FBI director Christopher Wray visits NIA HQs, highlights need to take partnership to next level to counter terrorism

FBI Director Christopher Wray visited the NIA headquarters in India on Tuesday, and emphasised the need to take the partnership between the US and India to the next level to deal with constantly-evolving challenges and threats of terrorism, an official said. The discussions delved into the recent attack on the Indian consulate in San Francisco, as well as the investigation of various cyber-terror and cyber-crime incidents. The visit symbolises a significant stride towards enhancing the cooperation and shared commitment between the national agencies of the US and India in the global fight against terrorism. Dinkar Gupta, Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), highlighted the growing nexus between terrorist groups and organised criminal syndicates, extending its reach to the United States. The meeting involved comprehensive discussions on issues such as the activities of terrorist-organized criminal networks. The meeting comes close on the heels of Washington’s allegations about an Indian link to a foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. India has already constituted a probe team to investigate the allegations. Wray said both the agencies have a lot in common and the similarities are far greater than the differences. On the nexus between terror actors and organised crime syndicates, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director said a blending of lines between terrorists and criminals was now visible in the cyberspace as well. Terror incidents like 9/11 and the Mumbai attacks have changed the way in which nations respond to terror threats, he observed, emphasising on the need to take the partnership and cooperation between the FBI and the NIA to the next level to deal with the constantly evolving challenges and threats of terrorism. During the meeting, the NIA DG pointed out that threats in the cyber domain were increasing. Digital space was also being effectively exploited by terrorists and extremists for propagating radical views and recruitment, he said, adding that NIA was also seeing use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing. Wray said increasingly, cybercrimes are being committed to fund terrorism. “This evolution of the cyber-threat needs a joint response towards investigation of cyber-threat cases,” he stressed. The difficulties encountered by law enforcement agencies across the world in obtaining data from encryption apps also came up for discussion during the meeting. The two sides noted that with the advent of newer technologies at a fast pace, tracing, tracking and investigating crypto transactions is turning out to be a huge challenge, the official said. The official said both the agencies recognised the challenges posed by organised crime networks, terror related crimes, cyber enabled terror attacks, ransomware threats, economic crimes and transnational terror crimes. Wray also remarked that newer challenges mean that there are new opportunities for law enforcement agencies to cooperate in newer ways. He thanked the NIA for the enduring cooperation between the two agencies, and looked forward to exploration of new opportunities to collaborate further. Wray also informed the NIA that the FBI was aggressively investigating the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco was attacked on March 19 by a group of assailants who committed criminal trespass, damaged public property, and attacked officials of the consulate. They also attempted to set the Consulate building on fire by sprinkling inflammable substances early in the morning. Subsequently on July 2 at midnight, a few unidentified attackers attempted to set the consulate building on fire. The DG NIA thanked the FBI for being a very significant partner in the training and capacity building of Indian police officers. Both agencies agreed to explore increasing its future interactions and collaborative initiatives on the training track, the official said. With inputs from PTI