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Minister of State for Home Affairs I D Swami has denied total intelligence failure, due to which the Bangladesh Rifles could capture a village on the Indian side of the international border on April 15-16.
He told rediff.com that there may have been a failure in intelligence-gathering by a local commander to take effective action in time, that could have prevented the unfortunate incident in which 16 Border Security Force men lost their lives.
On the claim by villagers that they had alerted the BSF commander in Meghalaya, Swami said that though he did not dispute media reports on this count, he would wait for a report from BSF Director General Gurbachan Jagat.
"The DG, BSF, has gone to the spot and he will report to the Union Home Minister L K Advani, who will then decide what has to be done," he added.
He said he was not aware of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee talking to the prime minister of Bangladesh and registering his protest over the handing over of mutiliated bodies to India. "I guess Atalji will wait till he gets a report from the DG, BSF. The bodies were handed over in a highly mutilated condition," he stated.
On whether the Government of India was trying to play down the incident and not blame the Government of Bangladesh for the incident, he said, "Our assessment is that the prime minister of Bangladesh would not have been aware of what one of her commanders was doing at the local level. Some trigger-happy officer can sometimes create this kind of an unpleasant situation. The political leadership of Bangladesh has nothing to gain from this kind of an incident.''
''The Government of India has taken up the case seriously and the matter will be investigated. Responsibility will be fixed for the failure to gather information that led to this incident," he promised.
He said that there was a set of rule on payment of compensation to the families of those BSF personnel killed.
He labelled as 'highly irresponsible', Hurriyat Conference leaders privately saying that talks initiated in Kashmir by government negotiator K C Pant was an exercise in futility and that Pant was trying to do a Phd in Kashmir.
"Let the Hurriyat first respond to the government initative and come forward for talks. They want to go to Pakistan and insist on going in a group. There is nothing known as a group passport. Let those whose papers are ready go to Pakistan. The others can follow. But they are going on their own. The Government of India is not sending them there. There is no question of making Pakistan a party to the talks. We would talk to those who are willing to bring peace in Kashmir. Since Pant has been appointed by the Government of India, he is doing what he thinks needs to be done," Swami explained.
On Pakistan insisting on talking on the basis of the 1948 Kashmir Resolution passed in the United Nations, Swami stated, "Pakistan was given the biggest snub by none other than UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, when he told its political leadership to forget about the resolution and hold talks against the background of the Lahore Agreement. What is significant is that he made the statement in Pakistan. India is ready for talks with Pakistan, when it stops aiding and abetting terrorism in Kashmir."
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