India's big terror alert goof-up

Reported by Sudhi Ranjan Sen | Updated: May 15, 2012 00:23 IST

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/indias-big-terror-alert-goof-up-210812?pfrom=home-india

New Delhi:  Nearly a week after the Indian intelligence cut a sorry figure for having allegedly named two Pakistan-based businessmen and a security guard from Lahore as terror suspects in an alert, there is some clarity on how the goof-up happened. And, the answers emerging suggest that the Indian intelligence community became a victim of what can be called the "Chinese Whispers" syndrome which unfortunately reinforces their image of being bumbling, fumbling and floundering. 

The details are as follows; the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) picked up the input from its sources in Pakistan. The source allegedly told the R&AW that the Jamnagar Oil Refinery and National Defence Academy training facility at Khadakwasla near Pune were the main targets. This was partially confirmed by a foreign intelligence agency on which India heavily depends on.

Along with this, the R&AW also picked up information about a suspected terror module working in Gujarat, and that it had helped a suspect pick up a fake driving licence. There was also a third disparate information that the R&AW gathered - that of a terror module planning to attack India; it also managed to get the pictures of five of the suspects of the same module.

Sources tell NDTV that since the input was about the Jamnagar Oil Refinery and the NDA, the issue was flagged at the highest level in the government and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) - India's internal intelligence agency which coordinates all counter-terrorism operations within the country - was brought in to check the input. From here on, the bumbling started. The IB, using inputs that it had picked up independently, added Mumbai to the list of possible targets.

Another inexplicable error happened simultaneously. The pictures of the five suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were linked to the possible attack on the Jamnagar Oil Refinery and the NDA facility for no apparent reason, although there was nothing on record to suggest that the five suspects, whose pictures the RA&W had, were also trying to target either locations. That the five suspects belonged to a completely different module that was planning separate attacks was lost in the clutter. The whispers had come a full circle.

The alert was issued to Mumbai and Gujarat and the states were asked to strengthen security around the installations. Subsequently, the Mumbai Police released the pictures to the media to alert people at large to track down the suspected terrorists. Within a few minutes of the picture appearing in Indian news websites, the three suspects approached the police in Pakistan seeking protection and the matter was picked up by the Pakistani media.

There is no doubt that the Indian intelligence community had blundered but the other puzzling issue in the entire episode is the fact that how did the two traders in Pakistan and the security guard in Lahore know that their names and pictures had surfaced in a certain section of the Mumbai media? Are we to gather that all three or at least some of them continuously monitor the Indian media? If that is indeed the case, what could be the reason?  Or could it be that by mixing up disparate inputs, a terror module has been forewarned that Indian agencies are watching them?