The writer’s view that there is no gallantry involved in shooting at people who cannot shoot back should serve an eye-opener to fake encounter specialists (“ >Piecing together an encounter” , Nov.5). There are many unanswered questions about the jailbreak theory. There are also many contradictory versions being put out by the police. Under the circumstances, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government must come clean on the episode despite agreeing to a probe.
H.A. Jainulabdeen,
Chennai
One is not sure how many of those in the field or in positions that are a part of the system responsible for ‘encounters’ will dispassionately ponder over the issues raised Mr. Tharakan. Men in uniform, especially those in the field, are by training expected to obey orders and hardly allowed to apply their own mind in many situations. Civil service officials are often under pressure to decide against what their conscience dictates. I can think of an example, of a confession by a police officer, post-retirement, in connection with a ‘encounter death’ case in Kerala. It was debated for a long time. Hopefully, cool and balanced analyses like Mr. Tharakan’s will lead to further development of investigation procedures and methods of operation to combat terrorism without always having to use the command “shoot to kill” or settling of scores in terms of lives lost.
M.G. Warrier,
Mumbai
