IB understaffed: Can India afford this in the war against ISIS?

When India speaks of fighting terror, it must first ensure that the vacancies in the Intelligence Bureau are filled up first. It is just not enough to have three Arabic translators in the Intelligence Bureau especially when the battle is against the ISIS.

The fight against groups such as the ISIS requires a great amount of coordination especially by the Intelligence Bureau. In fact the IB is the key to this fight as it has to keep tabs and report alerts to the police so that prompt action can be taken.

Work load is high:

For any intelligence bureau official the work load is generally very high. Those officers who have to monitor groups such as the ISIS or the al-Qaeda have their hands full at all times. All material posted by these groups online have to be monitored 24/7 and missing out on information could be crucial.

The IB has however had a success rate when it comes to the ISIS. Operation Chakravyuh is something that the IB had started to keep tabs on those leaning towards the ISIS. It is no easy job undertaking this operation as it is a continuous affair. So far they have managed with a handful of Arabic translators. However in the current scenario, the IB would need at least 10 more such translators considering the amount of material that the ISIS posts only in Arabic.

The government says that it is filling up the vacancies. The bigger problem is that not many from the police force are willing to take up a job in the IB as it requires them to remain faceless all the time. This has prompted the government to go in for new recruits. However this would take some time since they need to be trained.

IB officials feel that the training is crucial in today's day and age. There is a lot of knowledge required because terror groups keep innovating with each passing day. Officials say at times in a bid to urgently fill up vacancies, the training period is cut short and this is not good. Moreover for a new recruit who is trained, it would take a while before he can put in his best since he or she would also need to gain in terms of experience.