Sonia calls for equipping States against terrorism

New Delhi, Aug 1: Congress President Sonia Gandhi today called on the Union Government to enable each state to have a properly trained and fully-equipped anti-terrorism force to tackle terrorist attacks.

''While retaining its primary responsibility and ensuring coordination (to upgrade the entire intelligence system), the Central Government should also enable each state to have a properly-trained, highly-motivated and fully-equipped anti-terrorism force,'' she said, in her address at a General Body Meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party here.

Paying tribute to the remarkable spirit of the people of Mumbai who were back on their feet just hours after the serial blasts on the suburban train network, Ms Gandhi, however, noted that they could not only depend on the ''fortitude and determination of the people''.

Emphasising that anti-social and anti-national elements will have to be ''clearly identified and dealt with firmly,'' the Congress president called for effective police action, ''free from any type of bias or political pressure'', adding for such action to succeed, it was neccessary to reach out to and mobilise local communities.

Underlining the need for making no compromise on the internal security front, Mrs Gandhi also said that no community should feel itself under ''siege or as the automatic target of suspicion.'' ''Secularism has bound our country for centuries. It has been our strength, our defining character...,'' she said, warning that they must not forget that if communal harmony is disturbed, ''our very future is in peril.'' Underlining that those who ''wished to weaken and damage our country would always seek to divide and polarise our society,'' Ms Gandhi said that they should, ''under no circumstances,'' allow this to happen.

''We must nurture and enrich our secular ethos just as we deal with terrorism in all its aspects,'' she asserted.

Expressiing her anguish at the killing of innocent tribals in Chhattisgarh by naxalites, the Congress President said the naxalite challenge was beyond the capacity of any one state to deal with effectively. ''It requires a coordinated response with the Central Government playing a pivotal role,'' she noted.

Referring to the recent terrorist attacks on the innocent people of Kashmir, Ms Gandhi termed them ''acts of desperation'' and expressed sympathies for those who lost their lives in the terrorist violence. ''Amid this, I am glad to say that our state government is maintianing the tempo of development works,'' she added.

UNI