K'taka terror links: Advisor hails timely action of police

Bangalore, Feb 4: Conceding that the two persons arrested in Honnali in Davangere district had terror links, Karnataka Governor's Advisor P K H Tharakan said the timely action of police had resulted in thwarting a possible terror attack in the state. Speaking at a national seminar on 'Terrorism and Disaster Management', organised by the Karnataka Home Guards and IRDC here, he said ''it is of extreme importance that we develop ground level intelligence to tackle terrorism like the Davangere incident, where two alert police constables nabbed the duo as they had a minor suspicion.'' He said the arrest of Riyazuddin alias Mohammad Ghouse and Asadullah Abubaker was only a 'tip of the iceberg'. Police should have an effective intelligence mechanism to anticipate and tackle any anti-national activity.

Ghouse, belonging to Hyderabad and Asadullah of Hospet in the State were arrested by the Davangere police on the charge of two-wheeler theft, but police interrogation had revealed that the duo, along with Mohammad Asif, a medical student, were linked to the banned terror group LeT. The Advisor, who is also the former chief of RAW, said it was disturbing to note that educated youth were taking to subversive activities and the time had come to contemplate what was wrong with the society and why they joined terror ranks.

Mr Tharakan said the state government would soon come out with an amendment to the rules to tackle terrorism and subversive activities and Home Guards would continue to be the nodal agency. In his address, former Army chief Gen V P Malik said men in uniform should always be able to cope up with surprises as terror attacks always come as a surprise.

''The consequence of terror attacks can become doubly destructive if we do not ensure effective disaster management system,'' he said. Gen Malik said 'enmatching' external and internal elements of terrorism was of equal relevance in view of growing terror groups within the country.

''Destabilising the enemy using terrorism is the new mantra of some countries and Pakistan in practicing this against India very well for the past many years. We need a comprehensive strategy to tackle this serious issue,'' he said.

The government should moot a joint endeavour involving NGOs and educational institutions to put the youth off from being influenced by radical thinking and join terror groups, he said.

However, a political solution was the best method to solve the problem of terrorism. ''Be it terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir or the ULFA menace, you need to have a political resolve which is uniform and continuous. Political parties have failed so far in this regard,'' he added.

UNI