LEAVING TERROR BEHIND

The recent arrest of former Punjab Police chief SS Virk has brought the spotlight on officers who had led the fight against terrorism in the state...

In the post-terrorism era, there is a tendency to describe Punjab Police in Kafkaesque terms. Critics talk of fake encounters, illegal detentions, brutal tortures, corruption. Miserable adjectives apart the Punjab Police remains a rare example of a state police successfully overcoming a powerful threat. Some of its officers have been facing legal proceedings on charges of excesses that go back several years.
As they revealed in interactions with The Sunday Express, these officers suffered and lost a lot. Between 1986 and 1993, as many as 1,900 Punjab policemen lost their lives, an average of a policeman being killed every second day. The figure could be higher for the early 8217;80s. 8220;Unarmed, we were sitting ducks for terrorists with their latest weapons. Our battle started with them only after 1985,8221; said a top police officer. It was around this time that JF Ribeiro, as Director General of Police, started a systematic tabulation. Miscreants were put under various categories, with 38 being regarded as the most dangerous. This was the turning point as it brought about an order in the way things were being carried. 8220;From then it was the beginning of the end. Gradually, the terrorists started losing support and our actions got broad based resulting in their eventual decline,8221; said another official. Terrorism was officially declared over in 1993.
The officers have taken the criticisms in stride. 8220;It is a force of 70,000 people. A couple of bad apples cannot be indicative of entire force,8221; said one. 8220;As regards the excesses, we are not fond of killing people. Recently, the Supreme Court asked governments to give a list of encounter killings in their states. Since the end of terrorism, there is not even a single such instance in Punjab.8221;
Try and talk about the days of terrorism and the officers who were at the helm of affairs are reluctant to speak. 8220;You never know what could be used against us. Someone may file a case on the flimsiest of pretexts,8221; said a top cop. But they couldn8217;t resist talking about the contribution of their colleagues who lost their lives and how their acts were being 8220;denigrated8221;. Consider the following description of Ajit Singh Sandhu by one of his senior colleagues, 8220;He went to Taran Taran when most top police officials were inventing remarkable excuses to not go to this hotbed of terrorism8212;from frail health of spouse to allergy to Congress grass.8221; Similarly, Govind Ram who was killed in a blast in Jalandhar in 1990 was described as someone who exemplified fortitude. 8220;There are unfair allegations that he made a lot of money. Those who say so, should see his household. His wife today lives a frugal life.8221;
Here are the stories of some of the top officials who served Punjab during its darkest phases.

KPS Gill
Police officers still swear by him. In fact, they are livid at the way they feel he has been treated. One of them has a simile: 8220;Mr Gill is a towering figure and it is a pity that people who can never attain his stature have taken potshots at him. It is just the way Gulliver was first tied and bound and then attacked by a army of Lilliputians.8221;
Gill himself says, 8220;One of my favourite past times was visiting book shops and going to a good restaurant. With all this security now, it becomes difficult to enjoy your interests at the cost of other people8217;s convenience. Whenever, I go out now, because of all the security, many people feel harassed. Thus, I have stopped going to public places.8221;
As regards terrorism he thinks the Punjab example shows that police can control insurgency effectively. 8220;I relied on young officers who were mainly posted as police superintendents in troubled districts and they did an excellent job,8221; he says. 8220;All terrorism-related legislations were enacted subsequent to the initial framing of Constitution. I have always maintained that in the annals of anti-terrorism, the Punjab operations were the most humane. You compare it with anti-terrorist operations in any part of the world by any government and we have established one thing: the primacy of the police in tackling terrorism.8221;

