National Security Adviser Ajit Kumar Doval delivers his speech during the Munich
Security Conference in New Delhi yesterday.
Agencies/New Delhi
The Islamic State and Al Qaeda do not yet pose a threat to India, the national security adviser said yesterday, despite attempts by the ultra-radical groups to enlist support from among India’s huge Muslim population.
Flags of the Islamic State have appeared in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state, setting off concern that the insurgent group is drawing support in a state where security forces are trying to end a 25-year revolt.
An announcement by Al Qaeda in September that it had set up a South Asia branch further added to Indian fears that global militant groups were turning their attention to the country, as foreign forces in nearby Afghanistan leave.
A K Doval, a former head of India’s domestic intelligence arm and a specialist in covert operations, said the government was watching the two groups closely.
“I don’t think there are threats of magnitude from either one of them which we are not in a position to cope with,” he told a security conference.
India has long faced militant attacks but these are mostly Pakistan-based groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba which was blamed for orchestrating the 2008 assault on Mumbai.
An Indian Mujahideen group has also emerged in recent years with its home-grown fighters carrying out low-level bomb blasts in towns across India.
But India’s 160mn Muslim population has largely stayed away from waging holy wars in foreign battlefields which Indian security officials say underlines the strength of the country’s democracy where people don’t have to turn to guns to fight for their rights.
Doval said the government would be watching closely signs of foreign groups trying to tie with Indian militant organisations.
“But we have to watch it very, very closely in case any of these relationships develop and in case they start targeting India or interests of India, we will have to take a very serious view,” he said at the Munich Security Conference.
Doval said there was nothing like a big or small threat. “We consider terrorism as a threat, and it is not on the basis of geographies or groups, but on the basis of capabilities and targets.”
He called for a collective global convergence on terrorism and said that a UN convention on terrorism could not be formulated for the past 13 years as Pakistan had objected to “freedom fighters” being termed terrorists. Doval also said India considers strong democracy as the best tool to foster security both within the country and in the region.
Commenting on the changing nature of conflicts powered by economics and regional interests, he said the threat of terrorism constituted only 40% of the danger and what is important is the response.
“There is need for convergence, automated systems and institutionalised mechanism and meaningful partnership” to combat the threat of terrorism, he said.
Doval said after the 9/11 attacks when the war on terror was launched, terrorism has become “much more intense and expanded, engulfed new areas, and the type of capability it has acquired has become mind boggling,” and India was deeply concerned about terrorism and its manifestations.
Speaking of cyber terrorism, he suggested that the conventional method of extradition and interrogation with regard to cyber terrorists was a “very cumbersome process.” Since cyber crime is a fast moving process it needs to be responded to in 24 hours.
On maritime security, he said it is imperative to have free lanes. Doval said the Indian Ocean is an area of peace and development and the world has to “be extremely vigilant to see that balances are not disrupted” and wherever there are conflicts global agreements should determine the solution.
