BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING:QUESTIONS SANS ANSWERS

 

B.RAMAN

 

Two Chechen brothers living in the US since 2002—Dzhokhar ( 19) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev ( 26),  are suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon on April 15,2013, in which three persons were killed and over 150 injured.

2.The team led by the FBI, which has been investigating the blast, has been able to identify them reportedly through CCTV images of their placing bags, which probably contained the improvised explosive devices (IED), fabricated with a pressure cooker and a metal container, at two places near the finishing line where the explosions occurred.

3. Even though the FBI-led team haS not said so, tip-off from persons knowing the brothers also possibly contributed to the needle of suspicion pointing at the two brothers.

4.Tamerlan died following a shootout with the  police on Thursday ( April 18) night. His  younger brother, Dzhokhar, is still on the run in Boston. However, latest reports indicate that the police are “in engagement” with a person suspected to be Dzhokhar in the Watertown area.

5. From the accounts of the police search for him received so far, Dzhokhar has been making  frantic efforts to evade capture by the police, who must be anxious to catch him alive to question him on what and who motivated him and Tamerlan to commit the bombing, if it is proved that they did it.

5.According to the profile of the Tsarnaev family carried by the BBC and the CNN, they were Chechens who had migrated to Kyrgyzstan and from there to Dagestan. They migrated to the US from Dagestan with Kyrgyz passports in 2002. The father, Anzor Tsarnaev, is since reported to have gone back to Dagestan.

6. According to the BBC, the brothers lived in the Massachusetts town of Cambridge, home of the prestigious Harvard University.  Tamerlan  studied engineering at Bunker Hill Community College just outside Boston but had taken the year off to train as a boxer. Dzhokhar  is enrolled at the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth to study medicine.

7. Russian news agency RIA Novosti has reported that "extremist material" was on the YouTube account belonging to Tamerlan. "Several albums were posted, one of them titled 'terrorist'," the agency said. However, the BBC says it has been  unable to confirm the presence of extremist material on Tamerlan's YouTube page.

8. Their mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, told Russia's RT television network on April 19: "My youngest was raised from 8 years in America, my oldest he was really properly raised in our house," she said. "Nobody talked about terrorism. Tamerlan got involved in religion five years ago. (He) started following his own religion, never told me he could be on side of jihad."

9. According to some reports, the FBI had interviewed the father sometime ago to enquire why the two sons had started attending a local mosque for prayers. This would show that the two brothers were under watch by the FBI for some time before they carried out the bombing.

10.Details of their life in Boston available so far do not indicate any travels by them either within the US or outside. If they had developed any radical influences, it must have been through the Internet or during their visits to the local mosque for namaz. Particulars of the mosque to which they started going for namaz are not available. Who was the cleric in charge of it? Did he have any radical background? Why was the FBI worried about their going for namaz?

11. Dzhokhar was very proud of his Chechen ethnicity. It has been reported that whenever his friends referred to him as a Russian, he would correct them and say he is a Chechen.

12.If it is established that the two brothers carried out the Marathon bombing, what could have been their motive? They had no reasons to be angry against the US and its civil society. Their anger should have been against Russia.

13.Were they self-motivated to carry out the bombing or was their an external motivation due to US policies towards the Islamic world? It is not anger over the state of affairs in Chechnya and Dagestan, but anger over matters relating to Islam that seem to have motivated them.

14. Was there an Al Qaeda inspiration behind their action? Chechens had always formed an important component of Al Qaeda. Chechen instructors were employed in Al Qaeda’s training camps in the Waziristan area of Pakistan.

15. Under Ayman al-Zawahiri, the present chief of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda has turned the focus of its operations from the Af-Pak region to Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Mali, Somalia, Libya and Algeria. Did Al Qaeda propaganda against the US policies in Libya and Syria influence the brothers in their actions?

16. There are many questions without answers. To find the answers, it is important for the US authorities to catch Dzhokhar alive. (20-4-13)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BENGALURU BLAST

B.RAMAN

( Written at the request of “The Times of India”. Carried by it on April 19,2013, at  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Dont-politicise-terror/articleshow/19619767.cms …

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Sixteen persons, 11 of them policemen posted on pre-election law and order duty near the office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengaluru, are reported to have been injured on April 17,  when a  motor-byke   fitted with an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded near the BJP office. Some vehicles parked in the area were also destroyed or damaged. Some damage to window-panes of nearby buildings has also been reported.

