Terrorism a threat to India when Pakistan is frustrated, says defence expert

Defence expert Lieutenant General (retd.) Raj Kadyan on Thursday said that terrorism becomes a real threat to India when Pakistan is frustrated.

"Terrorism continues to be a great threat to India, particularly now, when Pakistan is frustrated. They cannot wage an open war against India and they have been unable to internationalise the Kashmir issue. Thus, the only recourse open to them is to create internal problems, be it fighting a proxy war in the Kashmir Valley or causing problems further inside," Lieutenant General (retd.) Kadyan told ANI here.

Speaking on reports of two Indians being arrested for allegedly wanting to join the Al Qaeda, the defence expert said that the terrorist organisation has been trying to establish itself in India.

"The news of the Al Qaeda and the IS trying to make a base in India has been coming for some time. Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri recently appeared in a video, stating that a new base of his organisation will be set up in this part of Asia, including neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Myanmar," he said. 

Lieutenant General (retd.) Kadyan also spoke of the need for preventive rather than reactive action as far as tackling terror threats is concerned.

"Any terror threat by such extremists should be taken seriously by our intelligence agencies and they should take preventive action to make sure that attacks do not take place," he said.

"We are good at investigations but we need to be good at preventive measures. For that, we need a strong central intelligence agency which can collect, store, analyse and disseminate information in real time," he added.