Fight terror: Be the eyes and ears of the Intelligence Bureau

New Delhi, June 22: The Indian Intelligence Bureau will rely a lot on human intelligence to spot an ISIS or al-Qaeda recruit. With a shortage of at least 8,600 IB personnel, the agency will rely a lot on human intelligence to get the job done.

Currently there is a huge shortage in the Intelligence Bureau and the agency is doing everything possible to fill up the vacancies.

The IB needs at least 27,000 personnel but is falling short by around 8,600 members. The biggest issue that the IB has been facing is when it comes to conflict zones.

Terrorist groups have relied a lot on the locals and due to the shortage in the numbers there have been times when terrorists have got information sooner than the IB and the Manipur attack is a classic case.

Be the eyes and ears of the security agencies

While filling up vacancies is one part of the job, the IB would also need local intelligence which can come in the form of informers.

There is a need for utmost patriotism when undertaking this job and currently the batch of informers all work for the money, an Intelligence Bureau official informed.

Those informers who work for money are not the types who can be trusted at all. They are capable of double-crossing in case the enemy offers more money. Such informers have failed the intelligence bureau at least once out of every ten times and it has proved to be costly too.

However the IB has in the past couple of months has been witnessing some good developments as more persons have been coming forward to join the agency.

Several MBA graduates have thrown away high paying jobs to join the agency. They are initially roped in as foot soldiers, taught on the field jobs and then promoted to the position of Assistant Central Intelligence Officers.

Need to better intelligence in conflict zones:

The IB's primary problem has been in relation to the North Eastern states. 5 out of ten times, terrorist groups have got the better of the Indian intelligence and this is largely do with the fact that the agency lacks local support.

In North East there is an added problem of language and hence the reliance has to be completely on the locals, the officer pointed out.

States such as Nagaland and Manipur which see a lot of terror strikes is thanks to failed intelligence. The terrorist groups who gain a lot of sympathy from the locals who are made to believe that their cause is being fought for more often than not side with the militants.

The IB proposes to rope in educated locals who can build a bond with the rest of the people. The locals will be able to converse and understand better the situation when compared to an officer from Delhi who faces the language barrier.

The IB so far has managed to rope in 15 professionals from Nagaland who are ready to become the eyes and ears of the Indian government.

Thwarting the ISIS, al-Qaeda threat

The other issue which the IB faces is from the ISIS and the al-Qaeda. While the operation against these terror outfits is by and large successful, it appears to be a continuous problem. The IB has a special desk which tracks the movement of persons attempting to join these terror groups.

In addition to this the IB proposes to build up a huge cyber army comprising ordinary citizens who continue to tip them off about any suspicious online interactions.

The IB will rope in tech savvy professionals for this job who will not only be able to track but also study behavioral patterns of recruits. This needs to be a continued effort, the officer points out as these terrorist groups never seem to stop.

He had said that IB had 18,795 personnel on its rolls, against a sanctioned strength of 26,867 - a shortfall of over 30%. Senior home ministry officials told TOI that the problem still persists but youngsters are now showing more interest in joining IB.

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