2. The blast is in the preliminary stages of investigation  by the local police. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) of the Government of India has also joined the investigation. The State and central authorities have categorised the blast as an act of terrorism.

3.No organisation has  claimed responsibility for the blast. The motive is still to be established. The only lead the Police have so far  is that the motor-byke had a fake number plate of Tamil Nadu and was probably stolen from Hyderabad.

4.From the details available so far it can be tentatively categorised as an act of terror of low lethality carried out with a timed IED mounted on a motor-byke. The use of a motor-byke would indicate that the intention of the perpetrators was not just to create a scare, but to cause casualties.

5.While the BJP was the target of the blast, it is not clear whether it was directed against the BJP as a political party and its ideology or against the BJP-led Government which had been ruling the State and its policies or the local police.

6. It would be premature to say whether the blast was carried out by an angry individual or individuals with grievances against the BJP or by an ideologically motivated organisation such as the Indian Mujahideen (IM), which had operated in Bengaluru in the past.

7. The explosion coincided with the third anniversary of the blast outside the local Chinnaswami Stadium in 2010 in which the IM was suspected. Fasih Mehmood, an engineer from Bihar formerly  working in Saudi Arabia and arrested by the Delhi Police in May last year, was to have been interrogated by the Bengaluru Police in connection with his suspected role in the Stadium blast.

8. The blast of April 17 has also come about seven months after the high-profile  arrests by the Karnataka Police in September last year of  18 educated Muslim youths  in Bengaluru, Hubli, Hyderabad and Maharashtra on charges of conspiring to assassinate a number of Hindu personalities believed sympathetic to the Hindutva movement. According to the Bengaluru Police, who were interrogating them, the Muslim suspects in their custody were self-motivated by visiting the web site of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)in Yemen, also known as the Ansar al-Sharia. The Ansar-al-Sharia was suspected in the assassination of a US diplomat in Benghazi in Libya on September 11,2012.

9. There were no subsequent details of these Muslims allegedly in the custody of the Bengaluru Police. What did they say during their interrogation? Was there corroboration of the allegation that they were self-motivated by visiting the Web site of AQAP? What happened to the case against them?

10.There were already pockets of anger in sections of the Karnataka Muslim youth against the police and the Government due to various reasons. This anger was reflected in the low-intensity explosions allegedly carried out by the IM in Bengaluru in July 2008.

11. One should not be surprised if there was aggravation of this anger as a result of the  interrogation of Fashi Mehmood and the 18 Muslim youth arrested in September last year.

12.The anger against the Police and the perceived unfairness of the Indian criminal justice system towards the Muslims have often been cited by the IM as a cause for their movement against the Government and the police in different States. The recent execution of Afzal Guru, for his role in the attack on the Parliament in December 2001,has added to this.

13.One has been seeing reports of such anger in Bengaluru too since the IM struck in 2008. Bengaluru, being an IT nerve centre, has also been an important target of ISI-sponsored Pakistani jihadi organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET).

14. While the IM reportedly has contacts with the LET, local anger has till now been the motivating factor of its activities and not the objectives of its Pakistani associates.

15. One has to keep in view these details in order to understand the background to the terrorist scenario in Bengaluru. This narrative should not be interpreted to mean that these elements must have been responsible for the blast of April 17.

16. One has to keep an open mind as to who might have been responsible and what could have been the motive and avoid pre-conceived assumptions. At the same time , one has to keep in view the background.

17. The political parties should leave it to the police and the counter-terrorism experts to do the investigation with an open mind. Till they come to definitive conclusions based on reliable evidence, the temptation to exploit the blast for political purposes should be avoided.

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi.

 

 

PRESSURE COOKER BOMB NEAR BOSTON MARATHON FINISHING LINE---I AM CONFUSED

 

B.RAMAN

I am confused by reports of the perpetrator or perpetrators of the Boston blasts on April 15,2013, having used a pressure cooker bomb.

2.A pressure cooker bomb is a conventional type of improvised explosive device (IED) of the 1990s vintage. It can be used to cause high casualties through low intensity explosives by packing it with shrapnel. The exploding part of the cooker will add to the shrapnel effect.

