Was on a debate last night on Times-Now (9.30pm) on dacoit Ganshyam @ Naan Kewat killed in encounter by UP Cops at Jamouli village in Chitrakoot.... It took three days for 400 cops to finally gun him down.... but not before four cops got killed and an IG and a DIG were injured in the encounter shootouts....
The TV channel true to its usual form (like in matters cricket) was shrill enough to wake the devil from his slumber - but its main thrust was the inadequacy and unpreparedness of the police to meet the criminal challenges that confront them every day. "What if it were a terrorist instead of dacoit Ganshyam that was holding us to ransom...?" yelled Arnab the righteous anchor at my co-panellist BP Shinghal (former DG Police of UP Cadre and later BJP MP and high profile minorities bashing politician... whom some might dub quite rabid any way!).
Surprisingly for Shinghal the First World War vintage .303s and the country .12 bore shotguns and close combat arms like pistols and revolvers were more effective weapons to fight dacoits, than the sophisticated AK-47/56 or other modern gadgetry. Even boasted having eliminated hundreds of dacoits with such - seven of them with his own pistol, he claimed! I wondered how the UP police used .12bores when such were not standard issue for the police; did it mean the UP police are comfortable using private non-issue weapons for their job? The man needs to wake up and not bask in the era when UP police were famous for harnessing gallantry awards for eliminating so called dacoits after pumping bullets into them when tied to a tree; at least that's what every big name dacoit that surrendered to Delhi police gave us to understand in the times when I joined service (1970) "for fear of being eliminated not captured by the UP police in a fake encounter"
In times of an encounter and situations that warrant an encounter, I would not differentiate a terrorist from a dacoit - both in so far as the police are concerned are outlaws who need to be touched by the long arm of the law. Antiquated and obsolete weapons need replacement, and the earlier the governments move in the matter the better. But then all this revolves round the much cried for and touted in recent times Police Reforms that are a far cry from reality.... In encounters, capture should be the rule, and killing only exceptional...
400 cops whatever.... my congratulations to Bikram Singh and his boys of the UP cops for the successful elimination of Ganshyam... sincere condolences to the families of the cops who lost their lives, and wishes for speedy recovery to those injured in the fray...
Comments
responses came mainly on my Facebook page....
Veeresh Malik at 18:44 on 18 June
. . . and lots of bullets as well as a few weapons go adrift?
Teji Brar at 19:15 on 18 June
At least they didn't have to call in the NSG
Ayonam Ray at 23:23 on 18 June
Was it due to lack of training or lack of requisite equipment - or was it the politicians interfering, lest the skeletons of their past tumble out of Kewat's mouth?
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