An international seminar on “Terrorists Weapon of Choice: Improvised Explosive Devices” organised by the National Bomb Data Centre of National Security Guard (NSG), was held in New Delhi recently.

In his opening remarks, Jayanto Narayan Choudhury, Director General, NSG said that scourge of terrorism can only be defeated by a sustained and comprehensive approach, involving the active participation and collaboration of all states and relevant organisation and civil society. He said: “The danger of usages of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) is not disappearing, rather proliferating. Seamless flow of intelligence is a pre-requisite. Unless, intelligence is collected, collated and disseminated in an institutionalised manner, the success of operations against the terrorist network will always suffer. Once that happens, achieving coordination between various agencies operating in the field becomes the next aim.”

The Director General said: “If we can work out these aspects, then attacking the terrorist network will become an achievable target, thus reducing the incidence of IEDs attacks. We also need to ensure our countermeasures also work in the most likely urban battle zone of future and left-wing extremist (LWE)-affected areas.”

Delivering the key note address, Nehchal Sandhu, Deputy National Security Adviser, spoke about a series of deadly incidents the world over, which makes everyone sit back and review the security threat situation. He emphasised that left-wing extremists are not just increasing the power of the devices but also showing a grim cleverness in delivery system, hinting at the surgically implanted explosive devices. Further he added the importance of the IED in the conflict zones and defeating this threat has become a herculean effort in itself, for the security forces world over. Sandhu emphasised that security forces and civil society is not immune to the acts of terrorism and it’s imperative to integrate all stake holders fighting against terrorism/LWE.

Nearly 200 delegates representing Australia, Canada, France, Israel, UK, USA, Vietnam, Central Armed Police Forces, State Police organisations, research institutions, Army, Air Force and others discussed IED-related issues, including an examination of conditions conducive for usages of IEDs, promoting education to present the bombing incidents, sharing best practices for operating in LWE environment.

Brig John Shanahan from Australia presented the experience of Australian forces in Afghanistan. Col. Geoff Stevens, Director Asia-Pacific Command, presented a detailed IED analysis of the region, wherein he highlighted the few of unconventional usages of IED by the terror organisation, while the speakers from France, Israel and Canada presented their countries counter IED capabilities. The participants said that it was important for international community to counter the spread of IEDs and bombing incidents, which it noted, has been growing in the recent years around the globe. The two-day seminar brought together national and international experts to share their experience in the field of IEDs and how to increase level of assistance with each other.