What the Intelligence Bureau told Rajnath about Dawood

Terrorism, Kashmir and funding of non-profit organsinations dominate Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s first IB briefing. Vicky Nanjappa reports

Terrorism receives a major chunk of its funds through narcotic smuggling via India and it needs to be curbed at the earliest. This was Intelligence Bureau chief Asif Ibrahim’s message to Home Minister Rajnath Singh in his first official briefing.

Terrorism dominated the discussion that focused on the series of security issues that the country is facing. “This was an exercise aimed at making the home minister familiar with the situation before a roadmap could be drawn out,” an official who attended the meeting told rediff.com.

The IB informed Rajnath that today the largest funds for terror came from narcotic trade controlled by Dawood Ibrahim. The elusive underworld don, who is based in Pakistan, has his reach in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Thailand and Nairobi. “There are several dedicated routes in India which help this illegal business and unless they are shut down the menace of narcotics will continue,” the home minister was told, according to intelligence sources.

The state governments were not doing enough and the Union government needs to handle the situation directly, felt IB officials. 

Rajnath’s attention was also drawn to the border security issue, which needs immediate attention. “There is a lot of activity in Pakistan and Afghanistan today. Pakistan will try and gain a lot of control over Afghanistan and this could lead to problems and the brunt would have to be borne by India. Several fighters are likely to spill over into India and the Al Qaeda has already issued a warning that over a lakh of their jihadis are coming to Kashmir soon,” an IB official said.

“We must carefully assess the situation and act accordingly after the withdrawal by the West from Afghanistan. There is going to be quite a bit of chaos and the region could become extremely unstable. Control over splinter groups will vanish and there is a good chance they come to India to wage a battle as both the Al Qaeda and the Taliban have termed us as their big enemy,” the IB said during the briefing.

Rajnath was also briefed about the increasing activity among some of the homegrown outfits, especially the Students Islamic Movement of India and the Indian Mujahideen. Here a great deal of emphasis was laid on the role that the state governments play. In several states such as Bihar, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh operatives were getting away because of appeasement and lack of will by the governments to acknowledge the issue, the IB said.

The bureau also emphasised on the murky activities of NGOs. There is a need to act strongly as these NGOs are compromising our economy by staging fake protests after accumulating foreign funds. There are 105 suspected NGOs, which fall under this bracket. However, for now urgent action against eight NGOs is extremely necessary in order to stop the rot, the IB told Rajnath.    

A specific mention was made about NGOs protesting against the Kundakulam nuclear project. These protests are fake and have been staged at the insistence of foreign powers.

“Why did the protests begin so late? The protests were staged at a time when foreign powers realised that India was increasing its nuclear capabilities,” an IB official said.

Rajnath will hold another meeting to chalk out a plan to tackle India’s security worries. Among other issues enhanced coordination between state and central agencies is the home ministry’s primary agenda. 

Image: Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim