New Delhi Dec. 4: The government, in a move led by shipping minister T.R. Baalu, is pushing for the installation of low-cost boat tracking systems in India’s 1.5 lakh fishing trawlers. The use of the coastal route by terrorists to sneak into Mumbai has exposed the vulnerability of the country’s 7,516-km coastline. The Directorate General of Shipping is putting in a request to the Indian Space Research Organisation to expedite this project on a priority basis.

Senior sources in the Navy point out that the demand for such a tracking system has been pending with the government for some time and could not be executed due to funding constraints. Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd) said the system will include the installation of a small beacon in these trawlers which will respond to a radar system. “This will help monitor the location as well as provide other details about the boat. At present no system is available by which such details can be made available,” he said.

For the present, only boats which carry more than 300 tons of goods have been fitted with an automatic identification system (AIS) but this is not the case with the majority of Indian fishing boats. “By fitting this devise, any unidentified trawler can be immediately spotted,” Adm. Prakash added. Although this is not an expensive device, one of the main reasons why this scheme had failed to take off was because the majority of fishermen had found the price (approximately Rs 5,000) prohibitive. “It needed government intervention, especially since its cost was expected to run into a few hundred crores,” said a naval source.

“The government will have to set up a marine police force to monitor these trawlers because there is no way that the Navy or Coast Guard can be expected to monitor so many boats,” pointed out Vice-Admiral Vinod Pasricha (Retd). “Every morning, these are thousands of trawlers plying across Indian waters. At present, if any boat has to be checked, coastal or naval guards will have to use the services of a smaller boat to reach these boats, which cannot be stopped because their nets get stuck in the propellers,” said Vice-Adm. Pasricha.

Monitoring is further complicated by the fact that there are multiple agencies looking after the registering of each fishing vessel. The Navy has also mooted the idea that fishermen be used to assist in the surveillance process, especially around the Sir Creek area along the Gujarat border which has been found to be highly vulnerable to terrorist activity. Multiple sources of checks can be used to further enhance security.  The Navy has 100 ships but their task is to fight enemy warships. They cannot patrol the shallower waters used by fishing trawlers.

NEW DELHI Dec. 4: The country is expected to soon get a Federal Investigative Agency (FIA), on the lines of the FBI in United States with the main Opposition BJP giving its nod to the proposal mooted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the all-party meeting following the Mumbai terror attacks.

The Opposition’s green signal came when home minister P. Chidambaram met senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Thursday to seek consensus on the agency. Though Mr Advani promised “full cooperation” with the government for enacting a “federal security law” and establishing a “federal security and investigating agency”, there were riders to the promise in terms of keeping “the Opposition informed about various steps and consulting it”. The government is planning to bring an ordinance on setting up of the federal agency due to urgency and political consensus is expected to facilitate this move.

Earlier, the government’s move to form a federal investigating agency was turned down after as many as 24 states wrote to the home ministry decrying the move. Sources said the newly-appointed home minister drove to Mr Advani’s residence and apprised him about various aspects of the proposed agency that will have powers to probe all terrorist-related incidents occurring in the country. The home ministry, under newly-appointed home minister is virtually working overnight to complete the modalities for setting up a federal investigation agency as mooted by the Prime Minister.

“Security is a great national concern. The home minister is seized of the matter,” science and technology minister Kapil Sibal told reporters on Thursday after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, when quizzed over the issue of federal agency.  “I can assure you that each of those policy statements that the Prime Minister committed to the nation shall be implemented as soon as possible. Time is of essence,” he said.
Dr Singh had announced strengthening of air and maritime security, creation of four NSG hubs.

New Delhi/Bengaluru Dec. 4: Even as there is an alert on possible terror air strike at India’s prime international airports at Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, there’s a reportedly an Intelligence input on similar attacks on the oil refineries and power grids in the country.  The Centre has strengthened security in all government buildings, particularly Parliament. The security in Parliament, which saw a bloody attack in 2001, has been tightened as newly-dug bunkers have come up at the Vijay Chowk side of the edifice. CRPF jawans with black headbands can be seen peeping out from these structures. “Quick Reaction Teams (QRT’s) of paramilitary forces have been stationed at strategic points around Parliament,” an official said.

“We need a high-level preparedness to counter these attacks. There’s some unconfirmed information that the militants may attack the oil refineries to cripple the Indian economy completely. A radius of 20 km around the refineries should be made a restricted zone with immediate effect as a necessary precaution. The security at the power grids is fool proof; they need constant surveillance,” said an official source.  Movement of journalists is also being curbed as only PIB accredited journalists are allowed to enter in government offices.

Mumbai Dec. 4: The police is close to unravelling a murder plot with all the ingredients of a Bollywood pot-boiler — friends, a bit of play-acting and a huge ransom. Akash Babarwal (22) who was found dead in a Ford Ikon outside the Bombay high court on Monday morning, was the victim of bad company, said the police. After arresting 17-year-old Rohit Sharma, the Shivaji Park police is now looking for his elder brother Saurabh (20) who allegedly masterminded Akash’s murder.

According to police sources, on November 30, Saurabh asked Akash to come over to his house without telling his parents about it. Accordingly, Akash left at around 8 pm, telling his father he was going to a friend’s birthday party and went to Saurabh’s Marine Drive residence, where the latter was waiting with Rohit.

Saurabh told Akash that an advertising agency needed a representative picture of a kidnap victim and was offering Rs 15,000 for anyone who posed for it. When a deceived Akash agreed, he was made to sit on a chair while the brothers tied his hands behind his back and stuck duct tape across his lips.  After Akash was bound and gagged, Rohit hit him on the back of the head with a wooden stick used for beating clothes, rendering him unconscious, after which Saurabh strangled him to death with a length of rope. The two brothers then poured petrol on the dead boy’s face, burning it beyond recognition and stuffed his body in a bag.

