An intelligence revamp is on the cards with the Multi Agency Centre under the Intelligence Bureau likely to be transformed into a larger unit. The unit will have technically proficient and select officers drawn from various security agencies who will use big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven analytics and technology to beat new-age threats posed by terrorists.
The threat posed by infiltrating terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, finding their way into Doda, Kathua and Reasi, with sophisticated weapons, over-ground support and encrypted communication to carry out stealth attacks has once again brought focus on gaps in intelligence gathering and sharing between various agencies.
As Union Home Minister Amit Shah met chiefs of central paramilitary forces, National Security Guards, and Intelligence Bureau officials on Friday, the focus was back on the Multi Agency Centre (MAC) that comprises more than two dozen agencies, including police, defence and financial intelligence organisations who pool inputs for countering terror threats across the country.
The MAC has had a bumpy ride over the years. The country’s intelligence architecture witnessed a revamp after the Kargil conflict with inter-services intelligence agencies like the Defence Intelligence Agency and National Technical Research Organisation being given the task of technical intelligence collection, and dissemination and coordination was to be handed over to the MAC and Joint Task Force on Intelligence under IB to share inputs with state governments.
But the 26/11 terror attacks bore testimony to the fact that MAC was getting less than ten per cent of intelligence inputs from hinterland states, the core areas of operation of terror groups at that time. In closed-door meetings, state police forces also expressed unhappiness with central agencies handing down terror alerts that were neither time-bound nor left scope for follow-ups, as many times they lacked credibility. The MHA then asked the IB to revive the MAC in a major way to bolster the intelligence setup across the country.
The MAC has grown multifold since. To begin with, the MAC set up subsidiary units in states and gradually rolled out the intelligence connectivity to districts. The expansion of the central intelligence gathering unit was supported by states as follow-up actions on all terror threats started bearing fruit in the last decade. At the moment there are subsidiary units of MAC in states but not in every district, sources said.
Another major step was the creation of a national memory bank within the MAC that would contain dossiers and interrogation reports of terrorists and connected to at least 370 nodes across the country for easy access to any information on terror suspects. The idea behind the memory bank was that any police unit would just have to type the name of a terror suspect in the system to show whether any case was registered against him in the country.
Once again, there are new security challenges with terrorists masking identities, using high-end technology to hide movements and blocking communication intercepts spelling an urgent need for MAC’s functioning to be upgraded. The surge in cross-border terror threats and recent terror attacks in Jammu has brought the IB and other agencies together to discuss the creation of a cohesive platform for intelligence sharing and prompt action.
Setting the ball rolling, Shah said the MAC will bring together law enforcement agencies, anti-drug agencies, cyber security and intelligence agencies, as it undergoes a major technical and operational revamp to increase its reach and effectiveness.