[Assam] Of Hostage Crisis and Counter - Sentinel Letter

[Chan Mahanta]

I know it is not nice to blame the police for everything, knowing the 
state of the 'policiary' ( you heard it here first).


Besides, they would not be the issue, had the bad guys not kidnapped 
PCR to begin with, or made to look bad by digging up the wrong corpse 
and calling it Ram's  ( I mean the other Ram )) or giving it the 
grand farewell. How would the police know who it was? After all Ram's 
son ID'd it  against their DOUBTS, didn't they?  How would the police 
know whose  decomposed corpse it was? Are they experts at it? Do they 
see them all the time? Were they supposed to know what he looked 
like, what birthmark he might have had or where? Are they supposed to 
know more than the son, who, was TOLD  that it was his father's? Who 
told him that? Hey--how is one to know? Word gets around!


Only the troublemakers would raise nasty questions, about whether the 
police was only too relieved to see PCR gone. Can anyone prove if the 
police heaved a sigh of relief, or muttered good-riddance?


Why did PCR's son insinuate that the police might have connived to 
really get rid of PCR, once he resurrected?  Was PCR one who knew too 
much? How would the son know anything about that? And then again 
FCI--that hallowed guardian of food for the hungry-- what could that 
have to do with any shady dealings, for PCR to know more than might 
have been good for him? This is nothing more than a desperate attempt 
at finding scapegoats.


What?  Why did the chief ULFA hunter, some Sarma or other , say that 
they knew of PCR being in Gobinda Deka's house, BEFORE his DbIG boss 
declared  NO, they had no idea.  What is there to be suspicious 
about?  It is not like they are conjoined twins or something. One is 
a khoini-khowa, the other a  kharkhowa Bamun. They don't even speak 
the same language.  The same crowd of police-bashers would have cried 
foul, of hatching some conspiracy, if they got together to get their 
story straight before going public.

It would be damned if you do, damned if you don't!


I am with Kamal, and Ram ( our Ram that is)  too. Let those who have 
20-20 hindsight cry all they want.
We may not have much, but we have our honor and we shall not go 
trying to show the world how sharp we are , after the fact,  joining 
the witch-hunting posse. If we had to do it, we shall do it the old 
fashioned way--by being on the front-lines, fighting the big fight, 
like we usually do!


Insincerely yours.


cm :-)


PS: I don't know why our friends keep giving my acerbic side the fuel 
it needs to keep flaring up, while I struggle desperately to keep it 
under wraps. Not nice !











At 3:16 PM -0600 7/19/07, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>Here is a letter from KJD in today's Sentinel.
>
>In generally agreeing with KJD, I would also like to add that many 
>of us seem to forget that just because one may believe there is an 
>incompetent government entity or police force, they ought not to be 
>patting the insurgents on the back (for having got the better of the 
>govt.).
>
>There are two distinct sides to this issue. One is that there ought 
>to be wholesale condemnation against such kidnappings. The second is 
>the role of the police or adminsitration to getting hostages 
>released.
>
>If these hostages were NOT kidnapped in the first place, they would 
>not have been killed, would they?
>
>I am not sure that the Govt. of India has even a standing policy on 
>hostage negotiations or negotiations with terrorists. Each 
>successive GOI administration seems to have, what one might call a  
>policy on the fly.  They seem to make up policies on these critical 
>issues as they go along. That apparently gives terrorists and other 
>such elements the idea that its a free for all.
>
>India needs to take strong lessons from countries like China, 
>Russia, and Israel in formulating tough policies against terrorists.
>
>--Ram
>_______________________________________
>Of Hostage Crisis and Counter
>J P Rajkhowa's article entitled "The Goof behind a Bizarre 
>Encounter" (The Sentinel, July 15, 2007) reminds me of an old 
>Assamese adage - ''borokhun gole japi'' - the loose translation of 
>which in English would be ''to lock the barn house after the horse 
>has bolted'. Invariably, as an incident as PC Ram's comes to an end, 
>the columnists of all hues, who normally would not even open their 
>windows at the time of a simple riot, let alone camp at the site of 
>encounters, begin advancing their pet theories forthwith by heaping 
>calumny of the failures of the police department. It seems to be the 
>case of rushing to judgement before all the information, pertinent 
>to the incident, are out in the open. Should we not suspend our 
>judgment until, and if at all, all the facts are presented by an 
>independent party?
>I must say that this piece is not intended to belittle the 
>earnestness of Mr Rajkhowa to highlight the inadequacy of the police 
>department. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the cops are faced 
>with the bizarre situation of ''damned if you do, damned if you do 
>not''.
>In the event of a hostage crisis, the administration of the day may 
>not be able to save the lives of hostages every time, but each 
>country has the option of not compromising with the demands of the 
>terrorists. Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case with India. 
>Remember how the Indian Government safely escorted two dreaded 
>terrorists, Masood Azahar and Mustaque Zagar, to Afghanistan in 
>December 1999 in the hijacking case of an Indian airliner, and how 
>the government unconditionally conceded to the demands of the 
>terrorists in the kidnapping of Rubbiya Sayeed in Jammu & Kashmir in 
>November 1989?
>Compare India's response to Russia's reaction to the Chechen hostage 
>crisis at the Palace of Culture a few years ago. There were 900 
>hostages. Even so, Kremlin made only one counter-offer - that the 
>lives of the jehadis would be spared if they freed the hostages. 
>Eventually, Kremlin had its special force to gas them, killing all 
>the jehadis along with 170 hostages but saved more than 700 lives. 
>The message that the Russians had sent to the terrorists was: 
>''Don't try to mess with us.''
>By the way, have any of those who regularly grumble against police 
>failures, ever seen the police barrack? I wonder!
>Kamaljit Deka,
>Sugarland, Texas.
>
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>assam at assamnet.org
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