The state and terrorism

Sir

In the month of July, a sensational story was flashed in the media of how the police had foiled a terrorist attack on Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. In this connection a youth was arrested in Coimbatore, who was reported to have links with the earlier bomb blasts that took place in the Mumbai suburban trains. The arrested youth was reported to have connections with an organization called Manitha Neethi Parasai (MNP). Several other people were also arrested in this connection.

Subsequently, the journal Radiance Viewsweekly has published statements by the state President of the MNP, denying any connection with any planned terrorist attack or with the arrested youth and exposing how the whole affair was a total set-up by the police and intelligence authorities. It goes on to expose how the so-called planned terrorist strike on the Coimbatore Medical College had actually been planned by the Special Branch of the police a long time back, by placing a decoy within the organization, who was being sponsored and financed by, and had been given references for renting an accommodation by none less than an Assistant Commissioner of Police. A Tamil biweekly paper Nakeeran is reported to have quoted some police sources that even admit that the ‘planned attack’ and arrests were all a fabrication by the police. A fact-finding team from Madurai has reported to the Press that the ‘explosives’ seized by the police were in fact planted and included harmless electrical components taken from an electrical goods repair shop run by one of the arrested persons.

In another incident in Siliguri, as reported in The Telegraph of August 26, two police constables of the CID were caught by the night watchmen, planting petrol bombs in two petrol pumps near the New Jalpaiguri Station. The Inspector General of Police of West Bengal tried to dismiss the incident and reportedly said that “they wanted to create panic and it was a hoax”, and that their links with “banned outfits” in the Northeast would be investigated.

A few days ago, ACP Vinod Bhatt, an officer of Anti-Terrorist Squad investigating the Mumbai train blasts was found run over by a local train. Although senior ATS officials are vehemently denying that it was a suicide, circumstantial evidence strongly suggest a case of suicide. A former colleague of the victim has alleged that "During the course of investigation, a senior official asked him to do things which went against his conscience."

The Indian state, like all the capitalist imperialist states world over, uses terrorism as a weapon to advance the aims of the ruling bourgeoisie. Ruling class parties unite on this issue in the name of "national interest", that is the class interest of the ruling bourgeoisie and never let the people know about this.

Malini, Coimbatore