Terrorism in South Asia has increasingly emerged as an effective strategic weapon. Terrorist groups have demonstrated that with simple tactics and low-tech weapons, they can produce vastly disproportionate results — as it happened in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Terrorist attacks have exacted a heavy toll of life and property. Terrorists have tried to disrupt our way of life by attempting to initiate the element of fear. Fortunately, the Indian society has time and again shown its resilience, and refused to be overawed... The Indian government is committed to combating terrorism/extremism in all forms and manifestations — as no cause genuine or imaginary can justify terrorism or violence.
India has adopted a system to counter terrorism that gives primacy to dialogue, democratic political processes and the rule of law... We deal with terrorism within the ambit of this structure. After 26/11, we have raised the level of preparedness to meet the increasingly sophisticated terrorist threats. Second, we have enhanced the speed and decisiveness of the response to a terrorist threat or a terrorist attack.
At the international level, India has been supportive of all efforts – particularly in the United Nations – to combat terrorism, and has played a leading role in shaping international opinion and urging the international community to prioritise the fight against terror. Our consistent stand before the international community has been that there could be no justification for terrorism on any grounds: religious, political, ideological or any other... Strengthening of international cooperation is vital to ensure that action is not restricted simply to perpetrators, but also encompassed states, which sponsor, support or provide safe haven to terrorists. International cooperation on matters relating to terrorism is also effected through the mechanism of the Interpol — of which India has been a member since 1949.
The specific dimensions of the fight against terrorism in which the Interpol can be of immense value is the links of terrorism to organised crime, its emerging links with counterfeiting and the ability of fugitives to simply evade jurisdictions.
Be it the Mumbai bomb blasts of 1993, the 26/11 attack in Mumbai or the 9/11 attack in the US, the inter-state nature of planning involved in all of them underscores the need for increased cooperation and coordination among intelligence and investigative agencies. It is indeed very heartening to note that a lot of progress has been made... but a lot more can be done, and needs to be done. It is here that I feel the International Criminal Police Organisation has to play a pivotal role.
This institution has been diligently working towards forging strategic and operational partnerships among various stakeholders and member-states to tackle the scourge of international crime and terrorism. It has succeeded as a hub connecting the law enforcement agencies of various member-states... The various international notices published by the Interpol, based on requests from the national central bureaus of the member-states, has helped in tracking of fugitives... India alone has 138 pending red notices of terrorists, who are absconding and are likely to be in some foreign state. In all, we have 670 Interpol notices of various kinds pending, of which 577 are red notices.
At the same time, let me remind you that unless the international cooperation leads to visible results, our objectives may remain unachieved. I am constrained to point out that in spite of regular dialogue and credible evidence, the masterminds of one of the most heinous acts of terror of the last century – the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts in which 257 people died and 713 were injured – are sitting in safe heavens, and are yet to be brought to book. Their presence in a neighbouring country is well-known and Interpol red notices against them, who are Indian nationals, are pending since 1993.
It is a cliché to say terror-funding is the lifeblood of terrorism. Credible intelligence suggests that terrorist outfits are investing in stock markets through spurious companies, setting up fictitious businesses and laundering money. The utmost importance of detecting the sources of such finance, including the fake-currency variant, its conduits and modus operandi, cannot be lost on us. Here again, the Interpol has to play a crucial role.
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And, may I underscore what is common knowledge of all the agencies involved in investigation of terror cases. Most major terror attacks, successful or aborted from its stage of conceptualisation to execution, have their footprints in different countries. The investigative agencies get confronted with issues of jurisdiction – both international and inter-nation – when they try to collect relevant evidence and connect the dots. The investigations do not reach their logical conclusions, or get inordinately delayed if they do, due to fuzziness involved in the protocols to be followed in soliciting cooperation...
Best practices of prevention, investigation, prosecution, and several other specialised dimensions of enforcement work can be collated and shared. Information on resource base, which may include best training institutes for different kinds of training, resource persons, trainers and the like, can be shared with the member-states. Here, too, I feel the Interpol through its legal division can play a vital role in studying, analysing and sensitising the member-states to bring their procedural and substantive laws dealing with terrorism... May I also take this opportunity to suggest that the Interpol may facilitate investigation and prosecution of terror-related cases. It would be better if it collects and makes available an online compendium of rules to be followed in various nation states for assistance in arrest, search, seizure, extradition, deportation, surveillance, collection of material evidence, examination and recording of evidence of witnesses, examination of suspects and the various agencies and departments involved in the process. This will go a long way to bring perpetrators and planners of the most heinous crimes to justice.
Edited excerpts from Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s speech at the Interpol General Assembly meeting in Rome, Italy on November 5