Guard against religious fundamentalism, new terror, states told (Roundup)

NEW DELHI - The central government Tuesday asked states to guard against religious fundamentalism and new terror groups while some of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministers at a conference here did not agree with its assessment about improvement in the situation concerning Maoist violence.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who inaugurated the chief minster’s conference on internal security here, termed left-wing extremism, cross-border terrorism and religious fundamentalism as serious challenges facing the country.

He said 2010 had witnessed a decrease in the number of violent incidents and casualties from left-wing extremists compared to previous years, but casualties among civilians due to Maoist violence had increased.

But Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the statement, saying it was “nothing to be proud of” as now more security personnel and civilians were being killed.

In his remarks, the prime minister said that the Indian constitution was remarkably flexible and capable of accommodating a diverse range of aspirations.

He said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which witnessed violent protests last summer had improved vastly in the last four months due to several measures taken by both the state and the central governments.

On the situation in the northeast, he said there was visible change in the states, with violence at its lowest levels in many years.

He said that the home ministry had prepared standard operating procedures to respond to forms of public protest which will be shared with the state governments.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that some new groups had raised their head and were suspected to be behind some terrorist attacks that took place in recent years. He said that the government’s policy was to bring every terrorist group before the law.

There was no let-up in the infiltration attempts from across the India-Pakistan border, he added.

Calling upon the states to take effective steps to fill up police vacancies, Chidambaram said 116,903 personnel had been added by the states to their forces against 530,580 vacancies.

Warning against complacency, he said there was need of constant vigil and capacity building, and also called upon states to sensitise their police to ensure human rights.

Answering queries, Chidambaram said Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal demanded that the the central government should reimburse the state for playing host to the 27,000 Tibetan refugees and the Dalai Lama in the state.

He said that the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand had also pointed to the construction activities by China on its side of border and said that India should also take similar steps.

Chidambaram said three states from the northeast had sought a ban on pre-paid SIM cards.

The minister said that the central government wanted states to procure non-lethal weapons for crowd control.

In his speech, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said the states should not be asked to pay for the deployment of central forces to battle Maoists.

“We are surprised that in this joint battle against Maoists, the states should be asked to pay for the deployment of central paramilitary forces. No state in the country has financial resources to make these payments,” Singh said.