A job well done

Hats off to our police and security personnel. We would like to congratulate them on an exemplary operation. Yesterday’s raid of a six-storey apartment building in Kallyanpur was an unqualified success. Further terror attacks on the nation have almost certainly been averted as a result, and the nation stands safer thanks to the efforts of our courageous police and security personnel. This is the sort of effective action the public has been wanting to see from the authorities, and our law enforcement has shown that it is up to the challenge facing the nation. The operation has gone a long way to restoring the public’s sense of safety and confidence in our law enforcers. With nine militants killed and two suspects in custody, Operation Storm 26 seems to have been conducted with a high degree of precision and efficiency, with no civilian casualties reported. In the midst of a heavily populated urban area, this was remarkable. The Kallyanpur raid was clearly well-planned and well executed, and was based on good information and reliable intelligence. Operations of this nature are the need of the hour to root out terror networks and save lives. It is never pleasant when police operations end up this way, but we are satisfied that there was no alternative to the killing of the nine men, and that they died as a result of a legitimate shoot-out. The fact that two suspects were apprehended is itself testimony to the restraint of the operation, and we have no reason to think that any more force was used than was needed. The horrific attack at Gulshan’s Holey Artisan Bakery on July 1 was an attack on all of us. The entire nation has been shaken. We are all in this together and we all have a stake in rooting out the militants. As such, public confidence in the process and public trust in law enforcement is of utmost importance at the present time. Clinical and professional operations such as these help restore the people’s faith in the authorities and help unite us in the fight against terror.