3. The pressure cooker bomb is ideal for use in a means of transport like a bus or a train or in a public place. They easily merge with the background. In India, many people visiting towns and cities buy pressure cookers and carry them with them. Nobody suspects anything on seeing a person carrying a pressure cooker on board a train or a bus or in a public place. A terrorist finds it easy to pack it with explosives and shrapnel and leave it in a train or a bus or in a public place, where physical security is not intense.

4. A pressure cooker bomb does not lend itself to easy use without risk of detection on occasions like the Boston Marathon, when physical security will be tight. Evasion of physical security will be difficult. A pressure cooker near the finishing line of the Marathon would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

5. Why did the perpetrator or perpetrators use a pressure cooker? It is difficult to think of an explanation unless the perpetrator or perpetrators are employed in a stall near the finishing line which makes and sells snacks etc during the Marathon. Carrying a pressure cooker to the stall on the day of the Marathon may not create suspicion in the minds of the police.

6. One could pack a pressure cooker already in use in the stall with explosive material and shrapnel and leave it nearby during the final moments of the race when in the prevailing joy and excitement among the participants attention may not be paid to a pressure cooker kept aside.

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai,and Associate of the Chennai Centre for China Studies. Twiiter: @SORBONNE75 )

BOSTON MARATHON EXPLOSIONS

B.RAMAN

 

THE FACTS: As reported by the BBC and the CNN:

•     Three persons, including an 8-year-old child, were killed in two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on the afternoon of April 15,2013.

•     Hospitals reported at least 144 people are being treated for injuries, with at least 17 of them in critical condition and 25 in serious condition. At least eight of them  are children. At least 10 people injured had limbs amputated. Several of the patients treated at Massachusetts General Hospital suffered injuries to lower limbs.

•     The two blasts were about 50 to 100 yards apart with a few minutes one after the other. A federal law enforcement official told CNN that both bombs were small, and initial tests showed no C-4 or other high-grade explosive material, suggesting that the packages used in the attack were crude explosive devices.

•     Authorities in Boston found at least one other explosive device , Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts said two more were found. One unexploded device was found at a hotel on Boylston Street near the bomb site and another unexploded device was found at an undisclosed location.

·       There were no credible threats before the Marathon, a state government official said. There is no suspect in custody, but many people are being questioned, Davis said. Investigators warned police to be on the lookout for a "darker-skinned or black male" with a possible foreign accent in connection with the attack, according to a law enforcement advisory obtained by CNN. The man was seen with a black backpack and sweatshirt and was trying to get into a restricted area about five minutes before the first explosion, the lookout notice states. Also, a Saudi national with a leg wound was under guard at a Boston hospital in connection with the bombings, but investigators cannot say he is involved at this time and he is not in custody, a law enforcement official said.

·       In addition to scrutinizing images of surveillance cameras in the area, the FBI likely was issuing subpoenas for records from cell towers in the area to isolate and trace calls from around Copley Square at the time of the blasts, according to a former federal law enforcement official who now works in the intelligence community.

·       Mayor (Thomas) Menino said: “Our focus is on making sure that the area around Copley Square is safe and secured. I am asking everyone to stay away from Copley Square and let the first responders do their jobs."

·       The Federal Aviation Administration placed a flight restriction over the site of the blasts. Other cities, including New York and Washington, tightened security as a result. Following standard protocol, the White House cleared out an area in front of the West Wing.

·       Troops from the Massachusetts National Guard, already at the site as part of the marathon's security and crowd-management plan, were assisting police as well.

·       The FBI has taken over co-ordination of what it described as a "potential terrorist inquiry". Although President Obama, in his initial statement, did not use the word "terrorism", a White House official later said: "Any event with multiple explosive devices - as this appears to be - is clearly an act of terror and will be approached as an act of terror."

·       Officials in Washington said no group or individual had so far said they carried out the attack.

2. Since the 9/11 acts of catastrophic terrorism in the US Homeland carried out by Al Qaeda, using hijacked aircraft, there have been two attempted acts of catastrophic terrorism by Al Qaeda by causing explosions on US passenger aircraft flying from Europe to the US.

3. On 22 December 2001, Richard Reid, a British citizen, boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, wearing shoes packed with explosives, which he unsuccessfully tried to detonate. Passengers overpowered him on the plane, which quickly landed at Logan International Airport in Boston, , the closest US airport. He was  arrested and indicted. He was reported to have been motivated by Al Qaeda elements in Pakistan.

