CALCUTTA: The arrest of three armed Sikh youths by sleuths of the Special Branch from a gurdwara at Bhowanipore in south Calcutta on the very day Prime Minister P.V.N. Rao ‘was addressing a meeting of Congress ‘workers at the Mohun Bagan ground, has once again revived fears that the city continues to be used as hide out for runaway militant: ‘What has given the incident a special twist, however, is the claim by who of those arrested that they belonged 10 the Punjab Police (PP), Though the State Home Secretary has written to hig counterpart in Punjab seeking a clarification on their identity, Calcutta police officials fee! it is possible that the PP may have been continuing to flout the West Bengal Government’s repeated request to desist from launching any anti-militant drives in the State without taking the local police into confidence. Upset by the PP’s frequent forays into West Bengal, Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had even complained to the Union Home Ministry sometime last year. The latter had directed K.P.S. Gill’s trigger-happy personnel to avoid planning any unilateral militant hunts in another state without consulting the local Government.
The Tijala incident in May 1993 in which a Sikh militant couple was slain by a missile squad of the PP in a swift fly-by-night operation had raised the hackles of the West Bengal Government. Some top bureaucrats were, how- ever, certain that the local police knew only too well that the State was being used as a hide-out by Sikh militants running scared of Punjab Police chief K.P.S. Gill, The fact that they frequently extorted money from Punjabi businessmen living at Bhowanipore (which has a sizeable Sikh population) was also no secret, Besides, the districts bordering Bangladesh have constantly been used for gun-running and other activities. But no action could be taken since the State Intelligence just did not have the wherewithal to launch an anti-militant drive on its own, Many among them, in fact, were privately grateful to the Punjab Police for having time and again given them crucial clues without which they would have been in a fix. A senior JB official told this correspondent that there was nothing essentially wrong with the PP’s action since legal niceties took a backseat when issues of national security were involved, The State’s jurisdiction stood automatically transferred to the Center. ‘And that the West Bengal police should have taken the opportunity to improve its Intelligence gathering measures Instead of picking a bone with the Punjab Police. ‘The State Govt. however, refused to swallow the repeated transgressions of authority, In June 1994, a nine- member Punjab Police contingent was even detained by the State Government for gunning down a militant of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force at Uluberia (Howrah) without keeping the local police informed, Not only were the weapons of the PP personnel seized, but they were also prevented from taking the body of the slain militant.
Our State Correspondent from Chandigarh adds State Home Secretary M,S. Chahal said the Punjab Government has not received anything from West Bengal Government, Another official said “do not think the police would bum their fingers again after the Tilijila incident.”
Article extracted from this publication >> September 22, 1995
