Naxal violence, infilitration from Bangladesh and Dhaka's reluctance on the issue of fencing along the international border were major concerns for the Union Home Ministry.
NEW DELHI: Rising naxal violence, increasing infilitration from Bangladesh and Dhaka's continued reluctance on the issue of fencing along the international border were
major concerns for the Union Home Ministry during 2005 which began with the ministry grappling with Tsunami disaster.
The withdrawal of recommendation and subsequent giving in to the opposition's demand on Action Taken Report on Nanavati Commission report on 1984 anti-Sikh riots was also one of the focuses of the Ministry in 2005.
The year began with the ministry grappling with the Tsunami disaster that had hit the southern part of the country in December 2004 and the entire machineary was gearing up to provide relief and rehabilitation to the affected people of Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar islands, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh.
Naxal violence remained a big headache for the ministry as the number of killing in naxal violence in 2005 increased by about 20 per cent besides the menace engulfing two more states -- Uttranchal and Haryana -- within its fold. Though Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had been harping on that the naxal issue was due to the imbalance in the developmental work of the region, naxals continued with their low-intensity warfare techniques with a major incident here or there that included killing of CRPF jawans in Chattisgarh, assassination of Congress MLA in Andhra Pradesh and the more recent jail break in Jharkhand.
The merger of People's War with Maoist Communist Centre, that was undermined by the political leadership in the Home Ministry, turned out as a major cause of worry and security agencies fear more bloody attacks in 2006.
The ministry also came under severe criticism from opposition parties when the Action Taken Report on Nanavati Commission report exonerated every one despite suggestion in the report to investigate some of the cases afresh.
After lot of criticism, it finally agreed to get some of the cases investigated by the CBI and ensured a fresh probe against senior Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar.
The inflitration from Bangladesh was slightly high and the Home Ministry continued with its efforts to convince Dhaka for border fencing in certain pockets along the international border.
BDR continued to oppose contruction of any bunkers along the 150-200 yards of the "zero line", which was inevitable at certain places keeping the topography in view. Government took a series of measures to curb the problem of infiltration that included raising of additional Battalions of BSF, reduction of gap between border posts, intensification of patrolling both on the land and the riverine border.
About illegal immigrants, the government was considering the recommedations of the Group of Ministers on Reforming the National Security System which recommends introduction of a scheme for issuing work permit to foreigners as a measure to curb illegal immigration and to begin this with Bangladesh and Myanmar nationals. (On Jammu and Kashmir front, militants continued with their demonstrative action though the number of incidents decreased as compared to the last year.
Militants carried out a few but "result-oriented" attacks in the year 2005 which included several suicide attacks on CRPF camps, assassination of state Minister Ghulam Nabi Lone.
As the thaw in Indo-Pak relations continued, it saw realisation of running a bus service between Srinagar and Muzafarrabad in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
The bus did run on April 7 but left a blot on security preparations as militants attempted a suicide attack at the Tourist Reception Centre, where all the passengers for the bus were lodged. The entire building, which was manned by the CRPF and state police jointly, was gutted within no time and the incident happened barely hours before country's two highly protected VVIPs -- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chaiperson Sona Gandhi -- were to flag of the bus 200 metres away from the site of the incident.
The incident left the Union Home Ministry red-faced as the security there was its responsibility. Not to forget about 10 massive car bombs that claimed the lives of more than three dozen people in the state. Though the number of tourists in the state increased by manifolds and events like annual Amarnath piligrimage passed off peacefully, militants made attempts at lives of at least three MLAs -- Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, Usman Majid and Ghulam Hassan Mir.
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