While foolproof security is impossible, there is no excuse for slackness The suicide attack on an army camp in Sanjuwan in Jammu indicates that notwithstanding the seeming return of normalcy to Jammu and Kashmir, the security situation in the State remains worrying. At least 12 jawans have been killed in the attack. The camp is a heavily guarded one, situated not in some remote part of the State but on the outskirts of Jammu city. The militants appear to have cut the barbed wire and sneaked into the camp. As in the case of many suicide attacks in the past, the militants were wearing army uniforms. Incidentally, security had been beefed up significantly in the light of President Abdul Kalam’s visit to the State. That the militants could breach the heightened security cordon indicates that they are still in a position to strike at targets of their choice. The Government has been claiming that the security situation has improved significantly. Indeed, a series of high-profile visits to the State, including those by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi and now President Kalam, were being publicised as signalling the return of normalcy. There has been an increase in the number of tourists this year indicating that Kashmir’s image in the eyes of public too was changing. That image has now suffered a blow. And yet, it is because normalcy is returning to Jammu and Kashmir that such attacks are taking place. Under pressure and with little popular support, the militants are anxious to show their mentors in the ISI that they are still relevant and active. They will opt for high-profile operations to signal this. Militants are able to carry out attacks because there are gaps in the security grid. Even the most sophisticated weaponry cannot provide security if the armed forces make decisions based on silly assumptions. A man in army uniform is not necessarily a soldier, just as one with a beard is not a jehadi. While utmost vigilance is essential, the security forces must take care not to alienate the local population during their search operations. The mood in Kashmir is anti-militant and the security forces must build on this rather than resort to third degree methods to extract information from locals about the whereabouts of militants. Attacks on army camps make the jawans edgy and trigger-happy. But they must act with restraint while remaining vigilant. Vanishing woods Forests are our heritage and they should be protected The data contained in the latest report on the state of forest prepared by the Forests Survey of India on the depletion of dense woods in three districts of Karnataka add up to a very grim picture. What really lends a grave dimension to the dismal scenario is that the depletion of dense forests has taken place in the three districts, Shimoga, Kodagu and Uttara Kannada, which form the integral part of the Western Ghats, deemed to be a bioreserve of the living order. Given the fact that the findings of the survey are based on satellite data, there seems to be little scope for picking holes in the methodology adopted. The reduction of the forest cover is substantial both in the dense forests which had remained impenetrable to sun rays even during the noon and also in the open forests. While the decrease in the dense forest cover in Kodagu district is 668 sq km, the tally for Shimoga and Uttara Kannada districts is 892 sq km and 873 sq km respectively. The reasons for the degradation of the eco-sensitive Western Ghats which have a vital bearing on the rainfall pattern are encroachments and deforestation and they sound quite plausible. Besides, there is proof to substantiate this line of argument in the steady decline in the quantum of rainfall which has left the State in the clutches of drought year after year. It is clear that the legal and administrative mechanisms sought to be put in place to check the denudation of forests have proved ineffective so far. The role played by the pressure applied by the political class and other selfish groups, nay gangs, with a myopic view, in the process of destruction of forests cannot be underestimated. Moreover, the damage inflicted on the ecological balance by such relentless removal of forests is immeasurable in that the creation of such natural evergreen forests is beyond human endeavour. To that extent the skepticism voiced on the claims as regards afforestation do not seem to be unreasonable at all. The powers that be should view the contents of the Forests Survey of India report seriously and take tangible measures to save whatever is left of the forests. Such endeavours are unlikely to bear fruits in the absence of unstinted co-operation from the political class. Subverting justice The outcome of the first case relating to the attacks on members of the minority community in Gujarat in the wake of the Godhra carnage gives an ominous warning about the dispensation of justice in any of the other cases prosecuted by the state police in this connection. In what is known as the Best Bakery case, a sessions judge in Vadodara has acquitted all the accused who faced charges of killing 12 persons in an attack on the bakery on March 1, 2002. The judge, in his order last week, released all the 21 accused for want of evidence, as a number of key prosecution witnesses had turned hostile during the trial. In the first place, the State police, who had in fact colluded with the VHP-Bajrang Dal elements in attacking Muslims, could not have been expected to investigate the case impartially. The demand for a CBI investigation had been turned down by the Government. As many as 39 out of the 73 witnesses turned hostile and this is considered to be the result of threats against the witnesses and allurements of various kinds. Some witnesses even said that the attackers were there actually to protect them! Some of the witnesses were seen moving around with Sangh Parivar leaders when the trial was going on. The National Human Rights Commission had asked for security for some witnesses but this was not given. All this creates serious doubts about the outcome of other cases relating to the attacks. The same trend was seen in the trial of the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines in Orissa. Hardly any conviction has taken place in the ant-Sikh riot cases of 1984 in Delhi too. All this puts a question mark over the ability of the system to dispense justice. If the rule of law cannot be enforced by the State, it will be difficult to sustain democracy for long. In Gujarat the State itself subverted the rule of law and the citizens find that they are denied justice by the courts too.ÿ