4. On December 26,2009, Abdul Mutallab, 23, a Nigerian, tried to detonate an explosive device, apparently a mix of powder and liquid,  on a North-West Airlines flight, coming from Nigeria via Amsterdam, and approaching Detroit. An alert passenger noticed him and he was overpowered. He was believed to have been motivated by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

5. The Boston Marathon blasts have coincided with a fast reportedly undertaken since March 19,2013, by 24 of the Al Qaeda suspects still held in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre to protest against the alleged inhuman conditions in the Centre. Activists of a Muslim group called Witness Against Torture (WAT) began a hunger strike  in solidarity with the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The group said in its web site: “We will gather for action in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities domestically and internationally  to denounce the barbaric practice of torture and indefinite detention and to demand justice for the men at Guantanamo.” The solidarity fast by WAT was scheduled to last till March 30. A handful of activists plan to continue fasting every Friday until the prison is closed.

 6. There is so far no evidence to indicate that the Boston blasts might have been linked with the fast. No claim of responsibility for the blasts has been made so far and there is till now no evidence to show whether the blasts were carried out by individual rogue elements with personal grievances or ideologically motivated organisations.

7. While the US Homeland had previously seen acts of catastrophic terrorism and attempts to commit such acts through aircraft, this is the first time a conventional act of terrorism using improvised explosive devices has been committed, if the involvement of rogue individual elements is ruled out.

8. The perpetrators, whether rogue individuals or members of ideologically motivated organisations, have succeeded in evading physical security for the Boston Marathon in procuring explosive material, detonators and timers and planting the IEDs without being noticed by the extensive CCTV camera network along the Marathon route.

9. The local security authorities and the FBI do not appear to have received any advance inkling of a possible terrorist strike either through electronic chatter or from human sources.

10. The explosions show that despite the strengthening of homeland security in the US after 9/11, terrorists have managed to find intelligence and physical security gaps in the security network and exploited them. The Boston blasts also illustrate the difficulties in preventing conventional style attacks as against sophisticated catastrophic attacks. (16-4-2013)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )

BOSTON BLASTS: INITIAL OBSERVATIONS
B.RAMAN

Three killed, over 100 injured in two explosions about two hours after the lead runners in the Boston Marathon had crossed the winning line on April 15,2013.

2.At least two other unexploded improvised explosive devices were reportedly defused by the police..An act of terrorism involving well-timed serial blasts.There was reportedly an interval of only a few minutes between the two explosions.

3.It was meant to be an act of mass casualty terrorism.If the IEDs had been planted along the route of the Marathon while it was on there might have been mass panic among the runners resulting in possible stampede. Fortunately, this did not happen.

4. Indications till now are that the perpetrators had used low or medium lethality explosives. There are reports of the limbs of some of the injured being blown away. If the explosive was not of high lethality, how did this happen?

5.Details of security checks during the Marathon are not known, but the perpetrators had successfully managed to evade whatever physical security was there while planting the IEDs.

6. No cliams of responsibility so far. No reports of any prior warnings.No indication that Homeland Security had any prior warning of a possible blast in the form of electronic chatter of the perpetratos or suspect interception and interrogation.The perpetrators had well maintained operational secrecy while planning and executing the blasts.

7. No indictation so far whether it was an act of rogue individuals or an organisation. The motive too is not clear. (16-4-2013)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (etd),Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi. Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )

CAN 1996 REPEAT ITSELF IN AFGHANISTAN?

B.RAMAN

As the US troops prepare to thin themselves out of Afghanistan starting from next year, India has to worry whether 1996 can repeat itself in Afghanistan, when the Taliban, with the help of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), captured power from the Afghan Mujahideen in Kabul and enforced its rule.

2. In searching for an answer to this question, one has to remember what happened after the Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988:

1989:The Afghan Mujahideen, with ISI’s help, tried to have Najibullah’s army defeated at Jalalabad, so that they could set up a base there. They were defeated by Najibullah, who demonstrated the strength of his army.

1992:The Afghan Mujahideen succeeded in overthrowing Najib  by taking advantage of a US-encouraged split between Najibullah and Rashid Dostum and setting up their Govt in Kabul.

1994: Naseerullah Babar, Benazir Bhutto’s Interior Minister, promoted the formation of the Taliban in Kandahar to escort Asif Ali Zardari’s cotton convoys from Turkmenistan. The US established secret contacts with the Taliban to secure its support for a gas-oil pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan being planned by UNOCAL.

