Top official downplays IS radicalisation, says stray incidents 'taken care of'

New Delhi: A top security official on Wednesday sought to downplay threat of radicalisation of Indian youths by terror group IS, saying there were some “stray” incidents and those have been “taken care of” by security agencies. The Officer on Special Duty to National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and former RAW chief, Alok Joshi, said there was no widespread influence of IS ideology and the “stray cases” were mainly out of “curiosity” over the radical outfit. [caption id=“attachment_2093759” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “I will contest the point that there is a widespread pull of IS (in India)… We are not in agreement with that. Now, I am not there (in RAW) but certainly when I was, we didn’t see the kind of spread that people generally believed to be there (for the terror group). That is just not there,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference to discuss counter-IED strategies by National Security Guard (NSG). Joshi, who retired as RAW chief on 31 December and is set to take over as the NTRO Chairman on April 1, said those who were probably swayed by the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS), have since been taken care of. “There is a certain curiosity element as to what IS is all about. But there is no sign of any great involvement (of Indian youths with IS)… One or two stray cases may be there… But people have been suitably cautioned, informed and assisted… This is the kind of response that is required (against the activities of IS). Please feel reassured on that,” he said. Joshi, however, evaded a direct reply to a question on the recent controversy over an intercept by NTRO following which the Coast Guard fired on a Pakistani fishing vessel off the Gujarat coast. “It is very unfair to constantly cast doubt on this aspect… I can tell you that till yesterday I was a consumer of NTRO information and there was never any difficulty in giving information or interacting with NTRO at any level. “Let me assure that there are processes in place at the cutting-edge level in the agency (NTRO). This (exchange of snoop data) is not an issue at all,” he said. To questions whether the operation off the Gujarat coast on the intervening night of December 31 and 1 January was correct or whether there was an inquiry instituted to probe lapses, if any, he said to the best of his knowledge, there was “no inquiry” but “I am only an understudy as of now.” Joshi said NTRO will work to enhance the capabilities of various security agencies to counter the menace of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in various parts of the country which has killed both civilians and security personnel. He said there is need for enhanced awareness about the characteristics of a typical IED not only amongst security forces personnel but also civilians, so that they are not trapped and killed by such explosives. “Awareness of IEDs has not percolated down even amongst the security forces. What is required (for awareness) has not been done,” he said. The 1976-batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre recounted the recent incident of recovery of a large quantity of locally made bombs and IEDs in West Bengal’s Burdwan district, where, he alleged, proper diligence was not followed by the state police. He said the need of the hour for combating the IED “scourge” was to “identify the key bomb makers in every terrorist organisation” so that such elements can be neutralised thereby weakening an outlawed outfit at least for some time. “Once you take out a bomb maker (of a terror outfit), the organisation takes one-two years to regroup,” he said. He recounted the arrest of Abdul Karim Tunda by Indian intelligence agencies a few years back to buttress his point. “People asked why a 70-year-old man has been taken into custody? I replied don’t forget he trained a generation of bomb makers across the country. When a key bomb maker is hit, the organisation’s capabilities are hit,” he said. He also asked the conference of representatives of various central and state security agencies deployed to combat IEDs to discuss and prepare a “calibrated legal response” and possible tightening of laws in such cases. He said the “main scourge” in the deadly IED family is home-made explosives which are prepared from obscure substances like fertilisers. Last year, a total of 190 terror incidents were carried out through IED explosions that claimed 75 lives. NTRO, whose road map was drawn up by former President APJ Abdul Kalam during his tenure of Scientific Advisor to the government in 2001, is mainly tasked to prevent cyber threat and also provide and analyse technical intelligence. It was set up in 2004 and was tasked to be a highly specialised technical intelligence-gathering agency, expertise of which would be used by other intelligence agencies like IB, RAW and Military Intelligence. PTI