Authorities ignored IB warnings on Bodh Gaya
Even as preliminary arrests are made after the Sunday bombing at the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, we are being told yet again that there were intelligence inputs prior to the attack and that these were ignored. Nothing surprising about that, given how the ‘this-was-an-attack-foretold' narrative has become the norm that underlines almost any terror attack in the country. Still, the strike has turned the spotlight on India's security apparatus which seems to be rotting from within. Four Indian Mujahideen operatives arrested in October last year by Delhi Police after the Intelligence Bureau had successfully penetrated their cell, had confessed to planning terror attacks to retaliate against the Buddhist crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Incidentally, at the same time they had also mentioned plans to attack Hyderabad's crowded Dilsukhnagar area, where two bombs went off on February 21, killing 18 people. In both cases, the intelligence was fatally ignored. While it is true that the information sent to Bihar (specifically, the State's Director General of Police and the Superintendent of Police in Gaya district) did not include the details of terror cells, as State officials on the defensive will be quick to point out, it made an unambiguous call for security to be strengthened at Bodh Gaya. This call for heightened protective measures was repeated in January, February and June this year. State authorities claim to have conveyed the warnings to the temple management, but clearly they did nothing more to ensure that adequate steps were implemented. In fact, even on July 2, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police reportedly told the temple management about glaring loopholes in the security cover — the staff was not familiar with the usage of metal detectors, CCTV recordings were not being monitored and even the footages were not being retained. And this is not even to mention the public threats issued by jihadists including the likes of Hafiz Saeed who had urged the “ummah to defend the rights and honour of Rohingya Muslims...”
The list of warnings issued by the intelligence network and promptly ignogred is as long as it is infuriating. But equally worrying is the role of the political establishment in situations such as this. It does nothing to ensure prompt precautionary action, despite voluminous intelligence pointing to an imminent terror attack. Instead, it either passes the buck to other stakeholders (in this case, the temple management) or worse, points fingers at security agencies. The Intelligence Bureau, especially, seems to have become the ruling politicians’ favourite whipping boy, as recent developments in the Ishrat Jahan case prove. If the case is becoming a stick with which to beat Mr Narendra Modi ahead of the 2014 poll, the Bodh Gaya bombing has led to a verbal brawl between Congress and BJP leaders. But while such political drama grabs popular attention, it does nothing to improve national security. Meanwhile, the IB already has information about the IM's plans to target some cities, but because the intelligence outfit has suddenly become a hot potato for the ruling political establishment after it refused to buckle under pressure on the Ishrat Jahan issue, there is every possibility that its warnings will continue to go unheeded.