Another challenge before the government and security agencies is the gathering of intelligence.
That intelligence failure led to the 26/11 carnage is common knowledge. None of the security agencies, including the elite Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Naval intelligence, Maharashtra Police and Mumbai Police, could pre-empt the insinuating designs of the terrorists who travelled more than 1,000 kilometres by sea from Karachi for five days to reach Mumbai.
Even before the 60-hour siege of the city ended, intelligence agencies were busy getting the monkey off their back by saying they had given intelligence inputs to the Maharashtra and Mumbai police regarding the attacks.
While Central intelligence agencies claimed they had alerted the police regarding the attacks, the state and city police passed the buck by saying there was no specific input.
It’s a clear case of authorities indulging in a blame game at the cost of the citizens. And, this could be the biggest challenge for the government in the New Year. The Centre and the state government need to ensure that there is proper co-ordination between all security agencies across the country.
Another challenge before the government and security agencies is the gathering of intelligence. The 26/11 terror attacks were not the first time that our police was found woefully wanting as far as intelligence was concerned.
The 1993 serial bomb blasts could have been avoided if the intelligence gathering mechanism was in place. There were enough indications, but the agencies turned a blind eye to them. Even now, there were enough indications of a terror attack. Fahim Ansari, an alleged terror operative of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) was arrested in February this year. He told investigators he had been sent by the LeT to Mumbai to do a recce. But the investigators took it very lightly.
This year, a new challenge has come to the fore. The Malegaon bomb blast probe by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) unearthed a new kind of terrorism when members of a Hindu organisation and a serving senior officer from the Indian Army was arrested for their alleged roles in the Malegaon bomb blasts.
After having dealt a lethal blow during the 26/11 terror attacks, the government has woken up and sanctioned crores of rupees for the upgrade of the police force. This includes arming our police with the latest arms and ammunitions, gadgets and communication devices and state-or-art technology. Hopefully, all this will be put to gather real time and specific intelligence so that the danger can be nipped at the bud rather than eliminating it after it attacked us.
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