PUNE, 19 August 2006 — Though denied by the Maharashtra government that it has issued any directive to put Muslims under watch, an issue that was even raised in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) of the Indian Parliament two days ago, reliable police sources still claim that the directive exists and that Muslims not only in Bombay but in the entire country are under the scanner of the federal and state intelligence agencies.
A sharp eye is being kept on the Muslim police officers, bureaucrats, politicians, journalists, scientists, and on madarsas, educational institutions, shrines and mosques.
Records of those who had traveled or stayed abroad for more than 10 years are being verified by the Special Branch police as also e-mails, faxes, letters and landline and mobile phones are being intercepted regularly, said police sources.
“May be the country would see no Muslim president after Abdul Kalam, no chief of the army, navy or air force, not even as state police chief. Also Muslims may not find jobs in the defense or police departments in future,” commented a police official.
The police have apprehensions of terrorists striking at important targets with the aide of locals. With the fortnight long important Hindu festival of elephant deity due to begin shortly, police are taking no risks, with security tightened up throughout Maharashtra state.
“Watch chat rooms for terror,” said state Director General of Police Pavender Singh Pasricha.
Addressing a high level meeting of police officials at the police commissioner’s office yesterday, Pasricha asked the top officials to gather intelligence with the help of cyber cafe owners. Terrorists are now chatting over the Internet as that’s difficult to detect compared to mobile phones and e-mails.
“Terrorists have started using chat rooms as that’s safe” Pasricha said and added that the police will now plan action along with cyber café owners, who have been asked to maintain identity proofs of customers like driving license.
Terrorism is not a temporary issue. We need to develop an effective security culture to tackle the problem. So much like ‘environment’, it is the need of the hour to include ‘security’ as a subject in school syllabus, Pasricha said and mentioned that the government is planning to form a special squad of spies to curb the rising terrorist activities in the State.
The cops working in agencies like Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Intelligence Branch are transferred after a certain period. So, to strengthen the system for gathering intelligence about terrorists, about fifty percent of the officials in this special squad would not be transferred. They will be working in this squad from their joining date till retirement, the state police chief said.
