Do only terrorists have human rights?

Do only terrorists have human rights?

Author: Chandan Mitra
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 8, 2002

A huge outcry has been generated in sections of the media, both print and electronic, over the circumstances in which two persons were shot dead by Delhi Police in an encounter inside the basement of the Ansal Plaza shopping mall in South Delhi on November 3.

The police are being subjected to a virtual inquisition since. A volley of questions is being directed at them with the aim of proving that the duo was killed in cold blood in a stage-managed operation. The National Human Rights Commission (which should more appropriately rename itself National Terrorist Rights Commission), has predictably grabbed the opportunity to arrogate some limelight onto itself by issuing a notice to the police. Professional human rights walas are screaming 'foul' from every available rooftop and television studio. In the orchestrated din, the basic issues involved have been given an indecent burial.

Regardless of the precise sequence of events, is there any question that the two persons shot dead were terrorists? Has anybody questioned the fundamental point that both were Pakistani nationals? Is it anybody's case that they had come to India without valid travel documents? Can it be argued that they were at Ansal Plaza only for the purpose of shopping for their friends and family back home? Is it being suggested that the Delhi Police first stole a car for their benefit, compelled them to drive around the city, directed them to a predetermined encounter venue inside a crowded shopping mall and then shot the obliging victims dead at point-blank range?

In the competitive rush to paralyse the morale of the law-enforcing agencies, the amateur investigators of the media have drawn firm blinkers across their eyes. Into this fray has also jumped in an alleged "eyewitness", a doctor to boot, claiming that he saw the two "sleepy" or "sedated" terrorists get out of the car, "barely able to walk". That these sleepy/sedated desperadoes were fit enough to drive the car across the city and into the Plaza basement appears to have eluded all media sleuths.

However, these are not the central questions. The media has every right to probe any action by the authorities and make them accountable. The issue is the impact of such inquisitions on those engaged in ensuring the security of the country and its people. Some years ago, former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao had remarked, "It seems in this country only terrorists have human rights." He said this in the context of some appaling interventions by the judiciary against patriotic officers of the Punjab Police and the baying of certain self-styled sentinels of civil liberties. Mr Rao's observation is as valid today as when it was made. Assuming for a moment that every question raised by the media and the NHRC is valid, how does that detract from the Police's achievement in liquidating two foreign terrorists? Given the alarming track record of the judiciary in (not) convicting terrorists, can the authorities be blamed for devising more effective ways of dispatching malevolent merchants of murder and mayhem? Each time terrorists succeed in penetrating security cordons and carry out carnage, the police are the first to be blamed for failing to protect innocent lives. It has been repeatedly proved that terrorists lodged in jails pose a serious threat to civil society as their comrades outside indulge in daredevil acts to get them freed. The example of Masood Azhar of the Kandahar "infame" is a case in point. Because we failed to send him to the gallows through the six years he was in our custody, we were forced to escort him to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan from where he journeyed to Pakistan to set up Jaish-e-Mohammad which has been responsible for causing several hundred deaths in India.

What are security agencies expected to do in this background? Roll out the red-carpet for wannabe Masood Azhars and allow them to carry out large-scale depredations?

The battle against terrorism has to be fought in every nook and cranny of the country, crowded shopping malls not excluded. It is not material if the two who were felled in Delhi last Sunday were actually plotting a repeat of Akshardham. It is not material if they had grenades or explosives strapped to their bodies. All that is relevant is that they were Pakistanis and terrorists. And they lived by the gun. Because they lived by the gun, they deserved to die by the gun. If necessary, hundreds of such encounters may have to be carried out before Pakistan finally realises it cannot cow India down to submission, the breast-beating of its misguided human rights walas notwithstanding.