Recent headlines have highlighted the issue of kidnapping ...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRO
REGIONAL PATTERNS
NORTH INDIA
WEST & SOUTH INDIA (INCL. BANGALORE & MUMBAI)
NORTHEAST INDIA
DIFFERENT KINDS OF KIDNAPPING
KIDNAP FOR RANSOM
POLITICAL KIDNAPINGS
HUMAN TRAFFICKING & EXPLOITATION/ORGANIZED CRIME
CHALLENGES WITH STATISTICS
PREVENTATIVE MEASURES & POST-INCIDENT HANDLING
CONCLUSION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As India’s expanding economy continues to attract Multinational Corporations (MNC), their personnel will be increasingly at risk to one of the most prolific criminal threats in the country – kidnapping. As in many developing countries, crime is a problem in India. This includes kidnapping, which affects nearly all classes of Indian society.
There are several varieties of kidnappings in India that occur for a variety of reasons. These characteristics are shaped by geography, economics, social structures, and politics. As with all other serious crimes in India, reliable statistics on kidnappings are hard to come by due to official reluctance to admit to the problem, reluctance of the victims to report the crime, and the overall status of Indian records keeping.
MNCs operating in India can be impacted by kidnapping whenever one of their employees or their families is victimized. Foreign executives living in India, as well as local Indian workers are vulnerable to kidnapping. Because of this, it is important that MNCs understand the physical and cultural factors that affect kidnappings in order to better guard against this threat.
INTRO
A joint operation conducted by the Indian Army and Assam police on April 30 led to the rescue of the Executive Director of the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) northeast operations who had been kidnapped nearly two weeks earlier in the city of Guwahati. Phool Chand Ram and his driver had been abducted by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) on April 17.
This incident is an example of the growing problem of kidnapping for ransom in India, and features characteristics of the many different types of abductions that occur in the country. Despite being prosperous, and the victim of an earlier abduction, Ram lived rented flat rather than in a secure compound with fences and guards. This allowed his abductors easy access to him, and probably allowed them to conduct extensive surveillance prior to the operation without being noticed.
There is also the possibility that Ram’s abduction was an inside job. Indian authorities suspect that his driver, who was released a few days after the abduction, may have been part of the operation. Rather than being a criminal gang, Ram’s abductors were from ULFA, one of many militant groups operation in India that has long been known to abduct people either for political or financial reasons.
For these reasons, this incident is an example of the multiple aspects of the growing issue of kidnap for ransom in India. Because of the sheer size, population and poverty of the country – India has the seventh largest landmass in the world, over a billion people, and a per capita income of $720 (ranked 137th), kidnapping in India can happen a lot without actually being an epidemic.
Abductions in India occur for multiple reasons, and victim profiles vary for each category, often specific to the region where they live. Of course, all of these types of abductions affect different elements of Indian society, as well as multinational corporations operating in the country, in different ways.
REGIONAL PATTERNS
The majority of kidnappings in India occur in the least wealthy areas, and in the least wealthy classes. In some cases, they are the result of personal or local political disputes between native Indians. India is a nation of sharp class divisions with very little interaction between the classes - except for domestic servants. People from different classes do not live together or associate with one another socially. As a result of this separation, poor people do not have much access opportunity to come into close contact with middle-class or rich people in order to kidnap them. Therefore, incidents of poor people kidnapping middle-class or rich people’s children or other dependants are relatively rare. When these incidents do occur, they receive high profile coverage precisely due to their abnormality. Before the problem is underestimated though, it must be understood that many abduction incidents are never reported.
Geographically, kidnappings are distributed throughout India, from Chennai to Bangalore to Mumbai, commercially important cities stretching from east to west and from Assam to Kashmir, both regions of militant activity at each end of the country’s northern border. Different forms of the crime can be identified more strongly with many of the most notorious locales for kidnapping.
Although the threat of kidnapping exists throughout the country, Bihar, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, three interior states of northern India account for a full 50 percent of all abductions in the previous three years, 2004-06. Bihar, was the site of a full quarter of all kidnappings that were reported over that time period. Following Bihar was Delhi, the site of the national capital, with 16 percent of all abductions and Uttar Pradesh with nine percent.
