CITY OF
DREAMS OR
NIGHTMARES?
After his speech, Thackeray appealed
to all the people to disperse peacefully
and remain vigilant against anybody
creating any kind of mischief.
The Mumbai Police was also in a state
of flux, with changes being made at the
top level. Politicians seemed to ready to
capitalise on the recent disturbances as
there wouldn’t be a more opportune
time to undercut the police. On August
23, the city’s no-nonsense Police Commissioner
Arup Patnaik was shunted out
with a promotion (he is now the managing
director of Maharashtra state security
council), after coming under flak for
the Aug 11 violence at a Muslim rally,
and replaced by Satyapal Singh, the
brother-in-law of Civil Aviation Minister
Ajit Singh.
"I am proud to be the Commissioner
of Mumbai," Singh said soon after taking
charge. "Mumbai is going through a
difficult phase and it is my job to restore
the confidence of people who reside
here.
"Winning over people's confidence
and safeguarding the city from traitors,
terrorists and anti-social elements will
be my priority," added the man who had
initially wanted to become a scientist.
Singh is a Maharashtra cadre Indian
Police Service officer of the 1980 batch.
The Congress-led government said it
had promoted Patnaik as the Director
General of Police in the Maharashtra
State Security Corporation.
After relinquishing charge, a smiling
Patnaik told the media that he was
"happy to be promoted".
Home Minister R.R. Patil said Patnaik's
promotion had been pending
since July and this was finally cleared on
August 16.
Patnaik's admirers felt that he had
been shown the door for cracking down
on beer bars and late night parties. Patnaik
had vocally backed Assistant Commissioner
of Police Vasant Dhoble, who
mercilessly cracked the whip on illegal
liquor joints as well as noisy parties.
Some of these bars were apparently
linked to powerful politicians who had
been eager to see the back of Patnaik.
The Aug 11 Muslim rally in the city
which turned violent leading to the
death of two men and injuries to several
policemen proved to be the proverbial
last straw.
Political parties welcomed Patnaik's
exit but said Patil too should go.
Patnaik was criticised for not using
enough force against the Muslim rioters
who tried to even molest some policewomen,
snatched the weapon of a policeman
and damaged a martyrs'
memorial.
That rally was called to denounce attacks
on Muslims in Myanamr and
Assam. Muslim leaders later offered
public apologies to Mumbaikars for the
violence. Several journalists too were attacked
on August 11.
Patnaik had argued that but for his intervention,
police would have shot dead
a large number of people that day.
The new Mumbai police chief was
born November 29, 1955, in Meerut district
in Uttar Pradesh. A post-graduate in
chemistry, he is also an M. Phil in the
same subject and holds a PhD in Public
Administration. Singh has served in
Nasik and Buldhana. He was the joint
commissioner of police (Crime) in
Mumbai and has received the President's
Police Medal for Distinguished
Service.
He was on deputation to the Central
Bureau of Investigation and has been
decorated for his work in Naxalite areas
of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya
Pradesh. But Mumbai will be a completely
different ball game. And he probably
knows it already.
However, in the dark clouds of gloom
looming over the city of Mumbai, there
was one silvering: the Supreme Court’s
verdict on Kasab, of course.
The Supreme Court on August 29 upheld
the death sentence awarded to Pakistani
terrorist Kasab for his role in the
Mumbai savagery, marking the end of
the legal battle for a man who desperately
tried to escape the hangman's
noose.
In a ruling bound to cast a shadow on
India-Pakistan relations, Justices Aftab
Alam and C.K. Prasad said: "We are constrained
to hold that death penalty is the
only sentence that can be given in the
circumstances."
The verdict got a thumps-up from
both the Congress and the BJP besides
those who survived the Nov 26-29 audacious
attack that left 166 Indians as well
as foreigners dead and scores injured.
In Iran, External Affairs Minister S.M.
Krishna said he was sure Pakistan would
"take note of what has happened in the
Supreme Court".
There was no immediate official reac-
tion in Pakistan. Mohammed Ajmal
Amir Kasab, now 25 and in a Mumbai
prison, was one of 10 heavily armed
Pakistanis who sneaked into Mumbai by
sea Nov 26, 2008 night and unleashed
mayhem that almost caused an India-
Pakistan war.
After initial denials, Islamabad admitted
in January 2009 that Kasab was a
Pakistani.
"I am more than happy," reacted
Ragini Sharma in Mumbai. Her husband,
Sushil Kumar Sharma, a railway
officer, was one of the many gunned
down by Kasab and an accomplice at
the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.
"My husband is not going to return
but it gives some peace to my soul that
the perpetrator of the crime has been
punished even if he is just a pawn."
Both Ragini Sharma and others in
Mumbai insisted that the Pakistani
should be hanged at the earliest.
Congress general secretary Digvijay
Singh also said that Kasab should be executed
quickly. Shiv Sena leader Uddhav
Thackeray demanded that Kasab should
be hanged publicly.
