The slow road to justice

Despite being heard by special courts with fast-track procedures, cases relating to terrorist crimes have generally proceeded at an achingly slow pace. It took 13 seemingly interminable years for a TADA designated court in Mumbai to convict 100 people in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, even though the primary charge sheet was filed about eight months after the outrage. In comparison, the trial in the 2003 Mumbai twin blasts case in which a special POTA court handed out convictions earlier this week was much shorter. Even so, six years is a very long time, given the nature of the case. All the six accused (of whom two were acquitted and one turned approver) were arrested within two months of the outrage. Although allegedly hatched in Dubai, there was no Byzantine conspiracy to unravel. The prosecution’s evidence relied heavily on the testimony of a taxi driver, who ferried two of the convicted in his vehicle before the bombs were triggered. It is believed that the statement of the approver, a Lashkar-e-Taibaoperative who was pardoned by the POTA court, further bolstered the prosecution’s case.

The Mumbai twin blasts case, which killed 52 people and injured 184, was one of the worst terrorist attacks on the city, exceeded in its dreadfulness only by such tragedies as the multiple explosions in 1993 and last year’s 26/11 outrage. The bombs, which were placed in the boots of two vehicles parked at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazar, were aimed at causing random deaths and creating panic. If the 26/11 conspiracy was unravelled quickly owing to the capture of Mohammed Ajmal Amir ‘Kasab’, the one behind the 2003 blasts was speedily exposed when the taxi driver, who survived due to a stroke of luck, was able to, provide enough leads for the police to track down his passengers on that fateful day- the convicted couple Haneef Sayeed and his wife Fahmeeda. There will be an appeal against the POTA court verdict, which must be decided-irrespective of the outcome-expeditiously. Prosecuting terrorist crimes need not be a painful protracted affair and the judiciary has shown it is capable of disposing matters quickly when there is an overall sense of urgency. It look only a little more than a year from the date of the attack on Parliament in 2001 for a POTA court to arrive at a judgment – a case that involved many witnesses and a mass of documents. And it is unlikely that the 26/11 attack case, which is being heard now, will be allowed to drag on for many years. The 2003 twin blasts case is a reminder that the commitment to speeding up the delivery of justice should apply to all cases and not merely those considered high profile and in which there is a grater degree of official interest.

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Evils of Science

Though science has brought in welcome changes it has also ushered in countless evils and horrors. Today we boast of high yielding crops and green revolution. But the indiscriminate use of pesticides has caused more harm than good. The toxic chemicals find their way into the grains and vegetables we consume. Naturally man is becoming vulnerable to diseases and disabilities hitherto unknown to medical science.

We have quick means of transport. But road accidents, plane crashes and train mishaps keep hitting the headlines. Drugs which were prepared to save precious lives are being abused. Thrill loving youngsters plunge into the quicksand of drug addiction and their number is increasing day by day.

Pollution is another serious threat brought about by modern science. Industries keep filling the air with toxic smoke. They empty their wastes into the rivers. The air we breathe and the water we drink are being polluted. The smoke thrown out by the vehicles makes the air impure. This impure air causes diseases related to breathing. The polluted water causes countless skin diseases. Thanks to air pollution the atmosphere becomes unprotected. The solar radiation hits us directly and causes serious ailments.

Modern warfare is another evil posed by the growth of science. The much criticized ABC warfare is becoming more destructive. Big powers are busy inventing perilous bombs. They keep dumping nuclear weapons underground. They threaten to blow up the earth. Man is holding the wolf by the ears. He is sitting uneasily under the sword of Damocles. Science has thrown open the Pandora’s Box. Science without reason is galloping on and on like a horse without bridle. Time alone can tell us where this craze will lead us.

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Fire

Fire is so familiar; it is both friend and foe, slave and master. Fire is a natural force, yet it was used by humanity’s ancestors many hundreds of thousands of years ago. Later, humans developed the ability to artificially generate fire. The control and use of fire has been a major factor in the development of the human race. The control of fire for warmth allowed humans to migrate into cold climates and build diverse and successful civilizations. Fire for cooling greatly increased the number of foods and improved their taste, ease of digestion, nutrition, sanitation, and preservation. Fire has long been used to drive game out of hiding during hunting and to scare away predatory animals during the night. Fire aided agriculture by clearing the land of brush and creating fertilizer with its ashy residue. With the help of fire, humans have been able to expand farmland and pasture against both climatic and vegetational gradients.

The possibilities of fire have stimulated creative thinking, which in turn has spurred human development. One invention has followed another. The use of fire to harden materials led to pottery, cookware, weapons, and more. The ability of produce ever-higher temperatures led to the smelting and use of metals. The use of fire provided the benefits of sterilization, which advanced public health. Fire controlled inside machinery supplies the energy that underlies our civilization. The heat from the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas is converted into the electrical and mechanical energy that powers our industries, the lighting and heating of our homes, and our ability to travel quickly to any point in the world. As a rough estimate of the benefits of fire, through it, each American today has available for her or his personal use the energy equivalent of owning 100 slaves in the past.

The destructive use of fire shifted from trying to control wild animals to trying to dominate other humans. Fire passed from the individual torch to a method of destroying whole cities. For example, troy was so obliterated by fire that its very site remained unknown to the world for nearly 3,000 years.

Another destructive use of fire has been to deny enemies their prize. For example, on 12 September 1812, Napoleon and the French army reached the hills outside of Moscow and looked down on its green, blue, and gold domes. Upon entering the great city, the French found it to be largely deserted with fires burning throughout. For six days, the fires raged until 90 percent of the city was incinerated. The Russians chose to destroy their own heritage rather than let it aid their French conquerors. Denied the support of a conquered populaces, Napoleon began his disastrous retreat from Russia during winter’s harsh conditions. Napoleon won the military battles but lost the war.

New destructive uses of fire were conceived with time and technological innovation. In the twentieth century,” fire” was packaged into bombs that could be dropped from airplanes. During World War II, entire cities were ignited as thousands of tons of bombs created massive firestorms, killing tens of thousands of people in such cities as Hamburg and Dresden.

Fire has always been an important part of the natural world. For example, about 1,800 thunderstorms are in action around the Earth each hour, and their lightning bolts start many fires. Humans have brought fire from the natural world into the cultural world, expanding its role. We control fire for our benefit, but we pay the price when this control is lost. In the United States today, the abundant strikes of lightning start less than 15 percent of all fires. Humans are the main source of fire ignition in the United States, as well as throughout the world.

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