The incidence of kidnappings across a wide geographic area indicates that it is not inspired by or focused on the presence of foreign investment MNCs. Among states that feature a significant presence of Western business interests, Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, accounts for five percent of all kidnappings, Karnataka, with a major Information Technology (IT) center in Bangalore, six percent, and Tamil Nadu, with another IT hub at Chennai, less than one percent.
Though kidnapping in India was a problem before the arrival of MNCs and an increase in wealth in the country, the infusion of money, executives and high value targets (HVTs) into society has altered the kidnapping trends by upping the stakes and providing more viable targets. Because of this change, more insurance providers are offering Kidnap and Ransom (K&R) policies designed to meet tbhhe growing demand from executives. Individuals who hold management positions in the IT, telecommunications and biotechnology sectors as well as some teaching staff of top educational institutions are considered high-risk targets by insurance companies.
Approximately 55 percent of the time, victims of these kidnappings are dependents of the head of the household, such as his children and wife, no matter what the aim of the abduction. The next most often targeted group is business people, whether native or foreign, at 13 percent. In reported cases, ransom demands have ranged from around $400 U.S. dollars to $ 2.2 million. Victims have actually ended up paying an average ransom of $94,000, although there have been cases where up to $690,000 has been paid. However, because the majority of kidnappings go unreported, the actual average is unknown and is probably less because most kidnappings are carried out within India’s lower classes.
NORTH INDIA
Bihar, a state in northern India Bihar is one of the poorest states in India, just east of the Uttar Pradesh, is one area where kidnapping for ransom has become and industry onto itself. Kidnapping in Bihar can feasibly be classified as an epidemic as there is an elevated threat to businesses and even moderately wealthy individuals in the region. In the past 12 years, there was an average of 211 reported abductions a month, and a ransom was demanded for about 20 percent of them. However, the Bihar branch of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) has said that only a fraction of the incidents are actually reported to authorities. The PUCL cited a lack of confidence in law enforcement and the belief that politicians and other officials were participants in abduction plots as reasons why people would decide not to contact authorities and instead negotiate directly with the kidnappers.
Kidnapping has affected everyday life and business at a local level in Bihar. Citizens are aware of the risks inherent in joining the local workforce as kidnappers have targeted small businesses and common laborers, threatening them with kidnapping and death if they fail to pay a ransom in long term installments. This danger exists across the spectrum, impacting doctors, manual laborers and teachers. One example of the fear raised by such threats occurred in Patna, the state capital of Bihar. A Pediatric surgeon worked from his fortified home after being on of the 15 doctors kidnapped over 18 months.
While ransom demands are frequent, they do not accompany the majority of abductions. Aside from monetary gain, the list of potential motivations for kidnapers in the region is varied, and there are different categories kidnappers. Bihar is infested with Naxalite insurgents, and other militant groups, which contributes to the high level of kidnappings. An example of militants kidnapping civilians occurred during December 2006 in Bihar’s Bhojpur district when a group of around 20 armed Naxalites raided a gathering and kidnapped 5 youths, prompting local police to set up roadblocks and carry out raids to find and free the victims.
Reported kidnappings in Bihar, once the kidnapping capital of India, have fallen off from a peak of 411 in 2004 to150 recorded for 2006. However, Uttar Pradesh has now the leader in abductions, with Bihar falling to third after Rajasthan.
Uttar Pradesh is widely recognized as a center of all kinds of criminal activity, and kidnapping is part of this problem. One example of this occurred when the National Hydro Power Corporation won a contract for a rural road construction project, only to have their efforts hampered when the project’s chief engineer and the general manager were kidnapped and held for a $2.4 million ransom.
