No skull caps or religious slogans: Dear Gujarat police, here's what terrorists don't do while attacking a city

The Surat Rural Police are mired in fresh controversy. A video of a police mock drill showed dummy terrorists wearing skull caps, and shouting pro-Islamic slogans, indicating a bias against a particular community. In the latest video, cops are seen holding two men playing the part of terrorists at the site of the Narmada dam in Kevadia area of Narmada district, who were shouting “take our lives, if you want. Islam Zindabad (long live Islam)”. 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. [caption id=“attachment_2027027” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image: TV Screengrab[/caption] So, based on history, we decided to list out some of the things that terrorists don’t do. Dear Gujarat police, please take note. *They don’t wear attire that can link them to their religion The best known picture of a terrorist in India is that of Pakistani gunman Mohammed Ajmal Kasab who was respondible for the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. We did not see him wearing a skull 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 really sport religious or community symbols. In fact, all the 26/11 Mumbai terrorists were dressed in jeans and T-shirts. They want to blend into the crowd, not draw attention. *If they say ‘we can give our lives’, they probably will In the video, after the dummy terrorists are shown shouting “We can give up our lives,” as the police try to nab them. Recently, Taliban suicide bombers stormed an army-run school in Pakistan killing over 130 people, most of them children. Terror organisations like IS, Taliban and Lashkar-e-Toiba train young people to be suicide bombers. They send these men to attack a country, without any expectation that they will return. The video shows these ’terrorists’ threatening the police that they will kill themselves, before the police finally nabs them. *Unless they are interrogated, they won’t tell you their roots Now, unless they are interrogated why would a terrorist tell you where they are from? In the video, the terrorists are shown shouting, “Islam Zindabaad. We want Kashmir”. The dummy terrorists were made to shout pro-Islamic slogans by the Gujrat police.