1996: The Taliban, with the ISI’s support, overthrew the Mujahideen Government in Kabul and set up its Government.

1996: Ahmed Shah Masood set up his Northern Alliance to counter the Taliban.

1996: Osama bin Laden shifted from Khartoum to Jalalabad and from there to Kandahar where Mulla Omar, the Amir of the Taliban, was based.

1998: bin Laden formed the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People for fighting against the US and Israel.

1998:Al Qaeda carried out explosions outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam.US carried out reprisal Cruise missile attacks on Al Qaeda camps in Jalalabad. Not successful.

1999:The US demanded that the Taliban should hand over bin Laden to it. It also demanded that Pakistan should force the Taliban to hand over bin Laden to it. Both the Taliban and Pakistan evaded the US demand

11/9/2001:Al Qaeda carried out its terror strikes in the US homeland.

October,2001:The US declared its war on the Taliban and Al Qaeda and ordered military action in Afghanistan. The Taliban was overthrown, but Omar and bin Laden crossed over to Pakistan, where they were given shelter by the ISI. The Northern Alliance collaborated with the US in its operations.

3.The sequence of events mentioned above was due to the following reasons:

·       The sudden and abrupt withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

·       The differences between the Pashtoons and the Uzbeks and the consequent lack of unity in the Najibullah Government.

·       The ambivalent US policy towards the Taliban. It hobnobbed with it initially in the hope of getting its support for the projected UNOCAL pipeline project and realised too late the pernicious nature of the Taliban.

·       The USA’s misplaced faith in Pakistani co-operation against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

4. What is the position now as the US prepares to thin itself out?

·       Just as the Soviet troops withdrew in 1988 before effectively defeating the Mujahideen, the US is going to thin itself out before effectively defeating the Neo Taliban and the Haqqani Network, both of which continue to operate from Pakistan.

·       The command and control of Al Qaeda based in Pakistan has been badly disrupted, but not eliminated.

·       There could be political instability in Afghanistan after President Hamid Karzai completes his term next year leading once again to ethnic differences between the Pashtoons and non-Pashtoons.

·       The ambivalent US policy towards a possible political role for the so-called good Taliban post-2014 could add to uncertainties and instability.

·       In 1988, to facilitate the Soviet withdrawal, Pakistan ensured that there were no attacks on the withdrawing Soviet troops by the Mujahideen. Pakistan had better control over the tribal areas on the Afghan border. Today. Pakistan has little control over the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and will have little ability to facilitate the withdrawal of US troops and equipment.

5. Qualitatively, the ground situation post-2014 will differ from that which prevailed in 1988 as follows:

·       The Soviet withdrawal in 1988 was abrupt and total with no Soviet presence left in Afghanistan. There was no air cover for the Soviet troops due to the effective use of the US-supplied Stinger missiles by the Mujahideen. The US withdrawal is going to be gradual and not abrupt and total. The US will still have some presence with the required air cover in Afghan territory to enable the Afghan troops perform their security role. The Soviet troops left Najibullah all alone without any back-up support to counter the Mujahideen. The US is unlikely to leave the Karzai (his successor’s) Government all alone.

·       The US fleet of Drones and their effective use will enable the US to prevent the Neo Taliban, the Haqqani network and Al Qaeda under Ayman Al-Zawahiri from re-grouping.

6. From 2014, the US will have the limited objective of preventing a come-back by a Neo Al Qaeda that could again pose a threat to the US homeland. The Neo Al Qaeda is presently focusing on Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Africa. After the US thin-out, it might be tempted to re-focus on the Af-Pak region. To prevent this, the US will need a continued capability to maintain a limited ground presence in Afghanistan and operate its fleet of Drones.

7. What should be India’s options and policies? If the post-1996 events are repeated in Afghanistan, India may again face serious security problems in Jammu & Kashmir and even in hinterland India. To prevent this, Indian policies should be focused on the following:

·       Continue to strengthen the Afghan security forces through training and supply of arms and ammunition.

·       Strengthen trilateral intelligence co-operation involving the intelligence agencies of India, Afghanistan and the US.

·       Encourage the US not to repeat the Soviet mistake of total withdrawal, but to maintain a minimum presence in Afghan territory to keep weakening the Neo Taliban and Neo Al Qaeda.

