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The Rediff Interview/Sarabjit Singh, DGP, Punjab

'We fought militancy with the same officers and men who are now being prosecuted'

In the last three years, terrorist-related crimes have come down substantially in Punjab and the state is slowly but surely returning to what it used to be in the field of food production and industry. Also, ironically enough, in crimes other than those linked to militancy.

"The Punjabis are a hot-blooded people and to murder anyone at the slightest provocation is nothing new for us," explains Sarabjit Singh, director general of police.

The DGP claimed that terrorism-related crimes are on the decline in the state and dished out statistics for the last two years to prove his point. He is hopeful that Punjab will soon return to its old glory. Excerpts from an exclusive interview with Onkar Singh in Chandigarh:

Recently, some Punjab police officers and constables were convicted by various courts for killing innocent people in fake encounters while fighting the insurgents in the state. What is the impact of these judgements on the morale of the force?

After the Punjab police managed to contain terrorism, there has been some change in the thinking of the people of the state. The relatives of the terrorists have filed cases in various courts against policemen involved in killing those terrorists. These terrorists, it must be noted, had played havoc with the lives of the people. These relatives, they claim that their innocent children were killed in fake encounters. The courts have given their verdict in some of these cases and convicted some of our officers and men. Of course the whole exercise is having a bad impact on the force.

What are you doing to save your people?

This is not a very happy situation. We fought militancy with the same officers and men who are now being prosecuted. I am not holding a brief for those who are guilty of killing innocent people in fake encounters. Nor am I trying to encourage crimes of this nature. Some excesses may have been committed. But they have been exaggerated. We had taken some unorthodox steps to curb militancy and the same steps may be resorted to if militancy raises its head again. But we will now ensure that no illegal action is taken in the future so that our men won't have to face a similar situation again. Sure enough, those who are now facing prosecution will be more careful in future.

What is the situation in the state on the law-and-order front?

There has been a substantial change in the law-and-order situation. Terrorism-related crimes have come down. But there has been an increase in normal crimes. The number of terrorists operating in the state has dropped sharply. We are keeping a close eye on fugitive terrorists so that they do not take advantage of the situation. The figures released by the National Crime Bureau puts Punjab at the top of the list of those states where the law-and-order situation is well under control.

What do you mean by normal crimes?

We Punjabis are a hot-blooded people who would commit a murder at the slightest pretext. Dacoity, looting, kidnapping and rape are some of the crimes being committed. I will give you the statistics of 1998 and 1999 to prove my point.

Type of Crime:          1998            1999 

Murders:                 780             713

Attempts to murder:      391             455 

Dacoity:                  97              79

Kidnapping:              387             394

Gangs operating:         133              68

Yes, this is true to some extent. Action was taken against many officers and some of them were dismissed from service. In some cases the people who were cheated of their money by the policemen have gone to the courts and filed criminal complaints against them. Those officers are now defending themselves in various courts.

Recently, some tunnels were found along the Indo-Pakistan border in Punjab. How is it that these tunnels remained untraced for so long?

The Indo-Pakistan border is 527 kilometres long in Punjab. It is not physically possible to put a man on each and every inch of the border. Though continuous vigil is maintained, there are times when mistakes do happen and the criminals manage to take advantage of the situation. Though the Border Security Force is doing a good job, there are times when slackness does take place.

Smugglers do find new methods to smuggle in goods, arms and contraband. Though the border has barbed fencing there are times when we have recovered bags which were tossed over the fence. Or contraband being smuggled out through plastic pipes meant for watering the fields across the fence. Mobile phones have added to our problems because smugglers on both sides of the border can co-ordinate their activities more easily. Sometimes they also do things to test our vigil.

Is it true that the terrorists are trying to reorganise themselves in the state?

Many terrorists had gone across the border many years ago. But as they have advanced in age, they are not able to carry out subversive activities themselves and hence they use other people to do these acts. They keep sending in youngsters across the border from time to time. Of late there has been a drastic fall in this activity. Youngsters are no longer interested in getting themselves into trouble. The pressure has increased on those who are getting the money to do something and hence you come across an odd instance here and there.

We have arrested many of them before they could strike. The bomb blast in Chandni Chowk in Delhi, the blast in Chandigarh and some of the incidents that took place in Uttar Pradesh had a common link. This fact came to light when some of the subversives arrested after the Chandigarh blast were thoroughly interrogated.

How many terrorist groups or individuals are operating in Punjab today?

The number of groups can be counted on the fingertips. Earlier, there were more than a couple of thousand people operating. Now the figure is less than one hundred. But since the number of such people is very small, no categorisation has been done to find out how many are hard-core and how many are their supporters.

What are the former terrorists doing?

The former terrorists are living a happy life with their families. Guru Nanak Dev University recently conducted a survey and interviewed former terrorists and their families. They told the interviewers that they do not want to get into trouble once more. Support for Khalistan is virtually dead. Nobody wants Khalistan. Even those who pretended to be supporters of this cause were in fact on a money-making spree. Some of the terrorists made lots of money. Some of them bought property in various states and in some cases even abroad. Nishan Singh Makku, one of the terrorists, has lots of property in his name.

You had made big claims when you arrested some of the so-called human bombs from the state. But they are all now on bail? Were they arrested merely on suspicion?

I think you are referring to the story run by The Indian Express a couple of days ago. The story also tells you why the human bombs are out on bail. They had not committed any offence. But because they had got the training to wrap the belt around their waste to blow up someone we had to arrest them. One of the human bombs, Manjit Singh, admitted having had training in Pakistan. But mercifully these human bombs are low on motivation and hence they do not want to do anything and risk their own lives.

Former Punjab director general of police K P S Gill has predicted that in the first five years of the next century terrorism will cease to exist in India. Do you agree?

Gill has the experience to make this kind of statement. Whatever he has said must have something behind it. He must have thought over the matter and then arrived at some judgement. He could do it. Not me.

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