Guwahati: Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) Syed Asif Ibrahim on Sunday said effective intelligence sharing with neighbouring countries like Nepal, Myanmar, and Malayasia, Saudi Arabia would go a long way in helping the country in tackling threat from global terror groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Welcoming the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the two-day 49 th annual conclave of DGPs/IGPs of state police forces and Central Police Organi-sations on the concluding day here this morning, the IB chief said the country faces danger of a section of Indian youths moving to ranks of global jihadi groups and conflict zones beco-ming role models for others.
“Jihadi mindset is a threat to internal security and we need to formulate collective response against radicalism involving com-munity leaders to reject jihadi propaganda.
Already prominent members of the social organizations, clerics and seminaries have condemned jihadi activities as unislamic,” the IB director said in presence of the PM.
He pointed out that only a handful of youth from the country could be so far lured by jihadi groups compared to European countries from where large number of youth have joined global jihadi groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda that are cause for grave concern for the country too.
He said anti-India forces were active in the hinterland of Pakistan while recent unearthing of activities of Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in West Bengal exposed the group’s attempt to set up base in the country.
He informed that secu-rity forces had neutralized many modules of Indian Mujahideen and Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in different parts of the country including Bihar, Punjab and Assam. “Joint operations by Central agencies and Punjab police led to arrest of top ranking leaders of Khalistani groups,” he added.
The IB chief informed that the DGPs conclave felt the need for further fine tuning of anti-Maoists strategy though the Maoist movement was on the wane. “There is need to adequately empower the district police tackle Maoists whole special training should be imparted to Central forces to deal with Left wing extremists,” he said.
“Though the security scenario in the Northeast have improved, violence by recalcitrant militant groups continued. There is need for ethnic identities to transcend to larger identity for better development of the NE region. The situation in J & K has improved much because of sustained, improved and focused operation coupled with more effective boundary management,” he said.
“The DGPs conference have taken note of concern for improvement of public image of the police forces
and indentified short-comings like poor response by police stations to public complaints, manpower crunch, and inadequate fund for modernization.
The DGPs have underlined the need to harness technology as force multipliers,” the IB director said.