Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Peshawar Seize - End Support to Terror

It was well past midnight my time when my baby woke up crying indicating diaper time and me and my wife woke up to deal with our routine.  As my wife was getting our baby her time, I happened to read some updates on my phone and it would be least to say that my heart cried aloud.  It cried with the news update on Peshawar Seize by 6 Talibans and the death of 125+ children.  

The dastardly act by the Talibans would burn in the heart of those parents who lost their innocent children.  It would go down as an even in the history where the terrorism touched an all time low of killing innocent children who had nothing to do with terror or their activities.  And to top it up the terrorists state that they did what they did as Pakistan's Army attacked their hide-outs and hence they attacked a School for the Army to feel the same pain as the terrorists.  What a shame!! justifying a cowardly act with something more insane!!!

The whole episode just brings back the discussion point now on to the ever increasing Terrorist Activities which originate from Pakistan's soil and is more of reported to be Sponsored by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). I just think and it actually pains me when I hear more and more of State Sponsored terrorism by Pakistan.  They have done enough after December 17, 1971 to resort to the State sponsored terrorism and try to destabilize peace and harmony in India and Afghanistan.  But what has it proved? What have they achieved from it?  I don't guess anything in specific.

The overall act of Sponsoring terrorism, allowing terrorist Camps in the NWFP as well as PoK regions, supplying arms and ammunitions to terrorists, letting World's Most Wanted Criminals to go scott free (read likes of Hafeez Saed) and then to top it up, just to show the world, become the Preferred Partner of US in War Against Terrorism to get few billion $$ of grant that they again syphon towards supporting terrorism.....a full circle....what do they get? I guess in the end they got Peshawar seize and there we all know innocent kids got butchered...

Would this not just be the right time for Pakistan to pull back all its resources supporting Terrorism and Stop sponsoring any terrorist outfit?  Would Pakistan as a nation for once would like to get together for the purpose of putting an end to the idiosynchronacy of a few.  Something that they resorted to and something that they started 40+ years back needs to be discontinued NOW.  

as Vikram Chandra tweeted well -  "16th Dec 1971 led Pakistan towards state-sponsored terrorism. 16th Dec 2014 should end that forever. "

Update 7AM PST: 135 killed 114 injured....all 6 terrorists succumbed to security forces retaliatory attack

Rohtak 'Braveheart' Sisters the Fallout of Bravery

After writing the previous article - Words From Thoughts: Rohtak 'Braveheart' Sisters and Social Media I happened to follow the developments around the Rohtak Sisters case and landed up on various videos on Youtube. Few of the videos are listed as below - 
  1. The final face of Rohtak Sisters
  2. Second Video Challenges Rohtak Sisters' story
  3. What is the truth behind Rohtak Sisters' story? Part I
  4. What is the truth behind Rohtak Sisters' story? Part II


Rest of the compilations can be checked on Youtube by Clicking Here

As I review the overall story and the Development along with the reaction of the two Sisters, it become quite evident to me that this is a nexus that is put in shape to extort money.  It is not just those two sisters - Pooja and Aarti, but their parents too are the partners in crime.  Another thing that comes to picture is the role of Police Officer who may be involved in the overall scheme of things but it not evident from the videos.  

The family of Puja and Aaarti doesn't just seem to be party to the overall case but seems to be the matermind behind the game of extortion by creating scenario where they charge someone for Molestation etc.  They are clearly abusing the IPC section 509, 294 and others.  

The acts that they have been party to have actually jeopardized the career and future of the youth involved / accused / targeted.  It is critical for the Law enforcement agency as well as Judiciary to review the evidences against them and take required action to set out an example that would help reduce such cases in future.  

The law is pretty harsh at this time that the accused is put behind bars without any investigation and with no provision of bail to this effect. That is fine to help thwart the real incidences, but what is the provision in the law for such cases where the females abuse the law for personal gains? 

