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 Kapil Kak,
Defence Expert
Air Marshal ( Retired) Kapil Kak, currently Joint Director, Centre for Air Power Studies, Delhi-based thinktank, formerly joint director, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis and Air Adviser to the Chief of Air Staff.
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| Why India is allowing illegal immigrants from Pak/Bangaladesh? Why India doesn't do anything against this? |
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-Dharmchandra (dcagrawal007@yahoo.co.in) |
I share your concern entirely regarding the serious impact of illegal immigration from Bangladesh and Pakistan. The latter's elements could also be sleeper cells to be activated for terrorist operations when so required by their masters. Immigration from Bangladesh has carried on unhindered for over two decades without any worthwhile actions by the political leadership. Today, the number is said to be about 20 million. This has not only altered the ethno-demographic character of seven districts in Assam but has acquired a degree of permanency, further exacerbated by votebank politics. Government policies have been very lax in this regard. There is need for an early completion of fencing on the India-Bangladesh border, issuing of technology-intensive foolproof identity cards in all the vulnerable districts and strict enforcement of anti-immigration policies. Temporary work permits for authorised immigrants could be a mitigatory option.
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| Other Q&As |
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Q: We have been talking of Pakistan training in various militant outfits for years together. Have we identified the reasons and the base of these outfits and their funding sources? You will agree that without knowing the root cause of any issue it is not possible to find a remedy to it. We have been facing the terror since 1980s from various outfits. It is high time that we find the root and the cause and destroy it. May be take a lesson from Sri Lanka and determined to kill militancy.
-Partha (parthadear@yahoo.com)
- The Pakistan Army and its ISI began training, organising, funding and supporting religious extremists-cum-terrorists on behalf of the US in the latter's war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the early 1980s. Later in that decade, when the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, the focus of terror infrastructure with different actors, notably the Lashkar-e-Taiba and subsequently the Jaish-e-Muhammad, was shifted initially to J&K and later to the rest of India. This phase coincided with Pakistan's nuclearisation, which has tended to blunt India's conventional military superiority. Pakistan remains the fountainhead of these outfits, with narcotics trafficking constituting the primary funding source.
The root cause is socio-economic deprivation and unemployment, whose resolution has a long-term dimension. There can, however, be no justifiable cause for terrorism, whatever the rationale behind it. The answer lies in an international cooperative effort to pressurise the Pakistan Army and ISI through political, economic, diplomatic and eventually military pressure to dismantle terrorism (its roots and branches) from sanctuaries in Pakistan. Sri Lanka or even Israel are not good examples of counter-terrorism successes. Both the countries have been at war against terrorism for decades without any positive outcome.
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Q: Are we really ready for a counteraction within minutes, if Pakistan or China launches a missile on us? Or it will take hours and days before slothful and shameless leadership decides on ‘something’. Have we thought of some action plans if, god forbid, we as a nation have to go through the worst? Or we will think upon it once the damage is done, as always?
-Ravindra (ravi.sarawagi@gmail.com)
- The question to consider carefully is why China or Pakistan would launch nuclear-armed missiles on us? And where? This wouldn't be a bolt from the blue scenario as you envisage but result from a limited conventional war that has breached the nuclear threshold. Such a scenario would entail a massive retaliation by us in terms of our nuclear doctrine - to cause punitive, unacceptable damage. This is the key to nuclear deterrence and it has worked in the international system for 61 years. All the contingencies would have been likely gamed and simulated by our National Security Council and our political leadership is unlikely to be self-deterred as you appear to apprehend. Its role in all the wars thrust on India since independence has not been found wanting in any respect.
Our nuclear doctrine is based on accepting the limited damage of an adversary's first strike, but to be in a position to inflict unacceptable damage on the 'striker', for which survivability of the nuclear arsenal, dispersion, deception, redundancy in communications and a foolproof command and control system is a critical necessity.
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Q: Recently, air traffic has increased exponentially. Is small airports vulnerable to be a cause of incident like 9/11?
-Ajay (sunita769@optonline.net)
- Yes, air traffic did increase exponentially in the early period of this decade but it has gone through a steep downward trend over the last 10 months. Terrorist actions at airports are aimed at sensationalism and immediate world attention. So from the terrorists' perspective, the bigger an airport the higher the likely damage and resultant worldwide impact. On the other hand, security at smaller airport is relatively less strict compared to international airports. You are thus right in highlighting the vulnerability of smaller airports to 9/11 type of actions. There is just no alternative to very strict and comprehensive security measures at all airports-big or small.
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Q: Can the Indian government take military action against those who are claimed to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks? Will other nations join the strike? If so, what are the implications for India and the world? Is it a prudent enough step to take? If not, what would be the best thing for the government to do?
-Isha (isha_willie@yahoo.co.in)
- Yes, a military action against those responsible for the Mumbai attacks i.e. the Pakistan Army, ISI and the Lashkar-e-Taiba groups is a feasible proposition. While the national anger and outrage fully justifies it, cool-headed strategic considerations demand that this option be exercised last of all after other initiatives are either ruled out or unsuccessful. This is because military action may actually fuel increased terrorism rather than eliminate it. Secondly, we would have to be prepared for a limited conventional war which would deflect attention away from our socio-economic upliftment policies and economic growth strategies that constitute our primary national security driver.
Entities responsible for 26/11 aimed to provoke India into a military riposte so that the Pakistani forces could be diverted from the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier to India's border, tension ratcheted up with India, the fledgling democratically elected civilian government isolated and discredited and Pakistan transformed into a military dictatorship yet again on the bogey of an India threat! Prima facie it does appear that economic, diplomatic and political pressure by the western powers, notably the US, on the entities responsible for the Mumbai attacks would be a relatively more cost-effective option. However, should this fail, an international military action could become an inevitable. An Indian military action, involving surgical air strikes or action by special forces against centres of gravity/vulnerability to inflict unbearable pain on Pakistan below the nuclear threshold, may then become necessary, if all else fails. Time is on India's side.
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| Join the War on Terror today |
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| You can also |
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SMS ‘WAR’ to52424
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| In case you come across any suspicious activity or have any information to tell the Anti-Terror Squad, |
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| Dial All India Toll-Free
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| Terror Helpline No.1090
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| The identity of the caller will be kept a secret.
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Here's a list of emergency numbers and addresses in 6 important cities.
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We bring together stories, videos and pictures on terror attacks across the nation.
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India Reacts
The prime purpose of the terrorists is to shatter the peace and unity of the country. The only way to defeat them is by defeating their mindless purpose-- stand with determined resilience with the people of the country irrespective of communal, linguistic and regional barriersn.
Swarnima Bhattacharya
, Lucknow
Much has been spoken by the leaders, but no concrete work has been done so far. The ministry should not be headed by any politician but by some retired police or preferably some military official.
Shailendra Vikrant , Chandigarh
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Headlines Today anchors pledge to fight terror
Are we safe anywhere?
