'Very strict laws' needed to deal with terrorism: K P S Gill

There is an urgent need to have "very strict laws" to deal with terrorism, former state police chief K P S Gill today said even as he rejected criticism over Army not being given the charge of the operation against terrorists in Gurdaspur.
Gill, who is credited with rooting out militancy in Punjab, said that India has been facing terrorism for long, but this level, at which the menace confronts the nation and the world, was not imagined.
"We need to have overall very strict laws to deal with terrorism which should embrace all aspects," Gill, 81, said at a 'meet-the-press' programme here.

He said that TADA and other laws with stricter anti-terrorism provisions were enacted when Punjab had already crossed the dark days of militancy.
The former DGP suggested that special courts should be set up for expeditious disposal of terrorism-related cases as in many other countries.
"In our country, unfortunately, something which happened 20 years ago continues to drag on and becomes a matter of debate," Gill said in an apparent reference to the hanging of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon.

Gill hailed the Punjab police for the way they responded to the Gurdaspur terror attack, in which three terrorists were gunned down in a day-long operation.

Dismissing criticism over Army not being given the charge of the operation against terrorists in Gurdaspur, he said, "Punjab police officers killed three terrorists but the political leadership is finding faults with the operation and making it a political issue."
"When the Punjab Police takes charge of an operation, it does not think which political leadership is leading it... It is a part of Punjab Police's training and the country is supreme (for them). This was shown in an exemplary manner," he said.
"Army's actual role is to fight an enemy force," he said, adding that the Punjab Police was "quite capable" of handling the operation.