The law makers need to seriously look at required amendments to help ensure that the real incidents are dealt with due care, but the hoax and noise is also cancelled out appropriately so that the law abusers do not abuse them for personal gains

Passenger Security and Cab Services

With the recent incident that unfolded a whole case of irregularities in the way Cab services in India operate, it has become critical for important for the Government to set down basic guidelines for the Cab Operations and bring it under organized sector.

Currently, there is no defined requirement for anyone to own a cab service.  There is a strong requirement to drive following improvements - 
  1. Ensure that every cab has a GPS unit fixed into it to help track where the cab is
  2. Ensure that every cab has a CCTV camera installed reporting the incidents inside the cab live to the Police Control Room or any other central location for that city.  These CCTV footage need to be securely stored
  3. Every Cab should have a distress call button that should immediately raise alarms with the Cab Service provider, Police Control room as well as the nearest surveillance unit 
  4. Ensure that every cab undergoes re-certification for the above units every 3 months
  5. Ensure that if any cab is not reporting onto the GPS map as well as camera console and distress call button is not working, the cab is declared unfit for operations. 
These are just a few pointers that would help thwart the issues as we have witnessed in case of Uber.  There may be many more that can be explored to help ensure safety of the travelers and government as well as the cab operators have to not just evaluate, but enforce these steps.

Additionally, it needs to be noted that the cab services need to be more diligent with following steps: 
  1. Conduct Independent Background Verification of the Cab Drivers they employ
  2. Conduct immediate review of all the complain received with a turn around time of 16 working hours.
  3. Immediate action needs to be taken to revoke duty of the driver against whom a complain has been received. This revocation may be turned over in case Driver is identified Not Guilty
  4. Report all incidents of serious nature to the nearest Police Station to ensure that the Driver if guilty is reported to Law and appropriate action may be taken against erring driver
If the above steps are taken and if the cab companies also conduct due diligence for the women safety measures, I would presume that there would be a sharp decline in the overall issue from cab services perspective and where cabs could be probable point of abuse.  It would only the time that would tell how much success would these measures see for this also would need to see honest and fair job delivery by the reviewers without resorting to corruption practices...

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Rohtak 'Braveheart' Sisters and Social Media

With the recent news on the reaction of two Rohtak sisters (aged 22 & 19), against a guy reportedly trying to molest them or engaging in eve-teasing, the social media went abuzz with praises for them.  The video showed them beating the guy in a bus with all they could gather - belts, slaps etc etc.  They were praised by everyone with rewards announced for them.  But hold it there, the same social media went abuzz criticizing them when the second video surfaced with them beating another guy in showering kicks and punches at him.

So why this sudden change in the stance by the Social Media?  Simply because Social Media was not the witness of the case, rather they were only the second hand recipients of the video footage that were shot in each case.  Funny questions that were raised included - why didn't bystanders capture the eve teasing?  Well, well, well doesn't the Social Media understand that the folks who record those videos are the bystanders who prefer to enjoy the "FUN" rather than broker the peace.  These bystanders do not know the background of the fight that they record, they record because they find it funny and nothing else.

I have a quick question to all the Netizens and the Social Media folks - If you were passing by and see couple of girls beating up a guy - would you be interested in knowing the reasin or would you sand their to enjoy the show...and may be record that scene to share with your followers and friends?  I would guess you would all opt for no.2 that is what happened in #rohtaksisters case and that is what we got to see in the two videos is and that is what the half truth is. 

Why do we the Social Media as well as Netizens get influenced by presumptions and live in a prejudice?  We don't know the complete truth and the complete case, still we ensure that we pass a judgement.....why that so? 

I think we all need to first know the truth from those who know it - the #rohtaksisters, the guys who got beaten up and the bystanders who were there watching the show live....and those who shot those videos.  I am sure there would have been something that would have lead some verbal bashing before the two girls chose to hit the guys....it would be better to know the pre-cursor to know the complete story  before jumping the guns and jumping to conclusions