Human Rights groups a front for terrorism — KPS Gill

Sporadic knee-jerk reactions coupled with weak-kneed Quixotic politicians have made matters worse, be it Punjab, the north-east or Jammu and Kashmir. There is no clear cut guideline. And he is trying to carve out the framework with Faultline, a quarterly journal. Gill, of course, is not alone in this venture. “We ( Faultline ) want people who have dealt with the problem to bring it on record, so that their experience is not lost or buried in some file,” he says, explaining the need for Faultline.

This record should help those in charge of law and order and framing policies, he adds. “Fifty years since Independence and we have no policy and we blunder through with a stop and go policy. The moment there is marginal improvement in the ground situation, we lie back till another crisis takes over,” he says.

The idea behind Faultline is to study a crisis situation; those which have taken place and have receded into history and those which are still burning issues, not only in India or Sri Lanka, but also in other parts of east Asia and bring out literature which would be useful to policy makers for security aspects.

In the inaugural issue, Arundhati Ghose, formerly India’s ambassador to the United Nations, has exposed the hollowness of human rights groups at the UN. The rights groups gave patronage to Anup Chetia at Geneva, even as Sanjoy Ghose, a rights activist was abducted and killed by United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) cadres led by Chetia in Assam.

Brought out by the Institute for Conflict Management, the journal also has former additional solicitor general and senior advocate K T S Tulsi’s observations on TADA, an emerging trend of militancy in Rajouri and Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir and a perspective on terrorism in J&K after the Pokharan nuclear tests.

On the solution to the Kashmir crisis, the former super cop says that people should know that law and order is in place. Unless the force comes to grips with this manifestation and puts an end to armed men roaming around with weapons creating terror, there cannot even be a semblance of order.

“The State will have to be ruthless in dealing with terrorists and mercenaries,” says Gill, who is credited with crushing terrorism in Punjab with an iron fist. “And the State should not bother about rights activists and groups which anyway are a front of (sic) terrorist groups,” he adds. Faultline, will also expose these rights groups, he promises.