Bali explosion fails to alert Goa
Sandesh Prabhudesai
18 October 2002
The bomb blast in Bali, a tiny
idyllic coastal tourist state in Indonesia, that killed 181innocents last week
could be an eye-opener for India, if Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda is now really
targeting such international tourist destinations.
But little alert has been sounded
by the central intelligence agencies to be overcautious regarding similar
tourist spot like Goa, a tiny coastal state in India, which has already started
flooding with tourists from all over the world.
"We have not received anything
alarming from the intelligence agencies, following the Bali bomb blast", admits
Karnal Singh, the DIG of Goa police.
Considering the peaceful
co-existence of all the communities in the former Portuguese colony here, Goa
is being considered a soft target in terms of the threat of cross-border
terrorism.
The Hindu-dominated state, having
miniscule population of Muslims, is famous for its sandy beaches and
semi-western culture since the most popular coastline is predominantly
Christian.
Like Bali, it has a total
population of 1.3 million only while around 1.2 million tourists visit the
state every year, but mainly in the peak season that runs from October to
January. While the rich foreigners rest at the series of five star hotels
located in South Goa, the northern stretch is the attraction for the middle
class foreigners, especially the Europeans.
Along with it also comes all kind
of criminal activities including illegal sale of drugs, illegally organised
rave parties and even paedophilic activities at the cost of street children
roaming on the beaches, of course in collusion with the local cops and other
law-abiding authorities and politicians.
Over 3000 Kashmiris also camp in
the coastal belt during the season – from September to April – under the guise
of selling carpets. With hardly any customer seen at their shops, the police
authorities admit unofficially that illegal drug trade is their main
profession.
"The terrorists taking advantage
of the existence of Kashmiris here cannot be simply denied", admits DIG Singh,
claiming that the police are keeping watch on them as well as the outsiders
visiting the Madarasas regularly.
In fact it is not just the
incident in Bali that needs to alert the Indian intelligence to overprotect
Goa. It was made a target two years ago, when the ISI-linked Deendar Anjuman
had organised simultaneous bomb blasts in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Goa. A bomb
was planted outside a church here in the port town of Vasco.
Incidentally, bomb hoax has also
become order of the day in Goa suddenly for the last 10 days. At least five
calls from the public telephone booths were made that bomb is planted in the
chief minister's car, a village where local central minister was visiting, at a
private bank, the famous Old Goa church as well as the Goa Medical College
hospital.
"Either it is a cranky person or
somebody is testing how alert the police is", observes DIG Singh. Rather than
the possibility of creating laxity in the department with such false alarms,
the police prefers to believe that it is a job of a cranky person.
Singh however does not deny that
Goa could be considered a safe place to take shelter since several robbers and
dacoits from Moradabad, Sarangpur and other such places from Bihar and UP have
been found taking shelter here.
"Following the demolition of the
Babri Masjid, hundreds of locals from these places had gone to Pakistan and
they have now come back after proper military training", he informs.
Within a month, the police however
are beginning organised patrolling by forming beats. The personnel on the beat
are told to move from house to house, informing people that they will be
available for any eventuality.
Besides serving the people, this
move will also help us in improving our intelligence network with direct
in-person contact with the locals. In fact, this is the best way to tackle
terrorism, he says, as the terrorists always depend on local contacts.
