Ibrahim will be reporting to NSA Ajit Doval and work from the National Security Council Secretariat.
Former Intelligence Bureau Chief Asif Ibrahim has been appointed to an important post in the Prime Minister’s office. Ibrahim had retired from his post in 2014.
He will be the PM’s ‘Special Envoy on Countering Terrorism and Extremism,’ with a charter to liaise with governments in West Asia, Af-Pak and South East Asia, as per ministry officials. Ibrahim will be reporting to NSA Ajit Doval and work from the National Security Council Secretariat.
Misnistry officials said that Ibrahim has information about the Islamic world and its political structures to counter concerns national and international implications about growing terrorism across the world. He is said to have negotiated with the top leadership in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia on terror cooperation.
While working as the IB Director, in 2014 Ibrahim had begun work on the government’s new 'counter radicalisation strategy'. The rise of the Islamic State and its invasion and occupation of the parts if Iraq and Syria and the fact that 12 Indian men had flown to Syria to join the group in its war led tothe formation of the strategy.
Former diplomat and PM’s special envoy Rakesh Sood has said that while Ibrahim's experience will be helpful to him to establish 'channels for the exchange of intelligence and information on terror groups. he cautioned that he may face issues while engaging with governments in situations as diverse as the Gulf, Af-Pak region and south-east Asian Islamic countries.'
The appointment signals increasing influence of the IB over the MEA in the Prime Minister’s secretariat. While UPA government largely appointed diplomats with exceptions exceptions, like Dy NSA Nechal Sandhu who was IB chief, and IFS officers in the National security set-up included NSA Shiv Shankar Menon, Cyber envoy and Deputy NSA Latha Reddy, Special Envoys on Climate Change Shyam Saran and Disarmament Rakesh Sood.
The BJP government has brought in NSA Ajit Doval from the IB, Cyber Security coordinator Gulshan Rai from the Department of Electronics and IT, and now Special Envoy Asif Ibrahim.
Even Deputy NSA Arvind Gupta, who is a retired Foreign Service officer, worked prior to this as Director of the government think tank Institute of Defence and Strategic Analysis and was the Joint Secretary of the National Security Council Secretariat.
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