JF RIBEIRO
The former Punjab DGP, who formulated the 8220;bullet for bullet8221; tactic after terrorists attacked a police party at the Jalandhar district courts complex to get their accomplices released, is a calm and composed man today.
8220;Terrorism was something that I had never experienced before I joined Punjab. Obviously, I have become wiser,8221; he smiles. 8220;As far as weeding out terrorism from Punjab is concerned, the police merely did their duty. We just cut the logistics supply line to the terrorists, diverted the moral support available to them and minimised the public support8212;all because of the cooperation extended by the people of Punjab.8221;
When told that some of his colleague have become very spiritual now, he says, 8220;I may not have become more religious or gone for meditation, but yes, I can say I have become wiser by several notches.8221;

J P Birdi
8220;The intensity of terrorism may have abated but it would be incorrect to assume that situation is perfect now. Cases like Hawara8217;s escape, number of people he was able to mobilise and regular interception of RDX show that there still are strong undercurrents,8221; says Birdi who was working with the RBI before he cleared the Civil Services Exam in 1977.
On complaints of police excesses during the days of terrorism, he says, 8220;People who complain wouldn8217;t have dared to enter Punjab in those days. One night in 1988 I was returning from Delhi to Amritsar by road and on the stretch between Ambala and Amritsar I did not come across even a single vehicle. That was the scale of terror,8221; he says.
The fight against terror affected his family as well. 8220;For the first five years I could not send my son to school. His primary education took place at home. Also constant apprehension gave my wife severe ailments from which she still hasn8217;t recovered,8221; says Birdi.

C S Reddy
When young CS Reddy made it to the IPS in 1987 his family was overjoyed. But when he was alloted the Punjab cadre, they urged him to look for a different job. Reddy chose not to heed the parental advice and his initial posting was at Batala, one of the hotbeds of terrorism. 8220;For a young officer like me, there was no time to learn the basics. There was no time for orientation. We were straightaway grappling with terrorism.8221;
Today, he feels his home state Andhra Pradesh can take a cue from the Punjab Police and learn how the Naxal menace can be treated effectively. As regards rights violations, he says, 8220;Such cases are few. These cannot be condoned but one needs to keep in mind the pressure under which the police function. The situation in troubled times is entirely different from that during normal times.

G I S Bhullar
8220;The impact of terrorism on our lives cannot be imagined by anyone. They did not even spare our children, who were attacked, while they were studying and had nothing to do with anti-terrorism operations,8221; recalls former IGP GIS Bhullar.
8220;Things are much better now,8221; says the soldier decorated during the 1971 war. 8220;I was SSP of Patiala, when my son Bobby, who was studying at St Stephens College, Delhi was attacked by terrorists. I had to pull my son out of the college despite the fact that he was the topper of the college. Of course, he is now an IPS officer, but had he pursued his studies there, his life would have been altogether different,8221; he says. Today Bhullar plays golf, works out regularly to keep fit and socialises. Yet below the normality, he still feels a tension.

Sanjeev Gupta
Sanjeev Gupta is still haunted by some of those images. 8220;Once, after getting information that a group of terrorists was hiding in a field, we reached the location where an old lady merely asked me to go away as 8216;it was not safe for us to be there8217;. However, we were able to complete the operation successfully and terrorists were killed. But within a few days, terrorists eliminated every single member of that family. I still think about it,8221; says Gupta.
In all those years, fear was a constant companion. 8220;Once Sumedh Saini and I went for a training programme at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. To our embarrassment, the Maharashtra Police provided us with security.8221; A bank officer before he joined police in 1982, Gupta is today posted as IGP Provisioning, a posting that allows him to live like a common citizen.

Story continues below this ad

Suresh Arora
He was SSP Amritsar during Operation Black Thunder. It was during this operation that his colleague SS Virk was hit by a bullet. The manner in which he commandeered a scooter from a local near the Golden Temple and whisked Virk away on the pillion has become a part of Punjab8217;s folklore. Today, he is a Deputy Inspector General of Police. He admits that life has changed after 8220;those days8221;. 8220;I have come to terms with it,8221; he says. He was a practising Company Secretary when he got into the IPS in 1982. With things more peaceful now, he finds greater time to pursue his 8220;legal studies8221;. He has an LLM from London and plans to pursue legal consultancy after service.