Editorial
Outlaws 'out of law'?
Rein them in
We are at a loss to understand how a self-styled leader of an outlawed organisation having been on bail in three cases including sedition could go about his business under the nose of the law with cheerful abandon. The leader of the so called Al-Hiqma, banned in 2003, whose avowed policy, so far as is known, is militant in content and disposition, had attempted to organise a press conference with an inexplicable bravado. He, along with some associates, was arrested, only after and not before, they had the temerity to barge into a police station demanding explanation as to why they were being prevented from holding the press conference. One is not sure what to make of outlawed leader's statement to the police after his arrest. Be that as it may, we must take his utterances as the worst case scenario of a fanatical flourish taken to some worrisome length. The Al-Hiqma leader claims a following of more than a hundred thousand, which if true, could only signify a lack of vigil on his self-proclaimed evolution. His claims of having a well knit intelligence setup which can take on the government, as well as commando elements has a sinister ring about them, which we can ill afford to overlook. It seems that he has thrown a challenge to the government to test how far it is willing to go against the Al-Hiqma. Given the way the group has gone about the business of holding the press conference, which was well publicised through the press, one would have thought that they should have been nabbed well before they had the chance to go public. The hit list of sorts that he has drawn up exhibits his frame of mind and his attitude towards the media. We feel that there is an urgent need for the government to go into the veracity of his statements and determine the group's linkages, internal and external, if any. The fact that there are disgruntled elements with certain psychological dispositions to be indulged in and exploited by vested quarters should not be made a short shrift of.
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