How a free hand to surveil the terrorist gave agencies the upper hand over the ISIS

New Delhi, May 11: For any successful operation against terrorists, the key is surveillance. An officer would need to be at least ten steps ahead in order to prevent a terrorist from acting.

India's success rate against the Islamic State has been particularly good so far. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) too has achieved a large amount of success in tracking the ISIS modules in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

When these operations were launched in 2015, during several high level meetings it was decided that the surveillance would need to be exceptionally good. To track the ISIS and its allies, the agencies were given a free hand. This meant no red tape and routine approvals and explanations while dealing with terrorists.

To deal with the threat of the ISIS, the office of the National Security Advisor and the Intelligence Bureau came up with plan that went on to be called as "Operation Chakravyuh." As part of this plan a large number of officers of the Intelligence Bureau posed as recruiters of the Islamic State. They were immediately contacted by scores of youth who had expressed their desire to join the ISIS. The officials under fake handles through which they conversed with possible recruits.

Informed sources tell OneIndia that there were two aspects in the fight against the ISIS and other local terror groups- surveillance and a free hand. Officers on the job did not have seek approvals all the time and were instructed to get the job done. This helped a great deal in tracking terrorists both on the online and offline mode, the source also said.

Former officer with the Research and Analysis Wing, Amar Bhushan says, "look at the free hand given to the National Investigation today. The agency is going all out against the radical activities in South India and I must say they are doing a commendable job. Moreover they are not restricting themselves only to South. They are in Bengal and a whole lot of other states."

"The NIA is today successful because of surveillance measures that they have taken. The thing is, if you have created an agency, then let it run freely. Surveillance is the heart of an operation and absolutely needed to monitor extremist elements."

"As a police personnel, I can tell you that if you are not given a free hand, you really cannot operate. If you decide to go ahead, you will never know when you will get tripped," he also says.