Sorabjee’s security concerns

Former attorney general of India Soli J. Sorabjee, giving vent to public angst in the wake of the audacious terror strike in the heart of Bombay, has moved the Supreme Court with a public interest litigation (PIL) for a direction to the government to equip and train the police, making them capable of tackling terrorists and creating an atmosphere where the citizens’ right to life is protected, The Times of India (TOI) reported on December 12, 2008.

Sorabjee questions how terrorists could have infiltrated the city so easily. "This discloses several deficiencies and lapses in existing systems and counter-terrorism measures and also in the manner in which they were implemented,” the Bombayite (now largely resident in Delhi) says. "The purpose of the PIL is not to blame or censure any person, party or organization but to compel the (government) and the states to adopt and undertake measures which may prevent recurrence of Bombay-like terrorist incidents or in any event enable the police and security forces to better counter and combat terrorist activities and thereby save loss of, or injury to, human lives and destruction of properties,” Sorabjee explains.

Soli Sorabjee: PIL for police

The "right to life” is the heart and soul of all fundamental rights enjoyed by a person, Sorabjee maintains, and "it is apparent that the current level of training as well as the weaponry possessed by the police is antiquated and unable to cope with the arms and technology employed by the terrorists and other anti-national elements.” There is a crying need for filling in all these lacunae, Sorabjee informed TOI.

The series of terrorist attacks amounts to virtual waging of war on the sovereignty and integrity of the country, Sorabjee states, giving details of major terror strikes in India since the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Bombay. There is an urgent need for centralization of intelligence and its proper and timely sharing, the TOI reports him as saying. Suggesting the setting up of anti-terror units in every police district or in every major urban conglomerate, the former attorney general feels the duty hours of policemen need to be streamlined so as not to overstretch them to exhaustion levels which would tell upon their efficiency. He also suggests the appointment of an expert committee for supervising the implementation of the anti-terror machinery and mechanism put in place by the government, the report adds.