Actionable Intelligence

Rath Yatra at the world-famous Jagannath Temple in Puri (Odisha), was a few days away. Inputs from intelligence agencies warned of a likely disturbance from terrorists.

An elaborate plan (‘bundobust’) was immediately put in place. It included, among other things, beefing up security at all vital installations, checking of all hotels and lodging houses for suspicious characters, and posting of sharp-shooters (snipers) on the roofs of the buildings lining the route of the yatra.

I went around checking some of the vital installations. Sure enough, there was a picket at every location. The question was, were they ready to tackle the threat? Firstly, they had no weapons, except for the trusted ‘danda’(baton), they were carrying no firearms. Secondly, they had no means of communication. Those were the days when mobile phones had not been invented and walkie talkies were a rare commodity. The only way they could convey any information was to reach the nearest police station by foot. These were often located several kilometres away!

All lodging establishments were systematically checked. By the end of the day, a significant number of persons with a particular surname denoting their religion had been detained on suspicion. The only unfortunate part was that persons from different states used the same surname. There was no way to identify a suspicious person from an innocent one. The chaff was being ground with the grain!

Later that evening, as I was patrolling the sea-front, two constables ran up to me with a hapless young man in tow. The latter had been found loitering on the beach, when he had been accosted by the policemen and ‘picked up’ on grounds of suspicion.

I recognized the youth as my junior in school, a good singer and sportsman. Just to make sure, I called out his name and asked him to confirm. I then named our school and sought his confirmation. I was in uniform and it had been quite a few years since I had left school so he could not recognize me. The questions rattled him and he was convinced that we had a dossier on him. Pleading innocence, he was almost in tears, when I revealed my identity and asked the constables to let him go. I am sure my friend would never forget the close shave he had with the long arms of law!

It was clear that searching for suspicious characters among lakhs and lakhs of pilgrims was akin to searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

I was intrigued by the plan to post lookouts and sharp-shooters on the route to be taken by the chariots. I knew that the only calibre of weapons we had in our armoury was the heavy-duty rifles of .303 bore and Muskets. Both these were highly unsuitable for the task on hand. One was too powerful and would cause huge collateral damage to bystanders in the crowd and the second would fire buckshot that would scatter but not be effective.

I brought all this up at the review meeting held later in the day. The senior police officers looked at each other knowingly. One of them, a veteran of many such campaigns, explained, “intelligence inputs, require that action not only be taken but also seen to be taken. Some inputs are actionable, but the rest is for people to see!”

I learnt my first lessons in state-craft. Very valuable ones indeed! These lessons have served me well in diverse situations. Optics is King!