in the realm of security, globalisation has produced a whole
new range of interactive threats and risks," the prime
minister said.
"Globalisation
has also led to a blurring of the distinction between external
and internal threats," he said at the conference of director
generals of police (DGP) and inspector generals of police
(IGP).
The
prime minister said the advent of many non-state actors had
greatly increased India's vulnerabilities.
"Terrorism
is now recognised as the main scourge of the modern world.
Today's terrorists - whether they be non-state actors or others
- use modern communications and exploit cyber space to carry
out their disruptive activities."
He
exhorted the police chiefs to improve techniques needed for
fighting new age terror and also stressed the importance of
"sprucing up the intelligence machinery" by proper
staffing.
He
said these reforms must be undertaken at a war footing.
In
addition to new age terror, which the prime minister dwelt
on extensively, Manmohan Singh also mentioned the new danger
posed by the spread of fundamentalist and extremist forces
but made no direct mention of the sectarian riots to have
rocked Orissa, Karnataka, Assam and Mahrashtra in the last
few months.
"We
have, of late, been witnessing the emergence of such pernicious
tendencies and trends, and there are elements in our society
who are actively pursuing such programmes."
"The
virus of communal violence that threatens the secular fabric
of our society needs to be checked and checked effectively
in time, otherwise our multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-caste
society could well unravel."
"This
cannot be done by the police and law and order agencies alone,
but the police are often the first responders and have, hence,
a critical role to play."
Indo-Asian
News Service
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