Indian police do it again: Surat Rural Police dress 'terrorists' as Muslims wearing skull-caps

The Surat Rural Police have created a storm of controversy, after a simulated anti-terrorism drill saw the force getting their decoy terrorists to wear skullcaps, indicating a bias against a particular community. According to an Ibnlive report, two civilians posing as terrorists and wearing skull caps, were arrested by the police as part of the drill. While seeking that the media not sensationalise the issue, the police has said the incident was avoidable. “It was an avoidable mistake. It was a learning experience for us and we are sensitising the police force,” Pradeep Sejul, Supreintendent of Police of Surat Rural Police told the channel. The senior police official said he had apologised when this was pointed out to him at the time. An inquiry has now been ordered into the matter. [caption id=“attachment_2025751” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Footage from the anti-terror drill carried out by the Surat Rural Police. Image courtesy: CNN-IBN[/caption] Another justification by the police was that the decoy terrorist’s costume was merely a reflection of the attire of a majority of the people living in the area. However, the political class wasn’t very impressed with the explanation, with both the BJP, which is in power in the state, and the Congress criticising the incident. “Terrorists do not come wearing skull caps. And it is absolutely wrong to stereotype a community in this manner,” Mehboobali Bawa, the BJP Minority Cell President in Gujarat told CNN-IBN. The Congress for its part, said that the incident was another example of the BJP government attempting to create a divide among communities in the country. However, the stereotyping of terror suspects is not confined to the Surat Police, nor is it a new phenomenon. In 2008 the Delhi police had paraded terror suspects from the Batla House encounter in keffiyehs, the scarf  associated with Arab men, only to face outrage from the community. Another person, Yusuf Nalband, arrested in a terror case by the Hyderabad and Bangalore Police reportedly  said that all the suspects were forced to wear prayer caps before they were taken out in public view. He was later discharged in the case. “Making suspects display signs of their religious identity when presenting them before the world is not the police’s job. Surely, such religious profiling constitutes an offence,"  columnist Jyoti Punwani had argued in a column.  Ironically the best known picture of a terrorist in India, that of Pakistani gunman Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, does not show him wearing a prayer cap or any other obvious attire that could link him to his religion. If the past throws up any lessons for the security establishment, it’s that terrorists don’t dress up in costumes that would lead to suspicion against them. While the security establishment has made attempts to reach out to the Muslims and claims it doesn’t profile the community, incidents like the one involving the Surat Rural Police show that there’s a long way to go before ties between the communities are normlaised. While the Surat Rural Police may believe the incident was merely a avoidable error, it is the reinforcement of a stereotype that does little to improve policing and only feeds the discontent against the Indian state that terror groups feed on.