Indian police face flak over ‘Muslim’ terror drill

[Scorpion]

Indian police face flak over ‘Muslim’ terror drill

A mock ‘terrorist’ wears a skullcap, widely worn by Muslims in India, in this video of a ‘terror’ drill. (Photo courtesy: NDTV)​

By AFP | Ahmedabad, India

Thursday, 1 January 2015
Police in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat faced widespread criticism Thursday after staging an anti-terrorism exercise featuring “militants” dressed up as Muslims.

A video of the drill, which was broadcast on Indian media websites, shows five policemen capturing and then pinning down three men in white knitted skullcaps before bundling them into jeeps.

The exercise earlier this week was in preparation for a January 11-13 investment summit in Gujarat, whose speakers will include US Secretary of State John Kerry as well as Modi himself.

Modi, who is leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, was chief minister of Gujarat during an outbreak of communal violence in 2002 which killed more than 1,000 people. Most of the victims were Muslims.

Kamal Faruqui of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board termed the mock drill “atrocious and highly condemnable”.

“It is profiling the Muslim community which is very bad. They should apologize, otherwise they should be taken to the court,” Faruqui told NDTV news channel.

The former ruling Congress party called the incident an act of religious intolerance by a “failed administration.”

Police initially tried to brush off the criticism, saying the skullcaps were used “to give them a different look.” But they later apologized for an “avoidable situation.”

“This was a mistake and should not have happened,” local police chief Pradeep Sejul told AFP, adding that an inquiry had been ordered.

Concerns about religious intolerance in secular India have grown since Modi came to power in May, fuelled by reports of Muslims and Christians being forced or induced to become Hindus in mass conversions.

 

[d4rk3n]

This was a bad move on government's part IMO. Even if they did it unknowingly (who knows? ), they still hurt the sentiments of a particular faction. This is unhealthy for a secular country.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

Whoever are responsible to adding skull caps to the scenario needs to be sent for attitude re-adjustment classes. What has skull caps got anything to do with terrorism? It's definitely an insult to Islam to portray terrorists as people who wear skull caps.

 

[missbishi]

Is this what they call "racial profiling"? It makes me think of a picture I posted a few days ago - it was of the target that US soldiers shoot at the range. The target pictures an Asian man in a headscarf. It is hardly surprising that Islamophobia is taking over when this is the attitude that the authorities have.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

Is this what they call "racial profiling"? It makes me think of a picture I posted a few days ago - it was of the target that US soldiers shoot at the range. The target pictures an Asian man in a headscarf. It is hardly surprising that Islamophobia is taking over when this is the attitude that the authorities have.

I think it goes further than racial profiling. It looks more like brainwashing, with dire consequences. When soldiers are trained to shoot at targets of Asian men with headscarves, it makes them desensitized to the idea of killing Asian men with headscarves. So when they go to the front line, they have no qualms about shooting any Asian-looking men wearing headscarves. It doesn't matter if the Asian-looking men wearing headscarves are a threat or not a threat. That's a secondary issue. Shoot first and ask questions later is the credo of the soldiers. Policemen are supposed to be the ones doing the questioning. However, lately, it appears the policemen are also adopting the stance of the soldiers in that they shoot first and ask questions later. Not much questions to be asked, though, if the man you have shot is already dead.

 

[Redheart]

I think the fact that most terrorist attacks in the recent past have been carried out by Muslims the impression people get is all terrorists are Muslims. And on the flip side it sends the wrong message that all Muslims are . . .

Working with stereotypes is never fair because those who see how Muslims are depicted get to believe what they see. They get to believe that Muslims are the enemy. And thus [does] Islamophobia spread its dark tentacles.

 

[tournique]

This seems to be more and more likely like the use of USA army Terrorist target dummies instead of normal dummies. Profiling at it's best.