Unable to stop terrorists, the Manmohan Singh government has been constrained to look at the anti-terror mechanism in the US which is believed to have ensured that there was no terrorist attack on that country post-9/11.

Official sources said national security advisor M K Narayanan, who was briefed on the working of the Department of Homeland Security, found some of its aspects interesting.

“While many of the things they do are too draconian for us to implement, there are other things that are interesting that we may have to look at, considering that there has been no attack on the US after 2001,” said an official familiar with the interaction between India’s NSA and Charles Allen, undersecretary, office of national intelligence and analysis under the Department of Homeland Security.

Allen travelled to New York for the briefing that Narayanan had requested for. Department of Homeland Security, a single integrated agency which is tasked with overseeing most of US internal security, was set up in 2003 following the recognition that better coordination between various American agencies could have helped thwart terrorists who rammed planes into the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001.

Multiplicity of agencies with little coordination among them has been diagnosed as a major impediment in the fight against terrorism back home. Recent breakthroughs against jihadis banded under SIMI/Indian Mujahideen banner have been attributed to better coordination between Intelligence Bureau and cops in different states, reinforcing the need for institutionalised collaboration — from data sharing to surveillance and joint operations.

Talking to reporters travelling with him, the PM said, “This outrage once again demonstrates that we have to tighten our intelligence gathering and strengthen our investigations, we have to strengthen our prosecution process.”

NSA’s interaction with the Department of Homeland Security came against the backdrop of a strong and unprecedented convergence of views on the source of India’s terror — the jihadi gangs based in Pakistan and supported by ISI.

The PM and President Bush discussed in detail the dire prospect of Pakistan imploding, the ISI becoming the “state within state”, and the role of the notorious agency in the ever-worsening situation in Afghanistan, with sources stressing that the “two leaders were on the same wavelength”.

Both also agreed on the need to pursue a calibrated approach towards Zardari. Sources indicated that Zardari appreciated the concerns of India and the US in the separate meetings he had with Singh and Bush. But both Singh and Bush doubted whether he had the capacity to deliver on his promises.

In his meeting with Singh, Zardari did not take issue with the Indian PM upon being told that Pakistan’s non-fulfilment of its 2004 commitment not to let anti-India terrorists use its soil was a matter of major concern for New Delhi. Nor did he dispute the role of ISI in bombing of Indian embassy in Kabul. But while his promise to work with India to rein in the terrorist outfits and “agencies promoting them” was “music to Indian ears”, there were no illusions that Zardari did not have the wherewithal to make good his promises. The Pakistan president himself kept citing that he needed time to settle down.

Tracking weak global cues, the stock markets continued their slide on Monday with the benchmark Sensex plunging 230 points at 1115 hrs and dipped below the 13k level for the first time since July 17, 2008.

The 30-share index was quoted at 12,872.34, a loss of 299.84 points from its previous close.

The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell by 66.65 points or 1.66 per cent to 3,918.60 at 1115 hrs from its last close.

Brokers said after resuming steady, the markets moved downwards following Asian markets, which were trading lower in the early trade.

They said investors were extremely cautious due to the negative global developments with the credit crisis deepening across the financial institutions in the world’s largest economy amid a delay in the rescue package.

Realty stocks continued to bear the brunt of investors’ wrath as the US sub-prime issue threatened the world economies affecting the flow of funds required for the real estate sector, they added.

The BSE Realty Index was the biggest loser in the initial 15 minutes of trading, registering a fall of 140.49 points or 3.91 per cent.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the circulation of Justice G T Nanavati’s report about the Godhra carnage in Gujarat.
A petition seeking a stay on the report was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, which posted its hearing for October 13.

Godhra Commission gives Modi a clean chit

The NGO, Citizen for Justice and Peace, approached the apex court contending that a report by Justice U C Banerjee
Committee on the same carnage has been stayed and a similar step should be taken for the Justice Nanavati Commission Report, which was tabled in the Gujarat assembly on Thursday.

“There is absolutely no evidence to show that either the chief minister or any of the ministers in his council or
police officers had played any role in the Godhra incident,” stated the report of Justice Nanavati, a former Supreme Court judge.

The report that probed the Sabarmati Express coach burning in February 2002, which killed 58 kar sevaks who were on their way back from Ayodhya, said it was a pre-planned conspiracy hatched at the Aman Guest House in Godhra.

An email, purportedly sent by the Indian Mujahideen, has threatened that the outfit will kill BJP leader L K Advani during his scheduled visit to Shillong on September 29.

The email, written in incohesive English, was dispatched to some local newspaper houses on Wednesday night sending the entire police machinery in the state into a tizzy.

Signed by self-styled North-East Field Commander of IM, Ali Hussain Badr, the email said Advani’s “Hindutva demand has pushed India into a fascist mould”.

Meanwhile, the senior police officials held a high-level meeting with Chief Minister Donkupar Roy.

Police visited a newspaper house where the email was sent and analysed it.

“We can’t say anything now, we are trying to trace the IP address,” a senior police official said, adding that prime facie it appeared that the email was sent from Shillong itself.

The incident of burning S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, which triggered off violent riots in Gujarat, was a pre-planned conspiracy and not an accident, according to the first part of the Godhra Commission report.

The report was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly on Thursday.

The commission gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi [Images], stating that no evidence was found against him.

Protesting the findings of the report, the Opposition Congress staged a walkout from the assembly.

The two-member commission headed by Justice G T Nanavati was appointed by the Narendra Modi-led government after the riots.

The commission examined more than 1,000 witnesses during the period of six years.