Is India prepared to fight ISIS militants?

The world’s most dreaded & self proclaimed ‘Islamic State’ [IS] is increasing it’s global foot print. It’s evident by the recent spate of bloody attacks from Paris, Brussels, USA, Kabul, Bangladesh to Baghdad. This evil organisation has unleashed terror in the parts of the world which were not very familiar to terror, in the recent times. The plot seems to be very vivid, own any terror attack in the world as their own. That spreads their network & increases their terror equity.

Is India ‘IS ready’ ? is a big question. I certainly believe we are. May be, way better than anytime ever in our history, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi & the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. However, I think the legacy issues inherited over decades need quicker and clear resolution, to ensure they don’t haunt us.

Any terror attack on one’s home land is shocking & the very success of that attack exposes the chink in the armour of the law enforcement machinery protecting that geographic area. Enforcement agencies need to always get it right, while a terrorist need to get it right just once. With increased pattern of ‘Lone Wolf’ attacks & ‘Young Internet Terrorists’, the probability of success of the terrorists plots increase. While precaution is the need of the hour, today it’s more about the reaction competence & capabilities of the defending forces.

As I see it, in any reactionary mission it’s the training of the defending forces & the command of the teams, is what matter the most. The success of any reactionary mission is in it’s speed, precision, control & damage.

While the readiness & capabilities of the defending forces is important, it accounts to just ‘semi preparedness’. What completes it is clearly defined & communicated ‘National Counter Terrorism Policies & Defence System’. Few key policies we must have are ‘policy of terror attack engagement’. Do we have clear lines of categorisation drawn on what type & grade of attacks require central forces engagement, for even first reaction ? Do we have clear policy on who’s in command & who’s not in reference to State & Central governments ? Do we have enforcement agency ownership & coordination ? Specific Policy of who plans & who executes ? Do we have clearly defined Command Control Structure with agency clarity on the same ? ‘Who briefs whom, when & how’ ? Do we have trained specialist negotiators ? Do we have a robust ‘Theatre Control Machinery’ & ‘Mission Intelligence’ policy & process ? Do we have a national media policy on ‘Terror Attack Reporting Guidelines’ ? Do we have a clear policy on ‘Civil & Political behavioural guidelines during & post terror attack engagement’ ? These are few basic policy related questions to assess our readiness.

The above policies are what determines our nation’s readiness to react to terror attacks on our home land. Our nation has experienced possibly more terror strikes than any one else in this world, however when it comes to ‘attack readiness’ we always fall short, probably not so much at the execution level, than at the macro policy level. It impacts the overall decision making process, speed, precision & heavily alters the final mission outcomes.

We have seen our lack of readiness in many occasions, few examples could be the Kandahar episode or 26/11 attacks, the mission outcomes in both these cases clearly highlight macro policy lapses.

Like everything else around us, terrorism is an evolved craft today. The perpetrators are fully motivated, tech savvy, young & have access to powerful weapons and indigenous explosives. Above all, they are driven by misplaced & dark emotions, which makes the reaction & engagement quite challenging for the enforcement agencies.

Building a robust counter terrorism policy infrastructure, cutting the red tape, clearing confusion, can add huge value to the competence & capabilities of our defending forces.

India must be ‘IS ready’.

By Krishna Saagar Rao