Some retired and working intelligence operatives are calling on agencies to shift from their tactical response to blasts and think innovatively
Traditional counter-terror measures not working, say former spies
NEW DELHI: Some retired and working intelligence operatives are calling on agencies to shift from their tactical response to blasts and think innovatively to end the ongoing terror mayhem.
Former IB chief Ajit Doval says, “We need people who think like terrorists and think ahead of them.” Probably “we have run out of ideas, and then it is very bureaucratic,” he says. The man who led several counter-terrorism operations successfully across the northeast and elsewhere, says intelligence agencies have to “leave the tactical investigations that begin at the scene of crime” to the local police and look for the big picture.
Several within the establishment say “flow of credible intelligence” has been going down over the past few months, and increasingly the only dependable sources have been telephone and other communication intercepts. Even many among these are flawed, sources admit. Terror experts that DNA spoke say terrorists have a free run because investigations result, at most, in the arrest of foot-soldiers, men who plant the bombs. “That is just not enough.”
Sources also fear the next attack is not far off. Since 2007, over 1,700 civilians and security personnel have died in terror attacks, most of them serial blasts outside Jammu and Kashmir. Doval and several others say there is a “master planner” who is using “collaborative network of anti-national elements with different capabilities — some for procuring explosives, some as sources of money, some for facilitating the operations and some for recruiting foot soldiers”.
A former chief of an intelligence agency, who refused to be named, believes intelligence agencies have to “unravel the political motive” behind terror attacks. “Only when you know where they could strike next, can we neutralise them. To know that we need deep penetration at the top level, including the underworld, explosive suppliers and fake currency rackets,” he says.
Right now “our responses are precisely what the terrorists anticipate — security checks at airports and railway stations, intercepting phone lines etc.”
Another seasoned analyst says intelligence agencies will have to go back to investigating the underworld and fake currency rackets.
“There is very little of ideology, it is mostly about money. And we still don't know how it is flowing,” he says.
He believes that a grand strategy exists behind terror strikes and it is executed with the active assistance of the underworld and a huge amount of money, mostly fake currency, being pumped in. "Despite so much of evidence we have not even properly investigated the fake currency flow into India," he said.
According to an IB estimate, Rs1,69,000 crore of fake currency is in circulation in India. Recently talks were held on ways to remove it from the system, including withdrawal of all Rs500 notes, but no final decision has been taken.
j_josy@dnaindia.net
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