From a new border module to NATGRID, how India plans to wade away the Taliban threat

New Delhi, Sep 13: With the Afghanistan situation remaining fragile and the Indian Intelligence agencies warning of a possible security risks, the border forces under the counter terror grid will train under a new module.

With officials stating that the situation could be very fragile along the border a new module would be prepared. This would largely focus on border strategy and wading off terror strikes.

The new module would comprise training, combat techniques with intelligence. The module would closely watch the activities of the Taliban and the techniques the group of the terror modules they support would adopt.

While the Taliban has made it clear that it would not interfere in Kashmir, there is very possibility that it may allow its soil to be used by groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad to launch attacks in India.

This comes in the backdrop of much awaited National Intelligence Grid seeing the light of the day. The NATGRID would soon be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The NATGRID would provide the security agencies cutting edge technology, which in turn would enhance India's counter terrorism capabilities.

The NATGRID has been in the works for sometime now. Union Home Minister, Amit Shah during the 51st Foundation Day event of the Bureau of Police Research and Development held on September 4 said that NATGRID would have been dedicated to the country. However the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the same, he also said. He further added that the NATGRID would be a seamless and secure database for information on terrorists and economic crimes and this would see the light of the day very soon.

In the first phase, 10 agencies and 21 service providers will be connected to NATGRID. In the later phases at least 1,000 organisations will be added. The agencies that would be added in the first phase would be the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (for the Income Tax Department), the Cabinet Secretariat, the Intelligence Bureau, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence, the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Financial Intelligence Unit, and the National Investigation Agency.

Experts who OneIndia spoke with say that one of the key aspects of NATGRID would be that it would wipe out cock and bull intelligence. The Intelligence agencies gets thousands of intercepts every day, but the question is whether all of it is actionable or not. There is also the other issue of dealing with cock and bull intelligence, which is deliberately put out by terror groups to confuse the agencies.