Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday exhorted Indian agencies to adopt a ruthless approach to cracking down on terrorism so new outfits aren’t created. Addressing an NIA anti-terror conference, Amit Shah said the Narendra Modi government is firmly committed to rooting out terrorism from the country.
Under Amit Shah, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has undertaken several reforms and initiatives in the last few years to strengthen and upgrade the security infrastructure of the country, particularly along the borders. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has also launched several projects related to national security, as well as taken measures to connect the bordering villages with the mainland through roads, infrastructure, and connectivity.
The MHA as well as the government also undertake robust periodic review of security agencies’ response to activities, old and new, of terror outfits. Top sources told News18 that the following five challenges are being discussed at the 3rd Anti-Terror Conference hosted by NIA. The two-day conference kicked off on October 5, Thursday.
CHALLENGE 1
Sources told News18 that unlike before, young men adept at cyber operations are aligning with terror outfits. “These are young kids. They are not trained. You can’t let them roam free or else they will resort to attacking temples etc. When we apprehend them and bring them to the police station, the only evidence against them is cyber in nature. They don’t carry guns that can be used as evidence,” a top official said on condition of anonymity.
The official added that these boys do not meet the image of a terrorist that policemen have in their minds. “These boys start crying from the word go. They come from decent families. Fathers would be engineers etc but these boys got radicalised somehow. Many of them are juveniles. The policemen would be like ‘who have you brought to us, this kid doesn’t seem like a terrorist’,” the official added.
CHALLENGE 2
The official quoted above said some boys who are released eventually end up on the same path again.
“Since 2014, some young operatives were arrested and released. They are out now. Most terrorism cases see ‘recycled’ accused. This means that our punishment policy or the criminal justice system is ineffective. These young boys learnt nothing during their jail term. They have no regret, show no improvement. But on the flip side, if you keep an exhaustive list of such boys, 80% of your task is done,” he said.
CHALLENGE 3
According to sources, it is beyond the scope of ground forces to detect such cyber terrorists. “These boys need to be watched. But all of them are into cyber activities. The beat cop or personnel on patrol cannot detect them.”
CHALLENGE 4
Another big challenge according to officials is the regrouping of different outfits.
“Someone who was in the PFI is seen heading to the ISIS. Someone in the ISIS joins the Indian Mujahedeen. This networking is a challenge. The ISIS suspect who was arrested from the Pune module was also caught in a SIMI den. SIMI and ISIS had no ties earlier at all,” an official said.
CHALLENGE 5
Sources cites lack of communication data as the fifth challenge. “Earlier, we couldn’t intercept the content of WhatsApp chats. Now we can’t get the metadata either. Communication data is thinning,” a source said.
Officials also cited that Pakistan’s spy agency ISI has tweaked its operations for deniability. “They are going for local boys, local material, local training for deniability,” an official said.
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