July 28, 2013: First Hyderabad, then Bodhgaya, despite intelligence alerts to the states about possible terror strikes the blasts could not be averted.

The information passed on was specific - in Bodhgaya, the Mahabodhi Temple was the target and in Hyderabad, terrorists were planning to attack Dilsukhnagar.

Five Indian Mujahideen (IM) suspects arrested by Delhi Police in October last year had given out details on the terror plots. Despite that, terror struck in both the locations in a span of a few months - Dilsukhnagar on February 21 and Bodhgaya on July 7.

This is the sorry state of India's war against terror. After every attack, the Ministry of Home Affairs says intelligence was passed on to the state concerned.

Authorities in states shirk the responsibility by claiming that the intelligence was generic in nature and not accurate.

Security revamp

Post 26/11 attack, P. Chidambaram, who took charge as the home minister, planned a complete overhaul of the security and intelligence apparatus in the country. Multi Agency Centre (MAC) for intelligence sharing was set up. Chidambaram called a meeting of senior officials of all intelligence agencies every morning and demanded updates on their plans and preparations.

This system, however, is not that regular any more, said sources.

Plan to set up a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), conceived by Chidambaram, has been put on hold indefinitely after being opposed by some of the state governments on the ground that it was a threat to the federal structure of the country since it was designed to carry out operations anywhere in the country without the knowledge of the state police.

NCTC is not the only intelligence gathering proposal that's gathering dust. Four years after planning a National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), a database of all intelligence inputs, the mechanism is not fully operational yet. The reason for the delay - several people within the security establishment are not convinced about the efficiency of the system.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was set up as a federal anti- terror body but turf wars have impacted its operations.

Sources say states are not always keen to hand over their cases to the NIA. In fact, since its inception, some of the major terror attacks have not been investigated by the agency.

Ved Marwah, security expert and former Delhi Police Commissioner, feels lack of coordination between Centre and states is a new phenomenon.

"Till a few years ago, there was close coordination in matters related to security. But today politicians make statements, blame each other and this is damaging the security mechanism of the country." "Intelligence Bureau should follow up on the alerts sent to the states. But that never happens," he added.

Intelligence officials say little is being done to improve groundlevel intelligence and the authorities are too dependent on Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing. "Intelligence mechanism at the ground level is dismal. Inadequate manpower and lack of training are some of the reasons responsible for poor intelligence mechanism," said Arun Bhagat, former director of the Intelligence Bureau.

State-level policing remains a weak link in the war against terror.

Post 26/11, a major police modernisation drive was also planned but not much has been done to equip the state police forces to fight terror.

"The intelligence units at the state police level are also not well-equipped to take on the challenges. There is hardly any infrastructure at the state level to carry out effective intelligence," said an official.

Another area of concern for the agencies is activities of terror outfits on the cyber space. "Phone intercepts are a major source of information for the intelligence agencies. But terrorists now have found new ways to communicate.

Our intelligence gathering machinery has not been able to upgrade its tracking system to that level. Often the terror activity on the web goes unnoticed," the official added.


1. FAKE CURRENCY CASE

Yasin Bhatkal was arrested by the West Bengal police in 2009 in a fake currency case but the state police had no clue of his association with Indian Mujahideen (IM). At the time of his arrest, he identified himself as Mohammed Ashraf. Due to a lack of coordination, Bhatkal came out on bail and continued with his terror activities. In 2009, when Bhatkal went to jail he had already been involved in IM operations that led to serial blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Bangalore in 2008, but the state police had no information. He was lodged in Kolkata's Alipore Jail between December 2009 and February 2010.

2. DILSUKHNAGAR TRAGEDY

Hyderabad's Dilsukhnagar area, where the bombs were planted, had been one of the prospective terror targets a few months before the attack. Due to a lack of intelligence sharing, this information was ignored. This was revealed during interrogation of one of the suspects of last year's Pune blast. The Delhi Police Special Cell had arrested four suspected IM operatives alleging their role. One of the suspects, Irfan, told interrogators that he, with another aide Syed Maqbool, had carried out a recce of some places in Hyderabad, including Dilsukhnagar, in June 2012. The case remains unsolved.

3. TERROR IN TEMPLE TOWN

Just like Hyderabad, there was specific information about Bodhgaya blasts in Bihar. The same suspected IM operative, Syed Maqbool, had also told interrogators that Buddhists in Gaya were to be targeted to avenge the killings of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The information was shared with the Bihar Police but the attack could not be averted. In fact, this was not the only alert for Bodh Gaya. There were two more alerts about the temple being a target. Agencies have not got any leads in the case.

4. IM SUSPECTS ESCAPE

Suspected IM operatives Waqas and Tabrez, along with Yasin Bhatkal, were being tracked by the Delhi Police Special Cell last year when a turf war between Special Cell and Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad resulted in the operation falling apart. With the help of one of its sources, Delhi Police was close to nabbing the duo, who could have led to Bhatkal. However, Maharashtra ATS arrested Delhi Police's 'informer' Naqi Ahmed for the Mumbai serial blasts of July 2011, foiling Delhi cops' effort. The duo has been untraceable since then.

5. LIYAQAT'S ARREST

Alleged Hizbul Mujahideen operative Liyaqat Ali Shah (right) was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell on March 20, 2013. Delhi Police claimed he entered India through the Indo-Nepal border. Following the arrest, the J&K Police said he was on his way to the state to surrender and a war of words ensued between Delhi and J&K Police. Shah's family had applied for rehabilitation in February 2011 and got clearance. The Home Ministry, it appears, knew this but Delhi Police has claimed it was not aware of his surrender. The case is being probed by NIA.

6. MALEGAON ATTACK

In 2006, the Maharashtra ATS arrested nine Muslim youths, accusing them of being involved in the Malegaon blasts. But the entire case turned on its head as the NIA began probing the case. According to the NIA probe, none of them was involved and the agency found new evidence against a Hindu terror module. The ATS had alleged that all the nine accused were members of banned group SIMI. But with new facts emerging, all of them were granted bail. This proved to be a big blow for ATS.

Source:  India Today, DT. July 28, 2013.