Secret communication using latest technologies to arrange manpower and logistics to fuel unrest in Punjab by transnational nexus of terrorists, gangsters and narco criminals, has emerged as a key concern for central intelligence agencies.
Investigators found that such secret communication platforms have dual use - private ones are used for operational purposes and the public platforms are being used for anti-India propaganda. The need to bust such networks and bring perpetrators to book becomes essential, sources said, and requires cooperation of foreign agencies as these transnational syndicates are suspected to have fuelled attacks within the country as well as those carried out on foreign soil, including on the High Commissions of India in Ottawa and London as well as on the Consulate General of India in San Francisco.
As the National Investigation Agency on Tuesday conducted searches in the ongoing investigations against Khalistani organised crime nexus at 14 locations in Punjab and two locations in Rajasthan, sources said terror modules have shifted from traditional telephone calling to internet-based communication where they are covertly sharing large scale operational data originating and terminating from locations all over the world. Various internet-based chat applications used by the extremists provide end-to-end encryption of data. While the source IPs of some of these applications can be traced with the assistance of service providers, the data transacted between the users still remains out of bound for the law enforcement agencies.
Sources said this is being taken advantage of by the terror-gangster networks of Punjab where it has come to light that VoIP technology, app-based virtual numbers, use of VPNs and calls over phone speakers are proving to be simple and effective methods to avoid detection. In some cases, calls over phone speakers have been noticed to be used allowing two persons sitting in different locations to communicate with each other over speakers, without the devices being directly connected. The problem becomes bigger with such criminal nexus having links in US, Canada and other European countries, the sources said.
In the public mode, the aim of these terrorist-criminal gangs is to propagate extremist ideology to the public using not just social media platforms, but sending pre-recorded messages and calls to mobiles and landlines across the globe. A report shared by intelligence agencies says that use of dialler services caught the fancy of the extremist groups recently. Just as service sector companies for businesses provide free and paid automatic dialler services, similar technology has been used by outfits like the banned Sikhs for Justice and its leader Gurpatwant Pannu, who turned an eye sore for security agencies recently with his open threats to create unrest in the country.
A senior security official said use of emerging technologies by criminal terror networks are a worry for many reasons. While some of them are used purely for “guns for hire”, others grow into nameless and faceless perpetrators of terror who are difficult to detect.
Besides, the proliferation of the extremist network on social media is being used for recruitment and propagation of extremist ideology, said senior security officials.
These findings come at a time when the use of smuggled communication devices has been found in the case of jailed extremist Amritpal Singh and alleged gangster gang of Lawrence Bishnoi whose name crops up in several cases of criminal acts and reveals the difficulties involved in busting such activities completely.
“Jails have emerged as a major hub of recruitment of criminals by terror masterminds to carry out future terror incidents, act against rival groups and keep the transnational syndicates alive,” said a state police official.
Meanwhile, NIA searches on Tuesday resulted in six persons being probed for their involvement in terrorist activities.