IB plans more reach for its intelligence-sharing unit

Bureau to connect MAC to 450 districts across the country to shore up intelligence-sharing mechanism. Rajesh Ahuja reports.

For seamless intelligence sharing among around two dozen agencies, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) is in the course of implementing a slew of measures to strengthen working of the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), created after the Kargil war to gather, collate and disseminate intelligence inputs.

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The MAC is part of the IB and its platform is used every day by around 25 intelligence and investigation agencies along with the state police to share intelligence inputs with each other.

“In the next phase of expansion, MAC will be connected to around 450 districts of the country. The idea is to connect every district police chief with MAC so that intelligence sharing mechanism can be brought down to each and every district of the country. Very soon the MAC inputs will be overlaid on a geographic information system to make a pattern out of it for better analysis,” said an intelligence official requesting anonymity.

The lack of proper intelligence sharing mechanism had come under sharp criticism during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and it brought the MAC under the renewed focus of the government. But intelligence officials believe that a lot more needs to be done even now.

“Only 10 percent intelligence inputs of MAC come from the hinterland states which were the area of operation of the Indian Mujahideen. Rest of the inputs are generated in Jammu and Kashmir, the North-Eastern states and intelligence with regard to the left wing extremism. It cannot remain unidirectional,” said the official.

The MAC has also established a National Memory Bank for sharing of dossiers and interrogation reports of terror suspects among all agencies. The bank is now connected to 370 points all over the country from where the dossiers and interrogation reports can be uploaded or accessed.