Nagpur: Shirish Thorat, who stirred the litterateurs with his eye opening book ‘The Scout – 26/11 was just the beginning’, was felicitated here on Thursday in Meet the Press programme jointly conducted by Nagpur Union of Working Journalists (NUWJ) and Tilak Patrakar Bhavan Trust (TPBT). The book Thorat penned is based on David Headley, a 26/11 Mumbai attacks conspirator.
Shirish Thorat is a former student of SFS School in Nagpur and currently based in America. He penned ‘The Scout’ with former encounter specialist of Mumbai Police and nationally acclaimed expert on anti-terror operations Sachin Waze who had gunned down over 63 dreaded criminals, including few members of D-Company, in Mumbai. He ensured security to the lives of several Bollywood stars, before joining a political party.
Speaking about the Inter-Country exchange of Intelligence Inputs, Thorat said that personnel of Intelligence agencies do exchange or provide information, but most of them can’t be relied upon since the information could be with ulterior motives. While speaking about the casualties or deaths which result because of failing to act on the intelligence inputs or lack of coordination between the departments, Thorat said that we as Indians have become numb to casualties. We get back to normal lives the very next day as if nothing happened.
While speaking about Drug Trafficking and mafia, Shirish Thorat said that India has water on two sides and land on two sides. The countries that surround us on two sides grow drugs. Shirish Thorat claimed that 82% of Opium produced in the entire world is done in Afghanistan. The next neighbor is Bangladesh which is miniature form of Afghanistan. He claimed that one visit to Malda will reveal how drugs and opiums are manufactured there.
While answering a question on how they manage to get away with this crime and how only small quantities of contrabands or small agents are caught, Thorat said that there has always been a nexus between politicians and people dealing with narcotics. While the people dealing with narcotics sponsor fund the politicians, these politicians aid in providing safety and security.
Shirish Thorat spoke about the counterfeit currency and how it is pumped into the economy of our country. Shirish Thorat said that at present it is an established business of 5 Billion US Dollars.
While speaking about Human Trafficking, he said that it is one of the most thriving business. This is done either through tourists, labour or infiltrations. Shirish Thorat added that surprisingly only 1% get caught.
While speaking about the intelligence reports and the evidence that we have provided to Pakistan after the Bombay blasts on the involvement of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed who was the chief or Jama’at-ud-Da’wah and had carried out terrorist activities in India, Shirish Thorat said that one can see him speaking in public meetings. The government has no control over such people. He said that Pakistan is a failed state and has failed Politically, Socially, Economically and in every sphere. USA has put a bounty of 10 billion dollars bounty on his head, yet he is not apprehended or tried.
While speaking about his own work, Shirish Thorat said that he provides services of carrying out research on threats, terrorism to Private companies, corporates and government. The second work is undertaking security audit, risk audit, threat perception etc for government, Multinationals and allied agencies.
While speaking about the mass manufacture of arms and ammunition in USA and how it is landing in the hands of terrorists and unscrupulous elements, he said that the citizens have a right under the American Constitution. Plus they need a market to sell the products. However it is not in their control about the use of a product.
Pradip Kumar Maitra, TPBT President, Shirish Borkar, TPBT General Secretary, B S Tripathi, NUWJ President and Anupam Soni, NUWJ General Secretary, have appealed to media persons to attend the programme in large numbers.
