NCTC gets government notification

The Centre has ‘notified’ the setting up of the ambitious anti-terror body — National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) — giving it ‘power’ through an executive order to carry out operations, including arrest, search and seizure, as part of its mandate to be the country’s main counter-terror agency. Coming up three weeks after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had approved NCTC, the notification states that the specialized body will derive powers from the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and towards that end it has been included among the agencies that are designated under the anti-terror law. The notification was issued on Friday. NCTC, a fallout of the national humiliation over the 26/11 attacks, is supposed to collect and collate intelligence on terror groups and co-ordinate response to threats. Impediments to the exchange of information has been hampering the fight against terror, with crucial inputs often falling through the cracks caused by turf battles among agencies that prefer to work in silos. Aspiring to achieve seamless exchange of inputs, the notification mandates agencies to share their inputs with NCTC. The final shape of the agency looks far stronger than what had initially been estimated, with the powers bestowed upon it through UAPA expanding its reach far beyond the Multiple Agency Centre, which was tasked with collecting, collating and sharing intelligence inputs. The home ministry has put in place a nationwide encrypted network with over 500 terminals for all NCTC participants to have real-time sharing of information. The NCTC will draw its ‘functional’ power of search and seizures under the provisions of the UAPA while keeping the concerned state police in the loop. It will be headed by a director who will have a ‘core’ team comprising senior IPS officers, primarily from intelligence agencies. D P Sinha, additional director, Intelligence Bureau, is reported to be the frontrunner for heading the agency. Sinha, an old IB hand, looked after counter-terror operations for long, having been associated with some big successes — the most recent being the elimination of IM commander Atif Ameen. The core team will be the ‘nucleus’ around which the new organization will be built either by appointing new officers or taking the experienced ones from other agencies and state police on deputation. NCTC director will have full functional autonomy. Although NCTC will work as an “integral” part of IB and its director will report to the IB chief and the home minister/home secretary, it will have focused counter-terrorism ‘jobs’ like similar specialized bodies in the US or the UK.