The post below makes false claims regarding my assertions in this thread. I have simply provided a news report to back up the following statement of Roland:
QUOTE Reputed to be the original brainchild of ex Police Commissioner Julius Ribeiro as a means to decimate Bombay's once powerful organized criminal gangs, it proved so effective that not only helped to set Ribeiro for national fame, but was seen as such a useful tool that all sucessive Bombay CPs carried on with it. UNQUOTE ......Roland Francis Nothing in the post below refutes the news report, or Roland's statement or mine. Cheers, Santosh ----- Original Message ----- From: Marshall Mendonza <[email protected]> > > Santosh makes the common mistake of equating legitimate police activity of > confronting criminals and engaging with them with gunfire, if necessary, > and the subsequent illegal and illegitimate activity of 'set-up > encounters' > or extra-judicial killings where the victim who was already in the custody > by the police was taken to a remote and deserted spot and bumped off. > > In the former case, many of the police encounters took place in the > presence of the public or the media. In the latter case, there were no > witnesses except police personnel who fed their version to the media. > > I may further add that such 'set-up encounter' killings which started in > the late 80's and early 90's were initially directed against criminals > of the various gangs that were operating in Bombay. However, subsequent to the > bomb blasts in 1992 and the new BJP-Shiv Sena government in 1994, such > killings took a communal turn. Muslims were specially targeted. If a muslim > had a dispute with a hindu over property or anything else, whether he was > right or wrong, and did not give in, and the dispute was taken to the > concerned authorities, he could land up as another victim of the dreaded ' > set-up encounter' killings. So also any muslim who resisted the strong arm > tactics of the BJP-Shiv Sena activists. This was a new strategy to subdue > the muslims, just like that followed by Narendra Modi in Gujarat, though > for a different objective. Some of the police encounter specialists who > initially began as heroes later turned renegade and mercenary and were > available for a price like in the wild west. > > Over a period of time the thin line between legitimate police activity and > illegal extra-judicial killings got blurred and all encounters got tarred > with the same brush without going into the merits of each case. They were > generalised, just like 'all goan men get drunk', or 'all > anglo-indian women > are loose characters' or 'all politicians are corrupt'. > > Regards, > > Marshall >