The Pakistani moved the apex court
challenging the death sentence given by
a trial court, which was upheld by the
Bombay High Court.
The judges rejected Kasab's contention
that the Mumbai attack was a
war against the Indian government and
not against the Indian state or people.
Kasab, the only Pakistani terrorist to
be captured, came from a poor family in
an impoverished village of Pakistan's
Punjab province. Son of a vendor, he
signed up with the Lashkar-e-Taiba to
wage jihad.
The Supreme Court said the Indian
government was only the elected organ
of the state and the repository of sovereign
powers.
The court did not accept Kasab's argument
that not providing him a lawyer
soon after his arrest vitiated the entire
process, including his trial and consequent
conviction and sentencing on 80
counts. The judges reminded him that
he had initially refused to accept an Indian
lawyer. In a concurring judgment
giving more reasons for upholding
Kasab's death sentence, Justice Prasad
said it was evident that the conspiracy to
attack Mumbai was hatched by Pakistanis
in Pakistan.
The court also upheld the acquittal of
Indians Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin
Ahmed who were accused of providing
vital support to the Pakistani killers prior
to the 26/11 attack.
The Maharashtra government had
challenged the acquittal of Fahim and
Sabauddin by the Bombay High Court.
Kasab was given death sentence by a
Mumbai trial court May 6, 2010. The
Bombay High Court upheld the death
penalty Feb 21, 2011.
India expressed the hope that Pakistan
will take note of the Supreme
Court verdict upholding the death
penalty for 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab,
the lone Pakistani terrorist caught alive
after the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna,
who is in Tehran for the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) meet, told reporters
that the Supreme Court's pronouncements
are the law of the land.
His remarks came a day before Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh meets Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari on the
sidelines of the NAM summit in Tehran.
Noting that terrorism was a matter of
concern for the world, Krishna said
India and Pakistan would discuss bilateral
relations – indicating that terrorism
will on the agenda when Manmohan
Singh and Zardari meet.
"The Supreme Court is the highest
court of appeal in India. When it announces
something, it becomes the law
of the land. Other things will follow," he
said.
"I am sure Pakistan will not fail to take
note of what has happened in the
Supreme Court of India," he said.
Krishna noted that Pakistan's judiciary
too was pro-active.
An Indian official had said that India's
message to Pakistan would be "enough
of talk, act against terror; we have given
you the evidence".
"Terror can't be solved by talks. Pakistan
will have to work. We will have to
work to make it impossible for terror to
hit us," the official said of the key issue
likely to figure in the Manmohan-
Zardari parleys. There were more positives
that came out of the Kasab case.
Referring to the "deception" and
"falsehood" that the terrorists involved
in Mumbai attacks were Indian Muslims
from Hyderabad, the Supreme Court
said that had Kasab not been caught
alive, terrorists might have passed as Indians
and that would have led to devastating
short-term and long-term
consequences.
"The deception, the falsehood that
the terrorists were Indian Muslims coming
from Hyderabad and were connected
with some fictitious
organisations called Mujaheddin and
Hyderabad Deccan, is one of the most
ominous and distressing parts of the
conspiracy", said the apex court bench
of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice C.K.
Prasad, which upheld Ajmal Kasab's
death sentence.
"If the appellant (Kasab) had not been
caught alive and the investigating agencies
had not been able to unravel the
conspiracy fully and in all its devious
ways, the terrorists might have passed as
Indian Muslims and that would have led
to devastating short-term and equally
debilitating long-term consequences."
"It would have caused a cleavage of
distrust and suspicion between communities
and disturbed the communal
peace and harmony of the country. It is
not impossible that conflagrations
would have erupted in different parts of
the country which the governments
would have found difficult to contain,"
said Justice Alam, who authored the
judgment.
The court said that in this regard, "the
selection of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
as one of the targets for carnage assumes
great importance". Trains, the
judgment said, leave for many parts of
the country from the CST.
Thus, as news of the carnage spread
across the country through the media,
travelers would start arriving in different
parts of the country, some having lost
their near and dear ones at the CST,
some with a wounded companion and
others shell-shocked by the experience
of the terrorist attack, the judgment observed.
"Their first-hand, eye-witness accounts
of the carnage added to reports
in the print media and visuals in the
electronic media could be highly inflammable
and could easily evoke communal
violence that would be difficult to
contain," the judgment said.
The court said that the "deception
was ominous because it aimed at destabilising
Indian society and its governments.
But it was equally distressing for
being so deeply untruthful."
"Indian Muslims", the judgment said
"may have a long list of grievances
against the establishment. Some of the
grievances may be fanciful, some may
be of their own making and some may
be substantive".
"Nevertheless, no Indian Muslim
would even think of venting his grievance
like an animal, killing, maiming
and wounding innocent people; his own
countrymen."
"This is because he is not only loyal to
his faith and community but equally
loves his country and fellow countrymen,"
the judgment underlined.
Irrespective of the development,
Mumbai seems to be in dire straits at the
moment, and it would take a series of
fortunate events to turn it back into a
city of dreams again.
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