The Hindu : New Delhi News : Shadow over threat assessment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 15, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Shadow over threat assessment

Security and intelligence agencies need to coordinate with one another and act in time to thwart terror attacks, says Devesh K. PANDEY..

The serial blasts in Delhi last year and now the seven synchronised explosions in Mumbai have exposed the loopholes in the country's threat assessment mechanism and lack of proper coordination among various security and intelligence agencies.

According to police statistics, instances of terrorist strikes have been on the rise in the past few years. The Capital itself has witnessed two militant attacks in the past one year. While a series of blasts rocked Delhi on October 29 last year killing at least 70 people, militants targeted the historic Jama Masjid in April this year injuring over a dozen people. Several terrorists being arrested or eliminated this year is proof once again of an increase in such activities in this part of the country.

Likewise, several terrorists were arrested and huge quantities of arms and explosives seized from them in Maharashtra in the past couple of months indicating that militant outfits were planning something big.

Despite these proofs of heightened terrorist activity, security agencies failed to chalk out a proactive counter-terrorism plan through a threat assessment of places said to be on the terrorists' hit list.

Ironically, after about 200 lives have been lost in the explosions in Mumbai, the authorities are now thinking of installing surveillance equipment at major railway stations there.

The enforcement agencies here had reacted in a similar fashion after the triple blasts when they speeded up clearing of proposals for installation of closed-circuit television cameras at several major market places. "Such decisions have become so frequent that they are at times considered nothing more than a tactic to appease the public seething with anger at the failure of the intelligence and security agencies in preventing the strikes," said a police officer.

Senior police officers feel that a major lacuna in the anti-terrorism drive is lack of coordination among the forces of various States when it comes to intelligence sharing and helping each other in hunting down militants. Though routine inter-State meetings are held, they mostly depend on Intelligence Bureau to play the role of a coordinating body. "It happens despite the fact that we are working for the same cause, which is to maintain internal security," said the police officer, adding that lack of dedication on the part of certain officers was also one of the reasons behind the slack approach toward anti-terrorist operations. If the authorities concerned are really serious about curbing the menace of terrorism, experts feel it is high time they introduced the concept of federal crime in the Indian criminal justice system. The arrangement would make sure that an offence committed at the State level having nationwide repercussions is investigated by a nodal agency so that the problem of jurisdiction is done away with. It would also overcome the problem of the agencies working at cross-purposes.

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