08 Mar 2006

Varnasi Explosions
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, India
Supplied note: "The latest paper of the Institute For Topical Studies, A-2/3, Bharathi Dasan Colony, K.K.Nagar, Chennai---600078, India, on the above subject is now available at the web site of the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG), New Delhi, at [the URL below] - br."
Extract: "The three explosions at Varnasi on March 7, 2006, which killed 21 persons and injured many more, would be universally categorised as acts of terrorism, whatever be the motive, since the targets were innocent civilians in a Hindu temple and a railway station. [...] It is important to prevent the public from taking the law into their own hands. Unwise actions like the reported call of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for observing a day of protest would only play into the hands of the terrorists by adding to inter-communal tensions and keeping large numbers of the police preoccupied with crowd control duties at a time when they would have to focus on investigation, arrest of those responsible and prevention of more acts of copy-cat terrorism. The unfortunate tendency---more pronounced in India than elsewhere---- on the part of political parties to exploit acts of terrorism to highlight or promote their own political agenda with an eye on the elections adds to the already formidable difficulties of the Police and other counter-terrorism agencies and provides unintended encouragement to the terrorists. - b. raman."
[The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai - ed.]
URL http://www.saag.org/papers18/paper1724.html
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the paper was not archived at the time of this abstract. However, in a few weeks time it will be available at web.archive.org/web/*/www.saag.org]
Link reported by: B. Raman (corde--at--vsnl.com)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study
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