To further strengthen the internal security of the country, and assess its intelligence network, Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high-level meeting with representatives from several intelligence agencies on Monday. The meeting lasted for a long time, and Shah discussed several issues with the officials associated with the Multi Agency Centre (MAC). Members of MAC hold regular review meetings, however it was unusual for the Home Minister to attend it as the last time an HM attended such a meeting was back in 2012.

Many agencies were involved

The main reason behind such a meeting was to make efficient plans to fortify the intelligence system and better the inter-agency intelligence inputs. HM Shah called upon the MAC which had members belonging to RA&W, IB, Military Intelligence (MI), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and paramilitary forces. Police officials from various states also joined in through video conferencing.

“Highlighting the continued threats of terrorism and global terror groups, terror financing, narco-terrorism, organised crime-terror nexus, illicit use of cyber space, movement of foreign terrorist fighters, etc., the Union Home Minister stressed upon the need for better coordination and synergy among the Central and State security agencies in countering the ever-changing CT and security challenges,” a statement from the Home Ministry said.

The meet was held just days after security agencies stated that there were signs that the court blast in Ludhiana last month was linked to Khalistani and narco-terror elements operating from Pakistan. On December 23, one person was killed and several others were injured in the blast inside the Ludhiana District Court Complex.

The attendance of Home Minister signals that he wants to keep a close eye on the intelligence sharing mechanism of the country and wants to keenly watch internal security developments.

A hurdle, however, remains in the form of lack of co-ordination from various state agencies. Central intelligence agencies constantly share their inputs with MAC, but very little intelligence input is gathered from the states. The biggest reason behind this is that the intelligence system of many states is very weak, and need strengthening and conditioning.

About Multi Agency Centre (MAC)

MAC is the nodal agency for exchange of intelligence collected by various agencies and police forces across the country. After the Kargil war in 1999, the Government of India had formed MAC for better coordination between all the intelligence agencies.

The national-level MAC is located in Delhi while state capitals have subsidiary MACs (SMACs) where daily meetings are held to analyse inputs received in the previous 24 hours.

Intelligence Bureau (IB) is the nodal agency for MAC. In 2020, IB was considering the possibility of extending the connectivity of SMACs to the district level.

Around 28 agencies are part of the MAC and every organisation that is in any way involved in counter-terrorism is a member of this mechanism.

A weekly meeting of the MAC is also held with the National Security Advisor in attendance. The IB also hold a quarterly conference with the Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) to discuss issues related to border areas.