'Strengthen local police network to fight terror'

K P S Gill, former director general of Punjab police, described the Mumbai serial blasts that rocked Mumbai city on Wednesday as unfortunate. He said he regretted the wrong policies of the government that has allowed terrorist outfits from Pakistan to strike India's financial capital.

Gill criticised the Central government's decision of centralising power to deal with terrorist organisations.

"When we were fighting terrorism in Punjab, we realised that the answer lay in strengthening the local network. We trained the local police to keep an eye on terrorist outfits. What can the National Security Guard do after the terrorist have struck and disappeared? They are trained to fight terrorist organisations on one on one," Gill said.

He also criticised the Congress leadership for telling the United

States that the saffron outfits were also involved in attacks. "Such statements have done more harm to Indian security system. After all what do we achieve by reopening the old cases and blaming the saffron outfits for various incidents," he said.

Gill highlighted the need of consolidation of local police network. "We have so many vacancies in the police at all level. We need to fill these vacancies and fight terror with all our power. It is not possible to prevent terror attacks because the police cannot cover every inch of the territory. The need of the hour is to strengthen our local intelligence system, which would help us in overcoming challenges of the terrorists. This is decidedly the handiwork of the Inter-Services Intelligence and Lashkar-e-Tayiba with the help of local outfits like Indian Mujahideen," Gill added.