Political will needed to eliminate handlers: Sood

Former chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Vikram Sood says that the Pulwama attack in which several CRPF personnel were killed, could be the result of breaches in security and intelligence. Speaking at a seminar here on Sunday on “External Intelligence for National security, the senior intel officer who also authored a book “The Unending Game” suspected the hand of a team of terrorists in the act and ruled out the theory of a lone wolf.

Answering a question on the possibility of India going beyond the surgical strikes and eliminate the handlers in Pakistan that are planning and executing acts of terrorism on Indian he felt that there must be a legal frame work in place to support the Intelligence agencies, like the Mossad and other international intelligence agencies have. “What we need is political will. There was information from intelligence agencies that JeM was active on Kashmir soil, but intelligence alone will not help us,” he added.

Advocating for a national policy on Kashmir, He said that Pakistan ‘s policy is to bleed India through proxy war. He also felt that China will continue using Pakistan and if possible, Myanmar to achieve its grip on the Indian sub-continent. No matter how many trade and government delegations meet Chinese counterparts, they will not stop using Pakistan for their advantage, Mr Sood said.

“Whether we use the Indus water treaty between India and Pakistan for our advantage or not we must leave to the policymakers,” he said hinting that frequent changes in political will could hamper long term benefits.

Invest in Intelligence

Advocating a better investment in Intelligence he said that the USA’s investment in Intelligence is twice to that of India’s defence budget. He also pointed out that India’s intelligence agencies should pick young boys and girls after their Intermediate and train them according to the needs of the intelligence agencies. “We must do what Army does. I don’t need a History graduate. This is what we have to do to counter the intelligence agencies of other countries this is what we must do,” he said.