The escape of three Pakistani terrorists from police custody while being taken from a hospital to the Lampur detention centre in New Delhi — where they were kept for deportation — on Friday is shocking.
Though there should have been more policemen escorting them than the lone Sub-Inspector, what is shocking is that he did not raise an alarm when they fled.
A. Jainulabdeen,
Chennai
The latest news of the Pakistanis escaping from custody, reports of the police department going all out to shield the former Haryana Director-General of Police, S.P.S. Rathore, in a molestation case and police officers allegedly partying with anti-social elements in Mumbai on Christmas Eve speak poorly of the department.
A.G. Rajmohan,
Anantapur
The fact that the terrorists, who just finished serving a jail term for triggering blasts near the Red Fort in 2000, were escorted by one policeman speaks volumes about the government’s determination and ground-level preparation to fight terror. It does not make sense to punish lower-level policemen. It is time higher officials were held accountable for their casual approach.
J.N. Mahanty,
Puri
On reading about the escape of the three Pakistani militants, I am reminded of two policemen — Something 717 and Nothing 414 — in the Tamil play, if I get it written by Cho. Ramaswamy. Something 717 carries a flask with him during his rounds and Nothing 414 wants to know the reason. Something says a prisoner he once escorted asked for water and he took him to a hotel. As he waited outside, the prisoner escaped through the back door. The next time a prisoner he escorted asked for water, Something asked him to stand outside while he went into the hotel to fetch it. Again, the prisoner escaped.
Something decided to keep a flask with him so that he was ready the next time a prisoner asked for water. He would neither permit him to go to a hotel nor would he go in to fetch water. He would ask him to drink water from the flask. The joke, it would seem, has come true in the case of the three Pakistanis and the Indian police.
B. Jagannathan,
New York
