Pak big threat: Ex-IB chief

JAMMU, FEB 6: Pakistan remains the primary source of threat to India, especially after it demonstrated nuclear capabilities and the threa...

JAMMU, FEB 6: Pakistan remains the primary source of threat to India, especially after it demonstrated nuclear capabilities and the threat from China had not diminished despite improvement in Sino-Indian relations.This was stated by member of the National Security Board NSB and former Chief of Intelligence Bureau M K Narayanan while delivering the inaugural address at Amar Kapoor Memorial Lecture on Role of Intelligence in National Security8217;, here on Friday.

8220;The strategic situation in South Asia and peripheral regions around India remains uncertain. Sino-Pak cooperation in defence and nuclear matters as well as role of Chinese military in Myanmar is a security threat,8221; Narayanan said, adding that prolonged instability in the regions doesn8217;t augur well for India. He said the emergence of radical Islam with close links with agencies like Pakistan8217;s Inter-Services Intelligence ISI and external funding provided to loose and shadowy networks were amongst the gravest dangers being faced by the countrytoday. Narayanan said what had changed significantly was the preponderance of non-conventional threats to security as well as emerging spectre of nuclear and cyber-conflicts.

Elaborating on the new challenges facing Intelligence agencies, the former chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee said unless they, which like most institutions were moulded by the past and shaped by the present, could metamorphose sufficiently, they would not succeed in dealing with the newer dangers. 8220;If intelligence is to emerge as the cogwheel of the new modern security system, it must embark upon the task of educating and equipping agency personnel and updating their skills to tackle the newer tasks,8221; Narayanan said.

He said the cyberwar represented the wave of future which drew heavily on the revolution in the information technology. For countering this threat, he said the Intelligence agencies would have to match this with knowledge, skill and prescience. He said the central purpose of Intelligence was to operate as anearly warning system and alert policy makers to a potential threat but added the Intelligence today had become major resource for policy makers and its responsibilities now transcended the mere obtaining of secret forecasting of events.

On the forthcoming revolution in Intelligence affairs, Narayanan said the information age and wonders of technologies demanded a revolution in Intelligence affairs and a paradigm shift in Intelligence thinking and methodology.