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police officer exposes India's "national strategy"
to fight terror
Ex-DGP Virk brings validates all accusations of Sikh Panth regarding
fake encounters
WSN Bureau
 CHANDIGARH:
Rarely have Sardar Parkash Singh Badal done such remarkable service
for the Sikh Panth in recent years, though the credit goes to him
only by shameful default. Himself embroiled in serious corruption
cases but now wriggling out by riding on the power of his own
regime, his government arrested former Punjab Police chief S.S.Virk
in a case of alleged corruption but in the process has opened the
Indian central government's cupboards bursting with skeletons from
the years of militancy in Punjab.
Virk was caught
in a swoop by Badal's Vigilance Bureau sleuths on Maharashtra Bhawan
in Delhi and recovered from him were allegedly details of his
property deals, his political activities in advising the Congress
about electoral prospects in Punjab and much else, but it is what
Virk himself revealed later which greatly interests the Sikh Panth.
Virk seems to
have been deeply piqued by the allegations of harboring 'Cats', the
renegade militants whom the police used in illegal manner to spot
other militants and then kill them in fake encounters, later
rewarding the 'Cats' with money or false identities, showing them as
'dead' in encounters and then rehabilitating them for future use.
For the first time in life, he himself got the taste of a politician
not on his side and spilled the beans about the entire concept of
'Cats'. Virk was accused by the Akalis of harboring a particular
'Cat' called Sukhi who was exposed by the media as a man officially
dead but in good books of Virk and company and good financial
health.
Virk at that
time had bluntly told the media that there were some 300 such
'Cats'. The then CM Amarinder Singh had stoutly defended him on the
floor of the Assembly, and when someone asked who was killed when
Sukhi was alive, Amarinder had said that the police used to pour
tomato ketchup on boys to show it as blood. The Punjab Assembly
records clearly depict the CM having made the statement but the
Indian nation has learnt to live with so much violation of human
rights that it did not raise the hackles of civil society.
In custody, Virk
has now made damning revelations, though the newspapers reporting it
surprisingly fail to see the import of his remarks and reported the
conversation in a deadpan straight faced manner.
Here is what The
Tribune reported on September 12:
VIRK: "All
officers during those times had their own sets of 'Cats'."
Clearly, Virk is
telling us on record what militants were alleging throughout, that
the police officers were outside the power of law and were keeping
their own set of killers and spotters.
VIRK: "Cats are
a reality...Sumedh Singh Saini is an erratic chap and now he has
exposed the national strategy to fight terror."
Read it again
for the worth of the statement. Here is India's
decorated hero police officer still in service telling you that
employing illegal 'Cats' and killing young men with their help in
fake encounters was India's "national strategy to fight terror".
Thankfully, at a time when the United States is leading a global war
against terror, not a single soul in the US has ever advocated
deployment of such tactics.
Why is no one
asking
India how it controlled "terror"? Simple, because India's strategy
was to have its own terror mechanism.
The Tribune also
reported that Virk asked "the government to find the real identity
of police inspector Gurmit Pinki. Also, who got him recruited in the
police." But the Indian media did not ask Virk what was stopping him
to reveal the truth himself. Was some national interest being served
by hiding the godfathers of beasts like Pinki, currently in jail for
killing a young man in broad daylight because he took a few extra
seconds in stepping aside to let Pinki's jeep pass?
Here is classic
Virk, the politician in a uniform: "I am paying the price of not
being a turncoat as several others did and sided with SAD in the
run-up to the elections." Bravo, Mr Virk, for telling us that you
stuck to the Congress of Amarinder Singh instead of turning a
turncoat. This is exactly what we have been saying for years now.
That the police officers in Punjab
are henchmen of the politicians and belong to one or the other party
and shift parties just like politicians. Thank you Mr Virk for
informing us that everything being said about the police by civil
society was correct. Just like Amarinder Singh, Badal too has his
set of officers, and may be some may turn turncoats one day, but you
have the distinction of putting things on record.
Read The Tribune
report: "On keeping 'cats', Virk said, 'Whatever I did was in line
with my duty. I was a middle-level official and part of the system
fighting militants while the policies were made by the seniors."
Thank you, one
again, Mr Virk. Since you were at the helm and for long years did
not deny the credit for bringing the 'Cats' system into practice,
you must be knowing the real decision makers. Under which
Constitutional article were you duty-bound to accept illegal orders,
illegal policies of the seniors, and what kind of a line of duty is
using renegades to debunk all notions of civil society and legal
functioning and instead kill young men in fake encounters by making
them run in the fields and shooting from point blank range and
sharing the rewards for such bravery?
“Everyone knows
about those who have amassed wealth and those who have links with
terrorists. I am not one of them.” Name them, Mr Virk. Each of us
gets but one opportunity in life to be a hero. This is yours. Badal
arrested you, quite possibly, because you were not a turncoat. You
were genuine political reptile, clinging on to the bosses who
ensured your 'Cats' free run and smoothened your gravy trail. Badal
will have his own genuine 24-carat reptiles. It is we, the people,
upon whom you both unleashed the cats. Have you heard of the mouse
that roared?
12 September, 2007
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