Northern India has some attributes that make it an attractive area for criminals to operate. Although the population density of northern India, except for the corner states, generally resembles that of the rest of the country, some areas lack advanced infrastructure and a strong federal government presence. The terrain can be rugged and mountainous at the northern edge, providing secluded, inaccessible areas of shelter for criminals. The region is bordered by places such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Kashmir, and these remote areas can serve as places of refuge for criminals that law enforcement has limited abilities to penetrate. Criminals operating from these bases can stage kidnappings in urban areas
The National Capital Region, which includes Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and other towns, and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India’s fourth largest city, boast the some of the richest neighborhoods in northern India. Delhi, which had 102 kidnappings per million residents in 2006, is particularly dangerous for children. According the National Crime Records Bureau, one third of all children under the age of 10 that were abducted in India were kidnapped in Delhi.
The Etah district of Uttar Pradesh which is only about 120 miles northwest of Noida, is the main reason for Uttar Pradesh’s status as India’s leader in kidnappings. Through mid-November 2006, 400 missing person reports had been filed in Etah for the year and 40 kidnap victims had been rescued or returned to their families after negotiations. The 40 victims recovered does not include rescue actions staged in the district by police from neighboring districts or states.
When the son of the CEO of the Indian subsidiary of a major international software company was kidnapped in Noida, it was initially feared that the child had been kidnapped at the behest of a gang leader operating out of Uttar Pradesh and was being held there. While the actual kidnappers were small-time shop workers in the family’s neighborhood, the fears were not baseless. There have been other incidents children being kidnapped from Delhi and held for ransoms in Etah. For example, in September 2006 the seven year old son of an Indian businessman in Delhi was kidnapped, only to be rescued from Etah days later by Delhi police commandos. Teachers, who are often the only professionals in India’s rural areas – and therefore the only people worth kidnapping, have also been a favorite kidnap-for-ransom target in Etah recently.
In keeping with India’s reputation as an emerging IT outsourcing market, the gangs have begun outsourcing abductions in various cities to local gangs for an advance fee. The victims are then transferred to professional gangs, such as the Sagar Baba, Kallu Pehelwan and Naresha Dhimar gangs in Etah, that handle ransom negotiations.
WEST & SOUTH INDIA (INCL. BANGALORE & MUMBAI)
Wealthy urban and industrial areas in West and South India are centers of wealth, and so they draw opportunists seeking to make money from kidnapping. While states in northern India record the most kidnappings, abduction also occurs frequently in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Bangalore, in Karnantaka state, is known for being the center of India’s rising IT industry. As such, the city’s MNC’s, their personnel, and their dependents become high value targets (HVT) for kidnappers. This growing segment of the population attracts a lot of attention from professional kidnappers as well as from opportunists looking for any way to make money. Because they and their families make attractive targets, executives and mangers in the IT and other high profile industries should pay special attention to personal security issues.
Mumbai, a vital financial center in the state of Maharashtra, is another city with a large MNC presence and a large foreign population. As in Bangalore, foreigners working with these MNCs have been relatively safe from kidnapping in Mumbai. This is because of greater development and security in the areas in which they live and conduct their daily lives, compared to the older, lower-income areas of these cities. One of the main sources of the kidnapping threat comes from organized crime, which has a major presence in Mumbai and penetrates the wealthiest segments of society. It’s not just in the low-income areas
NORTHEAST INDIA
The northeast region, centered on the tea-growing state of Assam, is a hotbed of militant activity and one of the most dangerous areas of the country. Approximately 40 people working in the tea industry in the region were kidnapped between 1999 and 2005, according to Indian government officials. Most were released after ransom payments were made, however some were killed.
The northeast sector is connected to the rest of India by a thin strip of land bordered by Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. This relative isolation has given rise to an active separatist movement in the northeast, spearheaded by the militant group the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). ULFA regularly attacks targets such as police and police stations, trains and railways as well as civil projects in the region to resist government influence in the area. ULFA kidnapping activities are costly for businesspeople and politicians in Assam who have to spend significant sums of money on extortion and personal security.