·       Encourage the US to continue using its Drone fleet and if the US faces any difficulty in using them from Afghan territory, allow the US to operate them from Indian bases.

·       Work for a smooth political transition after Karzai completes his term. ( 13-4-13)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )

 

THE CASE AGAINST JAGDISH TYTLER

B.RAMAN

In its online edition, “Outlook” has carried a detailed chronology of the case against Jagdish Tytler, a functionary of the Congress (I), in connection with allegations of his involvement in the murder of some Sikhs during the massacre of about 3000 Sikhs in certain areas of Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards from the Delhi Police on October 31,1984. This may be seen at http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10&pid=2961&eid=5

2. The massacres led to two kinds of complaints by sections of the Sikh community . The first was about studied inaction by the Delhi Police in the face of the massacres without effective action to stop them. The second was regarding the role of some functionaries of the Congress (I) in the massacres. Three of the Congress functionaries accused by some sections of the Sikh community of orchestrating the massacres were H.K.L.Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. Bhagat is since dead. Tytler and Sajjan Kumar faced enquiries and investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

3. The Government of India ordered Ved Marwah, former Commissioner of Delhi Police, to enquire into complaints of police inaction. When it was found that he had taken his task seriously and was trying to identify police officers guilty of inaction, the enquiry was taken out of his hands. The whole thing was subsequently covered up.

4. The investigations by the CBI were perceived by large sections of public opinion to be another cover-up exercise to protect the Congress functionaries allegedly involved, particularly Tytler, who was alleged to be close to the family of Indira Gandhi. Tytler did not suffer any political or criminal consequences as a result of the investigations.

5.In 2007--- 23 years after the massacres--the CBI submitted to the trial court  a Final Report claiming that there was not sufficient evidence to warrant Tytler’s prosecution. As it was contended by some Sikhs that the CBI had not examined an eye-witness living in the US, a Sessions Court rejected the FR and ordered the CBI to further investigate the case and record the statement of the alleged eye-witness living in the US.

6. The CBI did so and submitted another FR in 2009 claiming that there was still no evidence to warrant the prosecution of Tytler. The court accepted the FR this time and the case against Tytler was sought to be closed once for all.

7. The “Outlook” narrative has quoted Ritu Sarin of the “Indian Express” as finding out that two senior officers of the CBI had recommended that the investigation should be completed and all the evidence put up before a court in the form of a charge-sheet against Tytler and it should be left to the court to decide whether the evidence is sufficient to convict Tytler.

8. According to “Outlook”, Ashwani Kumar, who was the Director of the CBI from August 2008 to November,2010, rejected their recommendation and ordered the submission of an FR once again stating that there was not sufficient evidence to warrant the prosecution of Tytler. This was done. After his retirement, Shri Ashwani Kumar has recently been appointed as the Governor of Nagaland. This appointment has come in for allegations in sections of the media as a quid pro quo for his decisions favouring the Government when he held office.

9. Following complaints by sections of the Sikh community that there are other eye-witness now living in the US, who were not examined by the CBI before submitting an FR for a second time in 2009, a Sessions Court has ordered a further  investigation of the charges against Tytler by the CBI.

10. The massacres of about 3000 Sikhs after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, with some functionaries of the Congress allegedly playing an active role in orchestrating the massacres, has illustrated the cover-up culture of the Congress, which pushed under the carpet complaints of inaction by the Delhi Police and then sought to distort the CBI investigation to ensure that no functionary of the Congress suffered adverse consequences.

11. A clean chit was twice sought to be given to Tytler on the basis of an incomplete investigation. He  continues to be an important member of the Congress, defended and protected by senior leaders of the Congress  and he roams around as a free man   appearing in one TV channel after another to discredit the witnesses against him outside a court of law.

12. In the years since 1984, the credibility of the CBI as the premier investigating agency of the Government of India has repeatedly taken a beating. The entire investigation process in the Government of India stands discredited at the political and professional levels and hardly anyone takes the CBI seriously

13. If the credibility of our criminal justice system has to be restored and if we have to win the confidence of the Sikh community, it is important that the further investigation against Tytler be done in a time-bound manner by a special investigation team reporting directly to the court.

14. We have failed to do justice to our Sikh community for nearly three decades after the massacres were committed. It is time to end this Government-sponsored charade of investigation and identify and punish the guilty. ( 12-4-13)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )