India needs a separate intelligence agency to tackle terror

 

The menace of terrorism has been troubling India for a decade now. Security experts have different views about how the country can combat terror. NDTV.com's Preeti Sharma discussed the issue with Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (Retd.), Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) to find out his views on tackling terror.

 

 

NDTV: What is your reaction to the recent bomb blasts in Ahmadabad and Bangalore?

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: India is facing radical extremism, which has its roots outside the national boundary. The Bangalore and Jaipur blasts are indicative of Pakistan's ongoing proxy war against India, which started in early 1990s in Kashmir. Over the years, it has spilled across the Ravi river to the rest of India. The roots of terror lie across the LoC. Also, till recently, Indian Muslims were never found to indulge in large-scale acts of terrorism. The concept of pan-Islamic terrorism exists, but Indian Muslims have so far not been part of it. There are some groups in India, like SIMI, which have an anti-national agenda. The group is overwhelmingly Indian in origin. It may have arisen due to feelings of alienation or personal grudges against the security forces. These organisations are exploited by external agencies, such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) in Bangladesh and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in Pakistan. Lashkar-e-Toiba has links with the ISI. However, the SIMI variety of terrorism is different from Kashmiri terrorism.

 

NDTV: What do you think about the terror group called Indian Mujahideen?

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: As far as the Indian Mujahideen is concerned, it is most likely a frontal organisation. The name has been deliberately picked up to point towards its local origin. It makes it convenient to put the blame on India.

 

NDTV: Is there absolutely no way to stop terrorist activities in India? What is the solution?

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: Let me tackle this at two levels. A terrorist chooses his or her time and place and has to get lucky once for executing bomb blasts. On the other hand, the security forces have to be alert twenty-four hours all through the year and have to be lucky every time to discover a terror plot and unravel it. Tackling terror is an extremely complicated and challenging job for the security agencies. We have to understand this as a nation. 

At the second level, yes, we can tackle terror. The primary agent to fight it has to be human intelligence. No amount of technology can really get into the people's mind and if the terrorists take elementary precautions, they can hide their designs. So, it becomes quite difficult to get accurate intelligence through technological means.

 

NDTV: But US has done it successfully after 9/11?

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: I would say they have just been lucky. They have strict anti-terrorism laws. The Americans have willingly accepted constraints on their basic freedom. Both things have worked together. I will give major credit to their technological and human intelligence. 

 

We have to have informers in the areas that are considered to be the belts of terrorism. These can be ordinary people whom we have to motivate. Every citizen has to act for the nation. After all, citizens largely discovered bombs in Surat.

 

On the third level, we need better coordination between intelligence agencies. The existing security coordination apparatus, the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), in the National Security Secretariat needs to be revamped. 

 

However, the problem there is the file syndrome. What we need is an operation centre, as we have in Army, where information is filtering in from various sources. It should be analysed and sent to the person whom it concerns. Somebody has to decide on who needs to know. For example, when the first bomb was discovered in Surat, somebody had to decide whether every police station in Surat needed to know, whether the DGP, the BSF and CRPF battalions in Gujarat needed to know and so on. 

 

The JIC today is more centred towards the external intelligence. It is not concentrating on intelligence related to terrorism. This must change. There is no coordinating agency in India for information related to terror. There is a whole process that involves collection, analysis, synthesis and dissemination of the information.

 

NDTV: Do you think the idea of having a Federal Intelligence Agency is justified and practical?

 

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: We certainly need a Central Intelligence Agency. Most of its intelligence efforts would be internal and it can coordinate its efforts with JIC. National Technical Reconnaissance Organisation (NTRO), the tech-based spy agency, should meet the needs of both external and internal intelligence. However, there is no doubt about the fact that Intelligence Bureau (IB) has been mishandled.

 

NDTV: How do we know that FIA would not be mishandled?

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: Because FIA's sole job would be to work as a terrorism intelligence agency and nothing else. They will follow a professional ethos, which is the need of the hour. But the chances of FIA coming into being soon are not very bright, as there is no genuine consensus about it.

 

We live in the age of terrorism. Maoist terrorism is slowly gaining ground and can go out of hand any time. The government needs to gear up and has to seek political consensus. The issue deserves consensus at the national level. Such issues should be above politics.

 

NDTV: There has been tremendous politics and blame game over terror attacks in India. How has the government failed to curb terrorism so far?

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: India lacks a comprehensive internal security strategy, which includes counter-terrorism strategy. It has to be all encompassing, inter-ministerial, inter-agency, inter- departmental in approach. It should take into account the threat and challenges and lay down the objectives- national security and counter-terrorism objective. Then, it needs to make comprehensive plans to meet these objectives. 

The next step is then to evaluate the resources available, identify the weaknesses and grey areas in the organisational structure, weapons, equipment and human resources, then work out the required plan of action. This is not happening. We are groping in the dark. We are just drifting from one terrorist attack to the other.

 

NDTV: What do you think about the ISI? To what extent is it playing a role in terror activities in India? What can be done to stop its evil activities? Should it be dismantled?

 

Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal: Pakistan's ISI is a dangerous agency, diabolical in nature. It needs to be dissolved. It is too big for Pakistan's intelligence requirement. It needs to be drastically downsized through both bilateral and multilateral efforts. It is an instrument of the Pakistan Army. However, it does have 20-25 per cent civilians, but not more than that. 

 

 

Courtesy: NDTV

URL: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080065489&ch=633571063032954042 

 

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the views either of the Editorial Committee or the Centre for Land Warfare Studies)