There is a wide range of militant groups operating in the region, and many of them use kidnapping to achieve their aims. ULFA is only one of several goups in the area that participate in abductions. Group use a variety of different tactics to spread their message and further their goals. One example of such ingenuity occurred last year when the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) separatist group held the editors of six regional newspapers in the state of Manipur for two days until the papers published a KCP-crafted statement commemorating the founding of the organization. The success of these kinds of abductions may motivate other groups to stage kidnappings rather as opposed to terrorizing local populations through murder. Many journalists will likely welcome this, given that at least four journalists had been killed in Assam since 2003
RANSOM
Kidnapping for ransom is the most common type of kidnapping in India. India is working to become a competitive market in the global economy; however, much of the country, including some parts of its cities, is still marked by widespread poverty and a lack of strong state institutions. Such conditions can create a situation in which some members of society turn to crime in order to improve their standard of living.
Kidnapping for ransom is seen in both urban and rural areas and does not constitute the growth of a new industry in response to an influx of foreign investment and personnel. The kidnappers, ranging from a few non-professional criminals working together to actual organized criminal gangs, usually target locals who have achieved relative economic success but lack any kind of personal security usually because of their inability to afford such protection.
Professional criminal gangs are generally the most competent kidnappers. They tend to target those with moderate wealth in order to get the demanded ransom and have begun to increase the overall effectiveness of their operations by engaging in preoperational planning and employing crews with specialized skills. They often try to infiltrate the target’s staff ahead of time or compromise a current employee by exploiting his financial insecurities or feelings of loneliness in order to get information or even enlist his aid. Many professional kidnapping gangs use middlemen who specialize in ransom collection in order to lessen exposure and have illegal fund-transfer channels to wire the money out of the country. These professional rings are among the most difficult perpetrators to catch, but they are not the only kidnappers in operation.
Common gangsters and opportunity-seeking individuals are also involved in kidnap for ransom ventures, though they operate with a significantly lesser degree of sophistication than the organized criminal groups. However, these criminals can be just as vicious as the professionals, if not more so, since there may be reluctance on the part of a professional crew to add murder to possible charges if they have not yet killed anyone.
Kidnapping operations can range from simple to complex, with potential targets being anyone from a farmer who can harvest a surplus, a small business owner or a successful executive of a large venture. When targeting a family, kidnappers will usually abduct a dependent of the head of the household so as to leave someone capable of paying the ransom when the time comes. After the abduction, the target family may receive a phone call or ransom note from either an anonymous source or a representative of the kidnappers. The ransom demand usually requires a large sum of money to be paid through elaborate schemes designed to circumvent detection by law enforcement.
The targets of kidnap-for-ransom come from many different socio-economic levels and from many different industries. The kidnappings occur throughout the country, particularly in the central northern region. The victims are mainly Indian. India’s position as an increasingly important player in the global economy has led to an increase in the number of MNCs and other foreign elements operating in the country. Foreign citizens can make especially enticing targets for would-be kidnappers. They should be aware of the dangers of operating within India and take appropriate steps to ensure their security.
Of course, not all kidnappings are what they appear to be at first glance. The allure of money and modern material possessions can lead Indian children to extort ransom money from their parents or employees to seek ransoms from their employers (or their insurers). One example of this kind of ransom demand can be seen to in the case of a 15 year old boy in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The success of the kidnapping industry in Bihar inspired him to stage his own kidnapping in 2005 in order to get money from his parents for a cell phone. The ruse was revealed after three days when police traced the ransom calls to a public phone in Kanpur where they caught the kid in a stakeout. However, in many cases, a faked kidnapping can result in a ‘ransom’ being paid to the ‘kidnapped’ individual
POLITICAL
Many kidnappings in India are done for political reasons. In these cases, members from one faction will kidnap enough members of another faction prior to a vote in order to keep them from the polls and influence the outcome of a tight election. Party supporters may also seize effective leaders from the opposition as a way to keep them from spreading their message and mobilizing voters.
The list of potential targets for political kidnappings is very long, and government and military officials are not the only groups at risk. Kidnappers with political aims have also targeted businessmen, aid workers, and agents of other NGOs, infrastructure laborers, journalists and other civilians.
