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India sought French help to tackle terror

Paris: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked French President Niocolas Sarkozy for help to restructure and streamline India’s anti-terrorism agencies when the two met in Paris during an India-EU summit late September, Roland Jacquard, President of the International Observatory on Terrorism told The Hindu. India’s Ambassador to France, Ranjan Mathai, said: “The two certainly discussed greater cooperation in countering terrorism.” Informed sources, however, indicate that Mr. Singh was seeking more by way of exchange of intelligence and information rather than direct intervention through training of personnel or a revamping of Indian intelligence agencies.

France, which is home to Europe’s largest concentration of Muslims, many of whom come from the Maghreb nations of Tunisia, Algeria or Morocco, suffered a wave of terrorist bombings in 1985 and 1986 and has since remained a prime target. French authorities have foiled a series of planned attacked against western and Israeli targets in France.

The Maghreb nations have all have experienced terrorist attacks, especially Algeria, which is just emerging from a bitter civil war between hard-line Islamic radicals and the Army, which has backed secular forces.

France has kept a close watch on Islamic activity and set up a remarkably efficient intelligence network. Anti-terrorism squads have put in place special measures called Vigipirate, and have succeeded job in preventing a series of attacks. In France, the emphasis has been on prevention and the police regularly arrest people suspected of jihadi activity, terrorism experts say.

The French Foreign Ministry on Friday confirmed that two French nationals, who were guests at the Trident Oberoi hotel in Mumbai, were killed in the attacks. The Ministry, however, refused to identify the victims or indicate when or how their bodies would be repatriated to France. The Ministry also confirmed that an Air France crew and some 20 French citizens had been rescued from the hotels under siege. The government has also sent a special plane with medical teams to repatriate French citizens caught in these attacks back to France.

The media in France have generally not been sympathetic to India in their coverage of the crisis, especially after Mr. Singh pointed his finger at foreign forces. Major television stations like LCI, ITele, France 3 and others, forgetting nuance, immediately accused Mr. Singh of directly accusing Pakistan in a kneejerk reaction.

Analysts interviewed by these stations almost invariably pointed to the ill-treatment of Muslims by the Hindu majority as one of the root causes of terrorism in India. Analysts like Christophe Jaffrelot told France Culture Radio and the English language TV channel, France 24, that the Indian government had done little to improve the lot of the Muslims, who have been overtaken by the Dalits and other communities that enjoyed the fruits of reservation or “positive discrimination.”

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