Fighting ISIS involves some tough trade-offs

It is difficult to balance national security interests with the right to privacy

Last week, the National Investigation Agency busted an Isis-inspired terror module and arrested 10 persons. Only a thorough investigation will be able to reveal the severity of the threat that this group posed. Meanwhile, the primitive nature of the weapons seized from the arrested individuals has invited ridicule on social media. That the group was poorly equipped and was ill-prepared for mounting a serious attack is not surprising—isis has, in the past, claimed a number of failed and botched up operations globally. However, the scale of the July 2016 attack in Dhaka suggests that the threat of ISIS and its ideology cannot be taken lightly in our region.

There are two ways in which ISIS poses a threat to India: through its physical presence, and its virtual presence in the cyber world. On the first count, its presence in Afghanistan and Bangladesh worries the Indian security establishment. The ISIS in Afghanistan does not just threaten Indian interests there but also promises to wage a war in Kashmir. On the second, the problem is more in the realm of regulating new-age technology. Even if ISIS sympathisers in India don’t get to communicate directly to some functionary in Afghanistan/west Asia, they can access a host of propaganda material online.

It should be stated that ISIS hasn’t received support from Indian Muslims. For a country with the world’s second largest Muslim population, India’s share of PRO-ISIS individuals is minuscule. India’s primary battle is, therefore, to defeat the group on end-to-end encrypted communication platforms such as Telegram, Whatsapp and Threema. Initial reports indicate that the arrested individuals used Threema and Telegram. It is going to be a mighty difficult balancing act to guarantee individual privacy, uphold right to dissent and crack down on forces threatening national security. Technology firms should themselves offer some innovative solutions.