The groups that carry out political abductions can be extremely efficient, especially in locales not associated with the emerging modern India and where federal attention is less intense. In 2003 in the northeastern territory of Nagaland, separatists raided homes and offices and kidnapped around 300 people before the elections in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat the ruling Congress Party.
Abductions involving social activists are closely related to political kidnappings since the purpose of stifling social agendas is similar to trying to influence political outcomes. However, while targeted political leaders are almost exclusively native Indians, foreigners and members of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are much more likely to fall victim to kidnappings related to social agendas.
Other forms of political kidnappings have targeted businesses. In January 2007, security forces in northeastern India were augmented by the Central Industrial Security Force and private security firms after police in Dibrugarh uncovered a plan by ULFA to kidnap Oil India Ltd. officials as bargaining chips for the exchange of ULFA leaders in custody. This strategy is not new to the ULFA, which kidnapped several oil industry personnel in 1991 and killed three, including a Russian engineer. The survivors were released after the government acceded to ULFA’s demands by releasing several militants.
The distinction between political kidnappings and those for financial gain is often blurred as groups will sometimes use the banner of political motivation as cover for profiteering. And many groups that exist to achieve political goals, such as the Naxalites and Kashmiri separatist groups in India, have found that kidnapping is an excellent way to finance operations
HUMAN TRAFFICKING & EXPLOITATION/ORGANIZED CRIME
Organized crime is a major concern in some areas of India just as it is in many other parts of the world. Many organized criminal gangs engage in human trafficking on a relatively large scale.
Children in India are kidnapped for a variety of reasons related to human trafficking. According to Kishore Bhatnagar, a retired deputy director of the Border Security Force in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the kidnapping of young children for adoption and slightly older children for organ harvesting is a common practice. Bhatnagar also mentioned that some teenage victims were sold to brothels if their families could not pay the ransom.
In some areas of India, the authorities may also be complicit in the human trafficking industry as seen in the August 2006 case cited by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). A father reported the abduction of his 14 year old daughter in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. He named the suspected perpetrators, but police initially refused to register the complaint until an $11 fee was paid. Even then, the police classified it as a missing persons case rather than a kidnapping
One recent case that received significant news coverage involved a kidnapping ring in Noida that abducted children for the purposes of sexual abuse as well as possible organ harvesting, given the dismembered condition in which their bodies were found. This particular operation was carried out by a local businessman and his servant. They targeted children from the lowest income level since their disappearance would be less likely to attract official concern. The pair was charged in the disappearance of 15 women and children whose bones were found in a drain near the man’s house.
One of the primary motivations behind kidnappings by organized crime groups is to find kids to use in their begging operations. Child panhandlers on the streets constitute a sizable industry in India and are often members of an organized operation run by criminal groups. The children are kidnapped, forced into the service of the gangs and told to beg for money. They are then required to give their earnings to the gang and threatened with punishment if they refuse.
Organized criminal gangs carve up the slum and middle class areas of Indian cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai into territories controlled by competing groups. Residents and business owners in these territories face a variety of organized-crime related dangers. Occasionally, residents can be caught in the crossfire during turf wars between rival gangs, but their most common concern is extortion. People living in these divided territories are forced to deal with extortion and theft by the gang in control of that particular area. These operations by local gangs often lead to localized kidnappings.
Local gangsters in India are part of a hierarchy that can be traced all the way back to international gangsters such as Dawood Ibrahim, who runs organized crime rings from Pakistan and Dubai, and Chhota Rajan in Malaysia. These local organized crime gangs operate by demanding protection money from business owners on their turf or by confiscating houses, land and vehicles from people in the area. Reluctance on the part of business owners to pay or attempts by citizens to protect their property can and has resulted in the abduction of the extortion target or the target’s dependents. These criminal groups often have allies among local authorities. Furthermore, organized crime activity is not completely contained in lower- and middle-income area. These gangs have been known to operate in upper-class neighborhoods and to have ties with personnel in large Indian companies with international operations.
A drive to settle personal vendettas is another possible motivation behind kidnappings in India. Disputes, particularly when organized criminal elements are involved, can cause one party to kidnap the other for intimidation or more nefarious purposes such as torture or homicide. A dependent of one party may also be kidnapped in retribution or as a bargaining chip to use to negotiate a settlement.
Kidnappings occur for more bizarre reasons as well, such as those related to the occult. Although commonly identified as a Hindu nation, India is home to many religions and spiritual beliefs. These beliefs can sometimes be seen as dark in nature. Such a perception is often tied to the practice of Tantrik. For example, Uttar Pradesh has experienced a bout of kidnappings to gather human sacrifices to use in Tantrik fertility ceremonies. In 2003, approximately 25 people were abducted over a six month period for these ceremonies in Uttar Pradesh, and in early 2006, 28 human sacrifices had been counted over a four month period. Four Tantrik priests were arrested as a result.
CHALLENGES WITH STATISTICS
Kidnapping in India is widespread, but an accurate statistical breakdown of the problem is hard to come by as most kidnapping statistics are not completely reliable for several reasons. Asisde from the overall condition of reporting and maintaining statistics in India, where file cabinets and stacks of papers are more prevalent in government offices than computers are, the main reasons for this are the inability or unwillingness to distinguish kidnappings from other activity, official reluctance to admit the problem, and a lack of police resources.
First, the relatively high number of runaways skews the kidnapping statistics in India by making it hard to determine if a child has been abducted or left of his own free will. Youths may run away from home to escape an arranged marriage and other unfavorable conditions and are reported by their families as kidnapped. Other times, young adults or adolescents elope or just run off because they do not have the same kind of independence they see others having in Western societies. Conversely, police may not want to acknowledge an abduction problem in their jurisdiction and instead record a reported kidnapping as a runaway. This may be especially true in cases where the victim comes from a poor background and police are reluctant to expend the resources on resolving the disappearance
There are about one million runaway children every year, according to India’s National Centre for Missing Children (NCMC). The northern area of the country has the biggest problem with missing children, with 176 children currently considered missing by the NCMC in the region including Kashmir, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. There are also 147 children missing from the western area, including 103 in Mumbai alone.
Secondly, corruption among authorities is endemic in some areas, even if they are not directly involved in the kidnappings. A one-time police superintendent in Bihar said that she arrested suspected kidnappers taking shelter in the homes of local politicians four times during her first three years in office. An assembly member has also estimated that 40 of his colleagues ran kidnapping gangs, a figure corroborated by police.
Another reason that kidnapping statistics understate the problem is reluctance on the part of authorities to open kidnapping cases. Cases require investigation, and the need to dedicate time and resources can be a disincentive to file cases, especially when dealing with claims from those with a lower socio-economic standing who lack influence in society. The Noida case illustrates this reluctance on the part of authorities since many of the kidnapping reports filed by the low-income relatives of the missing children were never recorded as kidnappings. The police even went so far as to vouch for the moral character of the businessman responsible when neighbors came forward with their suspicions, carrying on for at least a month after some of the children’s body parts in the drain behind his house.
Aside from the investigation aspect of a case, a large number of kidnapping cases also forces authorities to explain the rise in crime and what efforts are underway to combat the problem. An increase in criminal activity can also heighten the pressure on the local authorities from constituents
Even if the police were motivated to pursue the kidnapping cases and operated without corruption, many police agencies would still be ill-equipped to handle the growing problem. A former National Security Guard chief said the lack of an effective police force in India is the biggest factor in the rise of kidnappings and other crimes such as robbery. India has about 122 police officers for every 100,000 residents, while the United Nations recommends having over 222 officers for every 100,000 people. Police forensic labs capable of DNA testing are in short supply as well with just two in the entire country as of January 2007.
PREVENTATIVE MEASURES & POST-INCIDENT HANDLING
Some preventative measures to reduce exposure to kidnapping are universally appropriate, including in India. Anyone spending time there, whether visiting or residing, should conduct an assessment of risks faced, analyze them and plan accordingly. Knowledge and situational awareness are two primary weapons available to mitigate the risk of kidnapping:
Baseline assessments of threats and vulnerabilities should be made and updated annually.
