India Tourism’s guiding principle, Atithi Devo Bhava, (where the guest is God) has been turned on its head by Goa’s intelligence agencies which have been blissfully unaware, on too many occasions, when some of the world’s most dreaded terrorists, and terror masterminds have lived, for years in Goa. Goa Police have slept where guests who are terrorists, have made themselves comfortable. The tagline which is most apt for such situations, is perhaps Atithi atankvad bhava (where the guest is a terrorist). Sarcastic as it may well be, it is no less shocking
The recent arrest of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s ex-aide Shyam Garikapatti from the tranquil Saligao village last Saturday has yet again posed a serious question, whether Goa has become a safe hideout for criminals and even terrorists. Garikapatti wasn’t the first such terror tourists. The terrible reality is, that he won’t be the last. Arrests of nearly half a dozen dreaded goondas and terrorists from different corners of the State and news that some had stayed and left without local police ever knowing anything about them, indicates that Goa has developed a perception of being a soft state as far as policing goes, despite its very small size.
Advisories on Goa’s threat perception by foreign countries given that it is a well known tourist destination have become routine.
From Pakistani trained Kashmiri terrorist Tariq Ahmed Batloo to Odhisa’s top Naxal leader Shambhu Beck, Chota Rajan’s sharp shooter Sheikh Umaid-ur-Rehman Ishrat Hussain, Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Toiba’s David Coleman Headley, Indian Mujahideen’s co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and now Garikapatti alias Gopal Rai alias Govind Rao, a sharpshooter of the Subhash Thakur gang an affiliate of the umbrella D company of Dawood Ibrahim, have been Goa’s high profile infamous tourists.
Headley, one of the main kingpins of the 26/11 attack in Mumbai, came to Goa for a bit of sun, with the Goa Police not having any clue of his sojourn until he was arrested in Chicago in October 2009. His testimony before the US police confirmed he stayed near Starco junction, at Anjuna, under a fake identity for several weeks before exiting safely.
All of them stayed for months and years, not in hideouts or jungles, but openly in the Bardez North Goa belt, minutes away from police stations and in the midst of locals and tourists. VIBHA VERMA compiles the tales of Goa’s unwanted deadly tourists
