The Hindu : A test case for global war against terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 02, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A test case for global war against terrorism

By Mukund Padmanabhan

India is justified in regarding the return of Abu Salem as a test case for the global commitment to fight terrorism. While Salem's deportation is a decision to be taken by Portugal, India is not wrong in believing that diplomatic persuasion by the United States and other major powers will play an important role in facilitating his return.

The case for deportation could not be stronger. Salem is an Indian, his involvement in the Mumbai bomb blasts and the structure and spread of his operations distinguish him as a global terrorist and the string of crimes of which he has been accused suggest a life of infamy.

As the CBI teams attempt to come to grips with the complexities of Portuguese law in their effort to bring back Salem to justice, it is worth looking at India's recent record on the extradition/deportation front. Despite the string of post-September 11 U.N. resolutions and promises to deny safe havens to those who have committed terrorist acts and the introduction of specific measures to speed up extradition procedures (for example, those taken by the European Union), India's success at getting wanted men returned from foreign lands has been pretty dismal.

Post September-11, there have been just three deportations, all from the United Arab Emirates. The most notable, of course, was that of Aftab Ansari, the self-confessed mastermind behind the attack on the American Center in Kolkata. The fact that his deportation took place so quickly and painlessly was either partially or substantially a result of diplomatic pressure applied by the U.S., which had a special interest in booking those responsible for the Kolkata attack.

The excitement over Ansari's deportation almost crowded out that of another wanted criminal, Raju Anadkot, who was deported on the same day. The third person, Muthappa Rai, an underworld don from Karnataka with suspected links to Dawood Ibrahim, was brought home a couple of months later. Ironically, these deportations occurred a year after Salem was arrested in the UAE, which initially sought additional information from India and then let the mafia don go on the ground that it lacked conclusive proof to identify him.

Extradition/deportation statistics of the Interpol wing in New Delhi point towards the difficulties in securing the return of terrorists home. If you discount the four Sikhs implicated in the killings of Lalit Maken and the attack on the then Congress president, M.S. Bitta, the only underworld gangster India has successfully extradited since 1985 is Om Prakash (Babloo) Srivastava.

Most of the others sent to India were accused of economic or other offences. For example, the Turkish citizens, Tunkay Alankus and Cihan Karanci, who were implicated in the National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) scam, were extradited from Switzerland in 1997. The New Zealander, Eoghan McBride, extradited in 1999, faced charges of paedophilia in Goa. The United Kingdom extradited the Brazilian, A.E. Pinto, in connection with the NFL urea scam two years ago. In the same year, two Sikh terrorists wanted by India, Mukhtar Singh and Paramjit Singh, won the right to remain in Britain. A Manchester-based Muslim cleric, charged with conscripting volunteers to fight in Kashmir on behalf of the Lakshar-e-Taiba, also could not be deported.

The pattern and the experience overall suggest that terrorists — because of the laws, because of patronage and because they are able to raise the human rights bogey — are doubly difficult to extradite/deport. India's demand that its 20 most-wanted terrorists be deported by Pakistan has met with outright rejection.

Ironically, Islamabad has declared it had no objection to handing over Omar Sheikh to Washington even after he has been convicted and sentenced to death for killing Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Not surprisingly, the CBI believes that with respect to deportation, it is not so much what is asked for which is relevant but who asks for it.

This is why bringing Salem home successfully and quickly may depend on how effectively influential countries canvass with Portugal and press home the importance of this. Says a high-ranking CBI official: "It is the commitment to fighting terrorism which is at test."

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