Vigilance reduces vulnerability. Practicing surveillance detection techniques, including just paying attention when others are paying attention to you can help one avoid potential kidnap situations. A potential target should identify safe havens along regular routes and, when possible, future routes. This information can also be easily shared with dependents, including children.
Also identify choke points along these routes. These are areas where escape routes or visibility is limited, or areas of isolation where an ambush might occur. Two key features of choke points are that rapid forward motion is difficult and that hostiles can wait with impunity. When possible, these choke points should be avoided.
Vary routes and times when possible to avoid predictability.
Learning basic physical self-protection techniques may also help stymie kidnappers. In certain situations like when the target is not significantly outmanned or when the kidnapper(s) is hindered by a limited window of opportunity then the ability to buy a few extra seconds to draw attention or escape can be decisive.
For those concerned with kidnapping in their area of residence and who have the ability to customize their residence, then including a difficult to penetrate safe haven, or panic room, can be an effective if expensive measure to avoid being kidnapped by home invaders.
Exercise extreme caution when allowing unknown individuals access to the home, even when they seem to represent legitimate interests.
While regular destinations provide allow kidnappers to more easily anticipate where a target will be, vigilance should also be heightened when in unfamiliar circumstances, especially at the behest of others.
Look for “kid safety” training programs provided by schools and police departments for children. Rather than depending solely on these programs, parents should discuss the threat with children. Also, parents should supervise children closely and know their whereabouts.
Parents should keep current photographs and fingerprints of children and should be able to provide descriptions of clothing worn and places attended by children that day.
School busses are predictable, vulnerable and tempting targets. Do not overlook their attractiveness to kidnappers.
Minimize personal information that is easily available to others. De-list phone numbers, re-register assets under shell corporations, limit opportunities to be photographed, destroy rather than discarding papers and do not display personal information (such as stickers and notes) on cars or buildings. Conduct searches to assess what “private” information is available about potential kidnap targets and family members.
Practice physical self-defense, escape and evasion driving and situational awareness exercises regularly to keep skills sharp and the mind focused on, rather than inured to, the threat.
Scrutinize staff members. Conduct criminal and credit/financial checks of staff (especially those in the household) before hiring, then maintain an active interest in their personal lives, particularly for those living in the household.
Staff should also be briefed on privacy protection measures and warned of the types of questions that attempt to gather sensitive information or the ruses used to attain the information.
Maintain communications by carrying push-to-talk cell phone/radio combinations. These devices should be issued to dependents as well. During times of heightened exposure, such as isolation in an unsecured area, the vulnerable party should keep an active line open by calling a trusted contact. Pre-arranged check-ups or check-in schedules can help identify kidnappings more quickly.
Know which agencies have jurisdiction over kidnapping in various areas, and try to make contacts in advance. Some cultures, including India, value personal relationships more than in the U.S. In these places, pre-existing relationships make accomplishing an agenda much easier.
High value targets should obtain kidnap and ransom (K&R) insurance, the existence of which should not be disclosed to anyone else. Negotiation services should be included in the policy if offered.
If K&R insurance is held, understand policy procedures in advance and know which agencies the policy provider will contact.
Build community situational awareness. Report suspicious people and unusual behavior in the area to the proper agency, whether a formal authorities or a community watch board. Encourage neighbors and area service personnel (such as mail carriers, technicians and deliverymen) to do the same.
Travelers should be aware of areas of insurgency and intense political contention and should take care to avoid these areas if possible. Otherwise, security should be increased in response to the heightened threat.
Bodyguards, for those with adequate resources, are among the more effective kidnap risk reduction measures for those in a high risk zone. Bodyguards should be well trained, especially for ambush situations, and should also be familiar with the local area in order to me most effectively and to adequately assess threats. Bodyguards should be screened thoroughly and come from a reputable security firm because of the trust invested in them.
Vehicles should be parked in secure locations to prevent ambushes, tampering or even indicating when the owners are present (which can aid kidnappers in detecting routines).
