Bombed out of ‘intelligence’

Security forces blame lack of inputs for inability to pre-empt blasts

Guwahati, Jan 17 : Lack of intelligence was named the chief culprit for 310 blasts that shook Assam in the past six years. Security agencies engaged in counter-insurgency operations in the state have virtually thrown up their arms in despair, admitting that most tip-offs end in a wild goose chase because of the “abysmally poor” inputs. Preventing blasts was a tall order in the absence of proper “actionable intelligence”, a senior police official said today. Another official disclosed that the department was flooded with “information”, but much of it was of no consequence. “It has often happened that personnel have been sent on a wild goose chase in one direction, while subversive activities were carried out in a completely different area,” he said. “Unless this scenario changes, there is not much hope of getting intelligence that is good enough for us to prevent attacks,” he said. Even chief minister Tarun Gogoi had said after the October 30 serial bla-sts that security forces had some “information” but this was not “actionable.” A home department official today said measures were afoot to streamline the intelligence gathering apparatus which would ensure flow of “quality information” rather than a “whole lot of rubbish that doesn’t help anybody except the militants”. He suggested that cash incentives and the right selection of informants could help . “Efforts are also on to involve citizens in gathering intelligence. We are trying to create awareness among the people that they, too, need to be vigilant and forthcoming with information,” the official said. Under fire after the recent serial blasts, the state police’s special branch, too, said it would not be able to meet the challenges of handling Islamic terrorism with the current staff crunch. A source in the special branch while admitting that it had almost no penetration among the Islamic militant groups operating in the state, said it has moved the home department to first fill up its existing vacancies. The vacancy starts right at the top. An inspector-general of police currently heads the special branch since the post of the additional director-general of police is lying vacant. The branch also needs an additional SP, two DSPs, 32 inspectors, a sub-inspector, five assistant sub-inspectors, 50 head constables, 14 nayaks and 64 constables. All the posts are lying vacant. “At a time when we should ideally create new posts to expand our network, the branch is not able to even fill up the existing posts,” the official rued.