Having killed Akash, the brothers used Akash’s cell phone to call his cousin Sagar Sharma who lives in Nashik. They first abused him verbally and then added, “Bhai zinda chahiye na? (You want your brother alive, don’t you?),” before hanging up. Following this, they sent two text messages to Akash’s elder brother Utkarsh. The first said, “Arrange for Rs 50,000” and the second said, “Don’t go to the police”.

At around 3.30 am on Monday, the brothers placed the bag containing Akash’s body in Saurabh’s Ikon and set out, looking for an isolated place to dispose of it.  “The intense police patrol near Churchgate station after the 26/11 attacks scared them and they abandoned the car outside the Bombay high court, perhaps intending to return later,” said and officer with the Shivaji Park police station, adding that on the next day all of Akash’s friends were detained for questioning.

NEW DELHI Dec. 4: The working of the Central intelligence agencies have come under the scanner of the UPA government with home minister P. Chidambaram holding daily meetings with National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan. Intelligence agencies like IB, RAW, NTRO are under government scrutiny for their failure to avert the Mumbai terror attack despite specific intelligence inputs received by the agencies.  The NSA has had a series of meeting with the home minister following Mr Chidambaram’s new appointment on Monday. Mr Chidambaram has said that the intelligence set-up will get a revamp very soon for getting “actionable inputs” to prevent any future attacks by terrorists.

“The home minister has been holding meeting with the NSA every day reflecting government’s seriousness in strengthening the intelligence network,” a home ministry official said. Sources disclosed that the home minister met Mr Narayanan twice on Wednesday.  Ministry sources said the emphasis of the government is now on better coordination of intelligence and security agencies to make the intelligence inputs actionable at the ground level.  The government is also giving priorities in acquisition process for systems and platforms, including radars, vehicles and interceptors. Mr Chidambaram has also been holding a series of meetings with home secretary Madhukar Gupta and director of Intelligence Bureau P.C. Haldar.

MUMBAI Dec. 4: Police inspectors believe their human intelligence network has been hit in a big way because of the closure of dance bars in 2005. This is because they believe that a lot of underworld elements that could have led them to such terror grids had bar girls as mistresses. Many of these bar girls were on the payroll of the police. So far, the police has not been able to establish whether or not there was any kind of local assistance given to the 10 terrorists who carried out their attacks last Wednesday. However, senior police inspectors believe that an operation of such magnitude certainly would have required logistical help from locals.

“When dance bars were open, we had bar girls, waiters and even customers as our informers. Whenever a patron spent a lot of money or gave a lot of jewellery, we used to be tipped off by these informers. But, ever since they have been shut down, we have lost out on precious tip-offs about the underworld which is also connected to terror outfits,” said Mr Pradeep Suryavanshi, senior inspector, Andheri police station. Orchestra bars that repla-ced the dance bars have very little to offer people who flock to see girls dancing. While bar girls still work at orchestra bars, they are not allowed to work beyond 9.30 pm.

New Delhi Dec. 4: Central intelligence agencies, as well as revenue intelligence wings engaged in tracing the funding of the Mumbai terror attacks, have  indicated that D-Company played a major role in providing funds to carry out the terror operation. Sources in the intelligence agencies say, mafia don Dawood Ibrahim is closely associated with Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and several other terror groups operating from Pakistan. “On the basis of available inputs we can definitely say that money did not come from hawala channels for carrying out the Mumbai operations,” said a source, adding, “Officials who are investigating the case have seized several credit cards of leading private banks from the terrorists. The transactions on these credit cards are being scrutinised.”

There have been cases in the past when terrorists have used credit cards.  “We are definitely investigating the role of D-Company in providing funds for the Mumbai terror attacks. D-Company provides funds to  Lashkar and Al Qaeda. It is now officially a part of the LeT terror network. The ISI’s links with D-Company are old. There is a possibility that D-Company might have organised funds for this attack just as he did for the 1993 Mumbai stock exchange terrorist bombings,” said the official.  Dawood Ibrahim ran a substantial hawala operation out of Mumbai, Karachi and Dubai. He is believed to have acted as an Al Qaeda surrogate for several financial transactions, said the source .

Meanwhile, the financial intelligence unit of the Union finance ministry has been asked to examine the cards seized in Mumbai to ascertain their issuing authorities and places where they were used. The concerned banks are also being contacted, said the official. Terrorists might have used credit cards to make their payments, said the official. We have also contacted the Taj and Oberoi hotels in this regard, said the official.

New Delhi Dec. 4: The Trident Hotel in Nariman Point, which was attacked and taken over by terrorists of the group now known as the Deccan Mujahideen, for nearly 50 hours, will be open to guests from December 21, company officials said.

In a press release sent to media houses on Thursday, an Oberoi group spokesperson said, “A round-the-clock effort is underway by the management and staff to ensure that the hotel is ready to receive guests. The hotel will reopen about three weeks after it sustained damage during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26.” The security in the hotel will reportedly be enhanced in order to ensure the safety of guests as well as its staff.

At a press conference taken at the Intercontinental Hotel on November 29, Mr P.R.S. Oberoi, chairman, Oberoi Group said that they would be consulting security experts while enhancing the security at both the Trident as well as the Oberoi hotels. The Oberoi group has also requested law enforcement agencies in this regard. Mr Oberoi had also said that while the damage to the Oberoi was considerably greater than that to the Trident.  The assault on both hotels on November 26 resulted in the death of four resident guests, 18 visitors who were dining in the restaurants and two staff members.