Interpol top team to visit India to assist with overseas investigations

Lyon, France: A delegation led by the Interpol secretary general Ronald K. Noble is heading to India to meet with senior law enforcement officials following the series of co-ordinated terror attacks across Mumbai in which more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more injured.

Interpol is the world's largest international police organization, with 187 member countries. Created in 1923, it facilitates cross-border police co-operation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime.

The mission to India follows a declaration by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh that the orchestrated attacks probably had 'external linkages' and that India would 'take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts'.

''When such co-ordinated and planned terrorist attacks are carried out against international targets and when a country's head of government states there are suspected 'external linkages', the police in the country concerned require international assistance,'' said Noble. 

''There is only one way to thoroughly investigate suspected terrorist linkages internationally.  The investigating law enforcement authorities must compare the names, fingerprints and DNA of the suspected terrorists killed, arrested or at large against global databases via Interpol,'' added Noble.

With more than 30 terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of deaths carried out across the country in 2008 alone, India has the resources and experience to fully and capably deal with a national terrorist investigation. However, as these attacks involved nationals of several countries, no one country alone could carry out a full investigation without utilizing global databases and services. 

Mumbai police's emergency operations centre has requested the deployment of an Interpol 'incident response team' (IRT) to ensure close international co-operation.  Since the deployment of its first IRT to Bali following the bombings in 2002, Interpol has sent more than 40 teams around the world providing specialist on-site assistance for man-made or natural disasters. A request for support by the general secretariat has already resulted in a number of member countries offering to deploy specialist officers.

In addition to providing direct support in Mumbai, Interpol's delegation travelling to New Delhi will meet with the head of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Interpol National Central Bureau located in New Delhi to determine what additional resources may be required. Each Interpol member country maintains a National Central Bureau staffed by national law enforcement officers.

The NCB is the designated contact point for the Interpol general secretariat, regional offices and other member countries requiring assistance with overseas investigations and the location and apprehension of fugitives.

Staff from its 24-hour 'command and co-ordination centre' (CCC) at the general secretariat headquarters in Lyon have been tasked to treat all messages relating to last week's terrorist attacks on Mumbai  as a priority and are on standby to provide support with co-ordinating the international aspects of India's response to this terrorist incident.

''On behalf of the international law enforcement community, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the friends and family of all the innocent victims and pay tribute to those police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty; Interpol will do its best to provide our Indian colleagues with whatever support they might request,'' concluded the secretary general.

Interpol aims to facilitate international police co-operation even where diplomatic relations do not exist between particular countries. Action is taken within the limits of existing laws in different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Interpol's constitution prohibits 'any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.'

Located in Lyon, France, the general secretariat operates 24 hours, 365 days a year and is run by the secretary general. Officials from more than 80 countries work side-by-side in any of the organization's four official languages: Arabic, English, French and Spanish. The Secretariat has six Sub-Regional Bureaus located in Argentina, Côte d'Ivoire, El Salvador, Kenya, Thailand and Zimbabwe, and a liaison office at the United Nations in New York.

Retired CBI director Vijay Shanker is serving a 3-yer term till 2009 as India's representative in Interpol's executive committee