To reduce the likelihood of a mugging or express kidnapping escalating into a kidnap-for-ransom, avoid carrying indicators of significant financial assets, such as exclusive credit cards or business cards identifying the holder as a top executive of a well-known company. Also consider carrying only cash or, at most, a debit card accessing an account with limited funds.
Only use taxis that have been requested and that are affiliated with a reputable company or hotel.
Use ATMs that are in secure locations such as lobbies and other populated buildings, rather than on the street.
Once a kidnapping is in progress or has occurred, the target and those seeking the target’s return should understand some important considerations:
For the target, although the initial snatch is one of the most dangerous periods, it also often is the best escape window. Adrenaline and tensions are high and kidnappers may be the most prone to use deadly force at this time, but they also often depend on the advantage of surprise to help them overwhelm the victim until the target can be secured. This is the period when the kidnappers themselves are most exposed and they may not be motivated to stick around and to overcome determined resistance if the victim can break away. Besides time often working against kidnappers here, the snatch site also will almost surely provide the target with more escape routes than the location the kidnappers intend to hold the victim.
Once kidnapped, a victim should work to humanize oneself to the captors by establishing commonalities. Victims, in small ways, should also establish limits and maintain dignity.
Maintaining physical health is important, although depression and fear may sap motivation. Victims should eat, drink and exercise whenever possible. Mental exercise, such as reading books if available or other mental gymnastics/calisthenics, is essential as well. Abductees should continue to seek escape windows and, because these opportunities may be extremely belief and require sharp thinking, should be mentally prepared to recognize and seize opportunities.
In the case of a rescue attempt, the kidnap victim should be mentally prepared to avoid getting caught in a cross fire or being mistaken for a kidnapper.
In the event of negotiations, one person should be appointed as decision-maker and spokesperson. Negotiations should be approached with a clear plan and conducted with one voice. Strategies and possible disputes, including whether to contact authorities at all, should be discussed early in the assessment process before an incident occurs.
Factors to consider when deciding whether to contact authorities in foreign countries like India are whether local law enforcement is corrupt and cooperating with the kidnappers and the likelihood of a botched rescue attempt harming the abductee. If K&R insurance is held, the insurer should be contacted first and can assist in deciding whether to involve local authorities.
The K&R insurance market in India is expanding as demand is increasing. The Adobe India executive whose son was kidnapped in November 2006, Naresh Gupta, obtained such coverage after the 1992 abduction of then-Adobe president Charles Geschke.
According to a January 2007 Hindustan Times article, a recent spate of kidnaps-for-ransom have inspired high value targets to turn to companies, including Tata AIG, National Insurance Company, ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, for K&R policies, with typical coverage ranging between one million and five million dollars. For MNCs, policies geared towards medium to large companies and are being purchased by companies that require employees to travel to high risk areas in India.
To discourage insurance fraud schemes, the insurance companies usually require that their insured keep the fact that they are covered confidential. This also reduces the threat of kidnapping, because if criminals know that an individual is insured, he becomes a more attractive target because they believe that they are guaranteed a ransom.
CONCLUSION
India is not alone in facing this problem or even the most dangerous country with respect to kidnapping. India ranks sixth on the list of countries with the most kidnappings in 2006. However, India is still outranked by countries such as Haiti, Brazil and Mexico, the reigning champ two years running.
Although the vast majority of kidnappings in India seem to be crimes of opportunity, kidnaps-for-ransom targeting corporate and high value targets are a substantial problem generating increasing concern. As India continues attract foreign investment and business, the threat of abductions for profit will grow. Criminal gangs are seeing opportunities in increasing numbers of fat targets, and are refining their operations accordingly. India can continue to develop showcase business districts and support its growth industries, but the underlying social and economic conditions that foster the growth of kidnapping as a business will take much longer to change.
In the meantime, due to inconsistencies in the quality of local authorities and law enforcement, those concerned about the threat of kidnapping will be compelled to rely on their own prevention efforts to protect themselves. Many are recognizing this already, as reflected by increased demand in K&R coverage and private security markets.
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